Girltalk lays a strong base for growth

While other cosmetic companies are choosing celebrities to promote their wares, teen make-up brand Barry M wants its own customers to be advocates. Rimmel might have Kate Moss, but Barry M literally wants the girl next door.

The make-up marque has launched the “M Club” in beta format to form a social networking site which it claims is about “bringing the beauty community together online”.

Dean Mero, managing director and son of the firm’s founder Barry Mero, says the brand has noted a trend for people talking about its cosmetics online without being prompted by traditional advertising. “It came to our attention four or five years ago that some of the best marketing is other people talking about and recommending our products,” he explains.

Mero says this word-of-mouth marketing was his inspiration for the new social networking site. M Club enables people to develop their own beauty profile, upload videos and pictures, blog and take part in a chat forum. It is also developing features that will enable users to add links to other social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo.

Instead of a famous face fronting the site, Barry M has employed make-up artists to film tutorials showing fans how to recreate a famous look.

Fans can see how to get outrageous popstar Lady GaGa’s look with the brand’s make-up, for example. It has also launched an iPhone application called Lookz with new tutorials available to download on a weekly basis.

The brand’s foray into new media marketing came when it employed an amateur make-up artist called Lauren Luke to film make-up tutorials. Luke had developed a popular following on YouTube demonstrating how to apply cosmetics, which has since led to her own cosmetics line and a column in The Guardian. For Barry M, Luke’s effect was to show the team the potential of online marketing. Mero says M Club aims simply to get people talking. He claims that those who sign up won’t be bombarded with advertising and people will be able to talk freely about other make-up brands. “We feel this site will appeal to our target audience, who want to sit in front of a computer to interact with their friends,” he says.

The brand is also using the site to promote its ethical credentials. A live webcam shows family pet rabbit Cookie potting around in her home – a quirky idea with a serious message behind it: the brand has never tested its products on animals. Rita Clifton, chairman of Interbrand, thinks Barry M has a clearly defined offer and a clear target audience, which is a good place to start a marketing drive aimed at youngsters. She says online is “absolutely the currency of how this make-up is being used and how the brand is being talked about.”

However, she warns that it is difficult to create a branded social networking site with staying power. While people stick with general networks such as Facebook or Bebo, they fall out of love with single-branded sites. “There’s always a danger that social networks can be fashionable in their own right,” she says.

She also says it will be difficult for Barry M as a niche independent player in the cosmetics market to compete with more established brands such as Rimmel, which have the backing and marketing budgets of large corporates. One way Mero hopes to rise to this challenge is demonstrate to consumers that Barry M has expanded beyond the glittery products it first became famous for, such as its “dazzle dust”.

Although it is focusing on its new media strategy, the company is launching its first television campaign earlier this year in order to compete with the major cosmetics brands. It plans to run another ad next Easter after it has raised a “good awareness”, say Mero.

Barry M will not be running a multitude of new ads, however. Mero freely admits that the brand doesn’t have the budget to run several TV campaigns a year like other major competitors, such as Rimmel.

It is expanding its range in stores with retailers such as Superdrug giving the brand more space. This year it has introduced a range of blushers and Mero says the company is well equipped to react quickly to trends with new new products and colours.

While Mero has aspirations for his brand to become as big as Rimmel, he doesn’t advocate the use of celebrities to promote the brand. While Rimmel has a stream of celebrities in its ads including Kate Moss and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, he believes in the customer as ambassador. According to Mintel, Mero may have a point. In its report on cosmetics, it says: “celebrities are not an inspiration” when it comes to choosing what style of make-up to wear.”

Mintel adds that make-up is one of the fastest growing beauty markets out there, so well worth Mero’s efforts to build the brand. Mintel estimates the market will reach a value of £1.6bn by 2013.

However, the recession has had an effect on the Barry M brand. Mero claims that prior to the economic downturn, the brand was growing 15- 20% year on year, but the recession has halted this level of growth. Despite the lipstick effect theory (the idea that sales of lipstick, or small treats, go up when a recession hits), Mero has seen his company take a hit.

The effects of the recession are being felt even among the brand’s teenage audience, says Mero. Less pocket money means fewer sales.

However, he hopes the launch of its social networking agenda will add more sparkle to the fashion-inspired brand and help it make a major mark in the make-up market.