Fashionista.com first reported on Friday, April 3rd that Stila Cosmetics might be going bankrupt. I nearly fell off my chair. Of all the makeup brands out there, Stila is in trouble!? It can't be true, I thought. When I went to their site, they had a temporary page that said, "We're doing some routine maintenance, but we'll be back soon!" As the day went on, Fashionista.com updated their readers by saying that Stila is, in fact, not going bankrupt, rather, "refinancing." OK, I can handle that.
A week or so before I read this news, I had put on an event called "Social Fashion Beauty Summit" in Los Angeles. I manage the LA Chapter for the Girls in Tech organization and every month we bring together the women of the LA tech/digital community. Each event combines education with a social mixer. Our 'social summit' focused on how the Fashion and Beauty industries have been very slow to engage their consumers online. Other than websites, their online presence is minimal. At the event, Interactive executives from fashion and beauty companies and young female entrepreneurs with their own fashion or beauty websites talked all things social media: Twitter; Facebook; how to market your brand online;, how to engage with your customers online; even how to start your own blog or website if you are a makeup artist or up-and-coming fashion designer. It was fun, informative, and...relevant.
The conversation begs the question, who out there is really talking about the business side of the beauty industry in terms of social technologies, engaging online with consumers, leveraging a brand online, etc? Well, of the many brands that I know, very few. So, clearly, I needed to start blogging about this. I looked on GoDaddy.com for the perfect domain and, no surprise dozens with the word beauty were all taken. On my way up to Web 2.0 in San Francisco, driving on the 101, gazing out at the gorgeous view, I asked my husband, 'do you think you can poke around on GoDaddy and find something for me?' After about an hour, he had it! Relevantbeauty.com. (You can see why I married him.)
Days after solidifying the domain, that's when I read the Fashionista.com article. Digging into the research, it became more clear that the Beauty industry hasn't embraced the new online opportunities enough. Where are their Facebook Fan Pages? Are they Twittering? What blogs are they partnering with for their PR initiatives? Where are they launching new products besides magazines or in-store? Here's a thought, how about Smashbox takes us (their consumers) backstage via Twitter during Fashion Week?
The Internet has changed everything about how companies relate to customers. Major newspapers are shutting their doors, magazines are losing their subscription base, and beauty brands are scratching their heads. My goal is to launch the Relevantbeauty.com blog in June to start a conversation about the business side of Beauty from a marketing, PR, digital, and social technologies perspective. I am passionate about the Beauty industry -- I have been involved with it for almost twenty years.
On April 20th, the Wall Street Journal reported that Patriarch Partners acquired Stila Cosmetics for an undisclosed sum. "Traditionally, beauty products have proved relatively resilient during difficult economic times as women sought small, affordable pick-me-ups. But this recession is proving more challenging for high-end beauty lines, particularly as drugstore offerings have improved in quality." Isn't that the truth? Well, at least we know for now Stila is hanging on and I will certainly keep up-to-date with their progress.