In 2012, when I was in the deepest point of being obsessed with YouTube beauty gurus (MissGlamorazzi and AllThatGlitters21, I'm looking at you), I started to see brands releasing advent calendars with products, notably the Ciate London mini nail polish advent calendars.
From a marketing perspective, it's such a smart idea because you can distribute some of your lesser known or less popular products while generating a sense of excitement around the brand! Beauty is a multi-billion dollar industry and capitalizing on the excitement of getting great gifts for others or receiving a small gift every day is ingenious. Would you buy a beauty advent from a brand you've heard of but never tried? Similarly, would you be disappointed if you bought a beauty advent calendar from a brand you like but it didn't include your favorite product or one of the brand's most popular products?
From a marketing perspective, it's such a smart idea because you can distribute some of your lesser known or less popular products while generating a sense of excitement around the brand! Beauty is a multi-billion dollar industry and capitalizing on the excitement of getting great gifts for others or receiving a small gift every day is ingenious. Would you buy a beauty advent from a brand you've heard of but never tried? Similarly, would you be disappointed if you bought a beauty advent calendar from a brand you like but it didn't include your favorite product or one of the brand's most popular products?
Every year, I consider getting myself a nice beauty advent calendar but I'm always deterred by the price. While I love to treat myself, I prefer to buy things product by product rather than spending a lot of money at once. For this reason, I can't bring myself to spend $60+ on travel size products that I may already have, don't want, or don't like. However, the value of these calendars almost always exceeds their price tag. For example, this year's Ciate London Mini Mani Month Nail set retails for $59 while boosting a value of $215.
Another thing that I find interesting is the purchasing practice of the advent calendars. Many are the full 24 days, so ideally you'd have it by December 1st. But, at prices starting at $50-60, this seems like a full Christmas gift compared to the $10 chocolate advent calendars my parents would buy me from Trader Joes. How do you reconcile this? Would you ask your parents for a beauty advent as an early Christmas present or would you just ask for one as you'd ask them to buy you anything else? Would you bite the bullet and buy it for yourself?
The marketing/businesswoman/beauty lover in me loves beauty advent calendars and hopes to see them continue to grow in the market. But the Christian/human being in me sees how commercializing advent calendars detracts from the value of the tradition. It's about focusing on faith (if you're religious) and family and the love that brings us all together. I probably sound like the Grinch; but, rewatch that movie and you'll realize how spot on he was. Anyway, how do you feel about beauty advent calendars?
Part of my daily routine is reading articles about new marketing strategies, partnerships, trends, etc. in the beauty and fashion space. It's my favorite way to stay educated on current trends and connect them to what I'm learning in school (I'm a marketing/finance major so it is all super relevant)! I don't know how often I'll do this but I thought I'd give it a try. Hope you enjoyed! xx Lauren
the article that inspired this post: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/nov/30/from-waiting-lists-to-unboxing-the-bizarre-world-of-beauty-advent-calendars
the article that inspired this post: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/nov/30/from-waiting-lists-to-unboxing-the-bizarre-world-of-beauty-advent-calendars
