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Eye make-up — Photo by yunona uritsky on Unsplash

The cosmetics industry can be dated as far back as 4000 BC when Egyptians used kohl to create dramatic eyes. Today the cosmetic industry – which now includes make-up, perfumes, skincare and a few other product lines – is a multi-billion dollar(US) industry and growing. Not much is different in the Italian economy.

In 2019 the Italian cosmetics industry brought in 7090 million Euros to their economy. A study ‘The Cosmetics Industry in Italy’ by Switzerland Global Enterprise found that with regards to their cosmetic industry Face products made up for 14.4% of the sales with facial make-up making up 4.5% followed by lips at 3.5% (a 5% increase from 2018). This leaves that there is much opportunity for a new brand to enter the cosmetics market. The recent global movement towards genderless make-up brands also allows for the market opportunity to increase the size of target audiences to include all genders from male, female, non-binary, gender fluid and all other forms that people decide to identify themselves as.

As a start-up brand gaining reach and overall conversions are of utmost importance. Therefore important KPI’ to keep track of during introduction campaigns would be: Unique visitors per day, for the first 6 months new leads following the first month and cost per conversion would be of the most important.

There is much opportunity to expand in a country like Italy, which currently has the third-largest economy in Europe but more so is the largest market for luxury goods in Europe.

Strategy information

Our brand

Mid-priced, quality, fun-loving start-up make-up brand.

Audience

Who they are:

The selected target audience are Italians aged 18 to 34-year-olds, non-gender specific

The size of the market: (2021)

The market on social media:

Overall Instagram users in Italy: 28.8 million users

Between 18 and 34: 47.1% (13 536 000)

Overall Facebook users in Italy: 35.9 million

Between 18 and 34: 37.2% (13 354 800)

Product consumption:

Overall product line standings as of 2019

Face products: 14.4%

Facial Make-Up: 4.5%

Eye Make-Up: 4.1%

Lip: 3.5%

Make-up Boxes: 0.5%

**Red and Nude Lipsticks** by Shiny Diamond

Reasons for purchase:

Unfortunately, there are no Italy specific references however a European study conducted found that

72% of consumers feel that cosmetic products improve their quality of life
80% see cosmetics as very important factors for self-esteem

Where and how they buy

(2019) 55% of all consumers in Southern Europe (Italian geographic) shop
⅔ pay via credit card and 31% by pay-pal
47% of online shoppers preferred paying with PayPal or similar
31% preferred paying by debit or credit card

Competition

Brand	Priced High	Priced Low	Instagram	Facebook	YouTube	Online Store
Kiko Milano	x		x	x	x	x
PuroBIO	x		x	x	x
Collistar	x		x	x	x
Wycon		x	x	x	x	x
Nabla	x		x	x	x	x
PUPA Milano		x	x	x		x
Deborah Milano		x	x	x	x
Mulac		x	x	x	x	x
Diego Dalla Palma	x		x	x	x	x

Strategy Plan

Step 1: Create a customer profile

This step is necessary since the brand is a new brand entering an already existing market that has several competitors ranging in their fields.

Quantitative Data

We have already found the basis of the brands’ target audience (see Strategy Information)

Location: Italy

Age: 18-34

Gender: Non-specific

Most used social media: Instagram

Use of brands products: Means of confidence

Qualitative Data (to be done after brands initiation)

Gather more insights to the market’s interest – this will assist to create sub-categories within the market with regards to interests that can be used in later campaigns
Blog articles would provide useful to gain insight as to what ‘young adults’ are interested in with regards to their entertainment
Can also be gathered on social media accounts
Examples of questions could include “What are you currently watching on Netflix”, questions are for the purpose of gaining personal insight into the target audience

Step 2: Long and Short Term Goals

Setting goals is one of the most crucial parts of the digital marketing strategy plan. Correctly identifying your goals will help you take your business to the next level. For instance, if you are a small makeup company that is selling decorative cosmetics, here is an example of what your goals might look like:

Long Term Goals (6months+)

55% purchase rate of all clicks to the e-commerce site from
Create a collaboration collection with popular shows/entertainers
Shift to 100% sustainable product packaging within 3 years

Short Term Goals

10 000 followers on Instagram after 3 months of social media introduction
Host a physical-virtual event to announce the launch of the brand and introduction campaign
Host a social media giveaway competition
Collaborate with local micro-influencers to increases recognition for your brand
Sell 1,250 units
Create an affiliate marketing plan

Step 3: Create an online presence for the brand

In order to start on this process, there are a few subcategories to check off in order to efficiently and effectively start digitally marketing

Website

There are various options the brand has when it comes to starting a website:

Build the website in-house by using a website builder that offers already built templates that are customizable to the brand needs there are free and paid options with paid options giving the brand access to a personal domain name which would benefit SEO later – such as wix.com or many others
Using similar website building sites (as mentioned above (a)) but using their option to have someone on the site’s team build the site for the brand – again this comes at a monthly/yearly cost that varies depending on the features the brand wishes to have
Purchase a domain name on Google domains and hire a web developer or use a third-party web developer to build the site

Ensure to link all other social medias
Ensure online purchasing is made a priority in the building of the website
Create a ‘Create an account’ section to create potential buyer lists for email marketing

Email/GoogleMyBusiness

The best-suited email to create would be a Google business email account

Set up a Google business profile:

Offers the business name
Online presence (website and – once they’ve been created- social media accounts)
Contact details
Note: Verification of the business/brand will be required by Google by means of a letter or a video call

**Holding a Smartphone in front of an Imac** by cottonbro

Social Media Accounts

Today, the world is changing rapidly, and if you are trying to grow your business, you must tackle various social media. In this example, we advise first to focus on Instagram and Facebook. Since our demographic is people between 18 and 34 years old and the average demographic for people using Instagram in Europe is 18-28, we conclude that we need another social media outlet to target the rest of the people. Researching the average demographics for social media is extremely important when choosing where to post about your brand because it can drastically affect your business plan. Here is where we refer to Facebook. We found out that in European countries the largest demographic group for this outlet is between the ages of 25 and 34 years.

