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NEW YORK, United States – Lady Gaga has been preparing for the role of beauty company throughout her career.
After all, it was her makeup that allowed her to invent "Lady Gaga" in the early 2000s, she said, after dropping out of school and moving to the Lower East Side, where she worked as a dancer, waitress-barman-go-go. But it took another 15 years for the Grammy, Academy, Golden Globe, Billboard and even CFDA Award winners to launch their own beauty brand, Haus Laboratories.
His timing – a video of the campaign that went live on Tuesday before the scheduled launch in September – is flawless. The singer and actress has long been positioned as the embodiment of authenticity and inclusivity, the traits that consumers demand from new beauty brands, whether it's Glossier's link to her community or her own. basic shades of Fenty Beauty. This is the opposite of the "authenticity" brand filtered by Facetuned created by the Instagram era.
Perhaps more than what she sells is where she sells, which goes against the mainstream of beauty. Haus Laboratories will be the first major beauty brand to be sold exclusively on Amazon. Lady Gaga is taking a risk by going on the market: although sales of cosmetics on Amazon are growing rapidly, they have not yet consolidated its beauty destination status. For Amazon, having an exclusive brand run by a celebrity of the stature of Gaga could upset an area where the most prestigious beauty launches take place in Sephora or Ulta. But instead of sharing storage space with competitors at specialty retailers, Gaga will be more or less in the spotlight in front of hundreds of millions of Amazon customers around the world.
Plus, the e-commerce giant takes it, she says.
No message of self-acceptance, not agree.
"There are companies that see me, what I represent and the way I see the world, and if it does not quite fit what they do and if they fear to alienate the consumers … they will be like, Can you just change half of the equation? & # 39; (Which for me is the entire equation) so that we can "make an agreement," said Lady Gaga in an interview at The Mark Hotel, addressing her beauty mark first time. "The answer is no, no agreement, no message of self-acceptance, no agreement." [deal with Amazon] It was so wonderful because it was like, "let's make a market, let's get a market to change the world with their beauty."
It's the end of June, but Lady Gaga is wearing black leather pants and a leather blazer, matching the elegant black matte packaging from Haus Laboratories and the series of black surrounds bordering the wall. from his sequel to The Mark. She plans to go out "incognito" later in the night, in a brown wig, the way "a star is born", to visit his former gathering place in Lower Manhattan.
It was here, while she was still known as Stefani Germanotta, that she had discovered discovering herself through make-up. She explains that vintage shopping and that she's immersed in an "incredible subculture" of local artists – more than ships filled with drugstores and Mac cosmetics – have helped to turn into multi-trait union today. His new friends have encouraged and praised him. they called her "Freddie Mercury woman", and soon "Gaga", after the song of the queen "Radio Gaga".
Lady Gaga's Haus Laboratories | Source: courtesy
"The color is completely transformative: it's powerful, it's beautiful and that's how I found my voice makeup," said the singer, explaining why makeup, rather than skincare or hair care, was the entry point of Haus Laboratories in beauty. "I discovered myself, but other people found me, for me, through the way I expressed myself."
Haus Laboratories is designed to be attractive: the multi-purpose color items for the cheeks, eyes and lips belong to six shadow families, with kits containing the three products at a relatively affordable price of $ 49. She hinted that a color collection is on the way.
Lady Gaga qualifies her brand as a "start-up" and it is the first time that she launches a product independently (her previous foray into beauty, the perfume "Lady Gaga Fame", was a contract license with Coty which has since ended.). But it is a start-up endowed with a serious financial and logistic power. Lightspeed Ventures, who supported Goop and Stitchfix, is an investor. It employs a team of 15 people, including veterans of Milk Makeup and Benefit Cosmetics, owned by LVMH.
And then there is Amazon. The publisher plans to launch simultaneously in nine countries on three continents, including the United States, France and Japan, instantly putting Haus Laboratories on the same footing as the latest L'Oréal or Estée Lauder creation. The top nine markets also do not include customers from countries like China and Singapore, who can order Amazon products through its global store.
"I think that from day one, it should be quite difficult not to have our equipment," said Ben Jones, general manager of Haus Laboratories. He is a former executive of The Honest Company, as well as Zynga, developer of very popular and highly addictive mobile games like Farmville and Words with Friends.
For Amazon, Lady Gaga puts a face of international renown in her quest to become a serious player in the beauty industry. The retailer quickly captured a share of the beauty market after stepping up investments in the sector last year. In the spring, she introduced Belei, a privately-branded skin care product for the US market, and in January Find, a private label make-up brand, debuted in the UK. Last month, Amazon announced the launch of an online beauty shop for makeup artists, stylists and other professionals. Shares in Ulta and Sally Beauty have sunk.