Instagram

The primary focus will be on Instagram for the beginning phase of the brand

Start an Instagram account using the email created for the brand
Ensure website link to online shop

Facebook

Secondary/Reinforcing focus will be on Facebook

Start a Facebook business profile using the business email created
Ensure website link to online shop

YouTube

This account will be created but will remain private until content can be created.

Step 4: Create content

Content for Instagram and Facebook can be the same
Video content for YouTube
Content categories:

Branded posts: These are simple posts that carry the brands’ logo and images that relate to the products offered
Educational posts: In the make-up industry these include “How to..” content in both video and blog form
Informational posts: These posts tell the audience about the brand; what separates our brand from our competitors, sale information, special codes for purchases…

Take well set-up photos of the make-up products
Keep editing and colours to a particular theme that will ingrain the brand
Use applications like Canva to create posts using images taken as well as other stock elements as well as to size up the posts so they’re optimum for Instagram and Facebook (Best to size it as a ‘Facebook post’ – it’s suited for both Instagram and Facebook)

**Person Using a Smartphone** by cottonbro

Step 5: Automate Marketing

Automate Social Media Posts

Use Heropost as an automation tool
Link Instagram and Facebook profiles
Schedule Posts weeks in advance so that continuous posting will be done for the brand as content is created
Schedule posts at 07:00, 12:00, 17:00 (Time in Italy)
Ensure 3 posts every day

> European engagements fade as the week goes on

> On Saturdays engagement is low

Automated Email Marketing

Use email marketing not only to inform of sales but also as a blog. Here you can find 3 tips that will help you increase your email engagement.
Automate emails for when new customers create an account and accept to receive forms of email marketing

Step 6: SEO

Keywords

Keywords are essential for the success of your social media accounts! They are the foundation of social media marketing and can help new users discover relevant content and lead them to your page. Keywords are to be used on the home page, in social media captions (as hashtags in most cases) and in meta-data!

Short-tale

Make-up
Cosmetics
Lipstick
Eye shadow

Long-tail

Make-up brand in Italy
Affordable make-up
Quality make-up

Navigation

Ensure that navigation on the website for both mobile devices and desktop is made easy for the target audience to use

> Buttons work

> Views of each page on the website are set so the audience can easily view the page and scroll

> Pictures and graphics on the site should not be too large that they cause the website itself to take a long time to load

Step 7: Help the customer reach you!

Should you enable direct messaging options on social media platforms to ensure that you respond to any information requests or queries, there is also the option to then link them to the “Contact Us” landing page – however, some consumers find having to repeat themselves on a different platform tedious
On the website create a ‘Contact Us’ page which should link to your email where customers/potential customers can contact you with requests, questions or queries
On the GoogleMy Business profile link the ‘Contact Us’ as a landing page for a contact web-link

Step 8: Identify what your KPI’s will be

KPI’s or Key Performance Indicators are a value of measurements that will help you analyze the success and effectiveness of your business plan.

Conversion rate

This will be to identify the number of visitors to the site who either

Create an account
Contact the brand
Make a purchase

Cost per conversion

Bounce rate

When people click links to the website but close the page in less than 30 seconds

This will be a lead as to whether

The website is optimized for navigation on various devices
Landing pages linked by social media accounts or Google searches are correct and working effectively

Post Engagement vs. Post Reach

How many people are liking, commenting, sharing your content and checking out your website vs How many people are seeing the content
Can see if the content being seen by the target audience

Click-through Rate on Paid Advertisements

As mentioned earlier, you can set up affiliate marketing or work with local micro-influencers to promote your product.

To use this KPI and successfully measure its effectiveness, all you need is to provide the micro-influencer with the discount/referral code that their followers can use when purchasing your products through a website.
Measure the success rate of the referral code by the number of purchases made and decide whether or not this is effective for you and if you want to continue marketing and promoting your products through these channels.

Step 9: Track your progress

Photo by Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash

It is crucial to track your digital marketing efforts because it will help you better understand your business perspective. Often after tracking your progress, you will notice the shift in the goals that were first established. Some goals will be achieved, and some will need to be altered and will require more time and attention to be completed.

Track your progress towards your goals by means of monitoring KPI’s
Identify whether any goals need to be altered for whatever reason (potentially too large or too small a goal)

Step 10: Change as needed

Due to the ever-changing world and the need to stay at the top of your creative game it may be necessary to alter future campaigns once the content for them has been changed.

These changes could also be due to changes in goals or in the ways to successfully reach the goals (i.e video content may become far more useful than photo content thus a shift in social media focus from Instagram photos to Reels and other video media like TikTok may prove better suited)