The color is completely transformative … that's how I found my voice made up.
What was missing was a well-known brand to bring the idea of Amazon.com as a beauty destination into the minds of consumers.
Of course, for all this to work, there must be a product that people want.
A video shot with photographer Daniel Sannwald was put online on Tuesday, both on his Instagram account and on the online trading destination of the line, Hauslabs.com. She played twice, at the beginning and end of her interview with BoF, to emphasize the message of self-esteem that she hopes to arouse in fans. The cast includes a diverse group – in terms of ethnicity and sex – that display equally varied beauty looks, from orange hair to black lips to scarcely makeup.
"When we did this movie, I really wanted that feeling of self-discovery, self-acceptance, and truly love whoever you are, in a way that could be totally unconventional." said Lady Gaga.
Amazon plays a similar role in the "democratization" of beauty, said Lightspeed partner Nicole Quinn.
"We make these beauty products available to all Internet users around the world at the same time through online channels," she said. "It's a very interesting way of thinking about how it reverses beauty."
The goal is not just to acquire customers; It's about lifetime value and repeat shopping – commonalities in game and beauty consumption, Jones said.
Where the success of a mobile game depends on the participation of hyper-committed players in the micro-transaction, a flourishing beauty brand relies on a healthy replenishment activity of its most loyal consumers. To achieve this, Jones and Lady Gaga brought together a team "different" from other beauty companies: half beauty and half technology. Among the employees are former Jones 'years' playmates at Sarah Tanno, the long-time makeup artist of Lady Gaga, the brand's global creative director.
You do not go out-Amazon Amazon.
RihannaFenty Beauty also touched on the theme of inclusion with resounding success. Thanks to a spectacular launch with a range of foundations of 40 shades, Fenty has become the reference standard for the modern beauty brand, reaching nearly 500 million euros in sales in its first year, announced co-owner LVMH earlier this year.
Lady Gaga is hoping for a similar reception, helped by Amazon's global reach and unparalleled logistics network, which will allow consumers to place orders in one to two days in the nine countries where Haus is launching (or even the same day). in some countries). cities).
"We have an excellent partner, we have big investors, but we are still a start-up," Jones said. "At the end of the day, we are not owned by LVMH."
Budget-conscious customers at Amazon may still have to be convinced to spend as much on make-up as they could at Sephora.
The price of Haus Labs, although inferior to prestige labels like Too Faced or Tarte, remains higher than Amazon's typical beauty offerings. The brand's lip gloss will cost $ 16 if sold separately from the kit; Amazon's top 10 Amazon products in the category are retail at under $ 8. However, the prices are in line with those of the beauty brand own market place, Belei.
"I do not think we care about the price," said Nico Le Bourgeois, head of Amazon Beauty. "The quality of the product will be absolutely exceptional so, from this point of view … it will be a good deal for customers."
Communicating the quality of a makeup product can be tricky online even with a celebrity face attached. Unlike television or books, consumers want to try new makeup before buying. And the Internet is full of famous cosmetics brands that have failed to conquer the world.
According to an April survey by Piper Jaffray, Amazon was for the first time among the top five beauty destinations for teenage girls. Four percent of them have designated the market as their preferred beauty retailer. Ulta and Sephora took the top two places with more than 30% each.
I am convinced that it is not because we are going to create a beauty brand that will sow insecurity and fear in people.
Much of Amazon's gains came from Target and Walmart rather than from specialty retailers.
"If you look at Amazon, it's mostly the mass brands," said Erinn Murphy, senior research analyst at the bank, in April. "You do not get the luxury offers you get at Sephora or Ulta."
The brand will also use its own website to directly address its little monsters. Although the product reflects what the giant e-tail sells, the experience will be different in terms of content.
"You're not coming out of Amazon Amazon," Jones said. "What you can do is differentiate yourself through a unique narrative … you can start conversations on our site. Gaga obviously has several hundred million followers on the social networks with which she can have conversations. "
It's these conversations, driven by a global message of self-acceptance and unwavering trust, that will even overshadow the product, Lady Gaga said. She does not denigrate the quality of her makeup. She has carefully tested and tested the product on her forearms and lips to show how the liquid color dries to powder and that the gloss does not dry out the lips or move when applied.
It's just that sometimes the message is more important.
"Look, you might want to look like the DuPont twins. You might want to look like Erin or Kitty [who appear in her brand video]… Or you might want, oh God, to look like you. And that's the nut that I really want to break, "said Lady Gaga. "I have a platform in the world. God gave me that voice for a reason, I do not know why, I ask myself this question all the time, but I'm sure it will not be hell to create a beauty brand that is going to Sow insecurity and fear in people. It's about liberation. "
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