For my final assignment I have chosen Lush cosmetics. Lush cosmetics has amazing products ranging from bath bombs to tooth paste. They are a company that offers all natural handmade products, vegan friendly and 100% against animal testing. They donate money to local charities in the community and help people from all walks of life all over the world.
Introduction:
In the early 80’s Mark Constantine and Elizabeth Weir started a company by the name of Constantine & Weir. The company came up with many bath and beauty recipes and were sold to a supplier called “the body shop”. Eventually the body shop padi 11million pounds for the rights of Constantine & Wier’s recipes. With the body shop buying all the formulas Mark and Elizabeth could not open another shop for five years, so they started a mail order company names “Cosmetics to go. The company ended up being sold.
Mark and Elizabeth ended up partnering with Mo Constantine, Helen Ambrosen, Rowena Bird and Paul Greaves and started hand making cosmetic products up stairs and sell them downstairs in the shop. They had been buying fragrances from another company, but found out the perfumes were not always pure so Mark decided he would create the perfumes himself. The launched a competition to give the company a new name and one customer suggested LUSH, which is defined as being fresh, green, and verdant. The name stuck. In December 2010 Mark and Mo Constantine were awarded the OBE in the New Year’s Honours list, for services to the beauty industry.
Why is social media critical to what they do?
Lush Cosmetics is very active on all of their social media platforms. Social media is critical to what they do because that is where they do most of their marketing. They use all of their social media platforms to reach out to their fans and interact with everyone. Their Twitter alone has 325 thousand followers. They also take advantage of Youtube and Instagram because most of their products are known for how pretty they are with all their rainbow colors, so they use these platforms to show how pleasing to the eyes their products are.
What industry are they in?
Lush is part of the beauty industry. They make cosmetic products and self care products. The beauty and health industry is huge and Lush keeps on top of it by using social media accounts and interacting with their fans as much as possible.
What are the norms/standards for social media use in that industry?
The norms and standards for social media in the beauty industry is to promote your products, but not interact very much with fans. Such as Neutrogena which is a company I do not personally use very often but know people who do use their products but they have 47.5 thousand followers on Twitter and retweet some tweets but it does not seem like they interact with their fans very much where as Lush will retweet or even like or reply to comments you have made to them. I think that is a big thing Lush has over other companies in the health and beauty industry is they communicate and interact with people which makes the company feel like a small home town company even if it's a huge world wide company, they still take time to interact with their customers. They also follow a good amount of people back on social media which I always think is a nice touch.
Overall social media use:
From what I can tell Lush has been using social media for a while they have been using Twitter since July 2008, Lush first YouTube video was posted 10 years ago ( 2007) I could not find out how long they had been using LinkedIn or Facebook. I also could not figure out how long they had been using Instagram because I scrolled all the way back to October, 1, 2014 but they there was an error loading and I got frustrated and didn't re try. They show a lot of pictures of their products because they are ascetically pleasing.
What platforms do they use?
Lush cosmetics have every social media account you can think of. They have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, Pinterest, and they even have a snapchat! So it is very safe to say if you want to connect with Lush on social media you can.
What platform do they use most?
I looks to me that the Lush Cosmetics company are very active on every social media platform. They interact with their fans on everything and post multiple posts, multiple times a day. Their instagram has 3.9 million followers, 1784 posts, and they follow 1,800 people. Their Twitter has 325 thousand followers, 250 thousand tweets, and they are following 5,678 people back.
What are their strategies and/or objectives?
Lush Cosmetics strategies and objectives are clear first and foremost of course they want you to be seeing, thinking about, and talking about their products which is why they mostly post product photos. Secondly and just as important they want to get the message out that people should fight against animal cruelty. I feel like they have a very good balance of both objectives on Twitter. Scrolling through their Twitter history it looks as if they have a photo of a product, talking about a new seasonal product, or posts about #Savebcbears and bill S-214 which will make animal testing banned in Canada, they also have human rights posts such as the Lush staff joining #WalkForReconciliation and a post thinking of Las Vegas victims. So i think their social media objectives are well rounded. They also have a product called charity pot where all the profit from the sales go to a charity or gets put back into the community and the money staying in your town.
Social commerce strategy:
Wail I was researching I came across this article http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/6-key-components-effective-social-commerce-strategy I feel Lush uses a lot of these tactics in social media.
How do they encourage and facilitate influence and impressions?
Lush encourages and facilitates their ideas of helping others and being kind to animals by the use of social media and they way they create their products they are very open about everything they do and you can even go on tours of their factories. Every product is handmade by someone so no two products are exactly alike.
The create engagement through their content and interact with their fans. But most of all Lush relies on word of mouth, i would have never stopped in to the Lush store at the mall if I didn't have a friend tell me how much she loved their bath bombs. I tell people all the time how much I love Lush products and bubble bombs and have turned multiple people on to Lush. In fact even in this class Frances is now wanting to try Lush which I’m super excited for her to try. Word of mouth is so important to a company! They also have user generated videos with reviews of how much they love their products and their favorite ones. There landing page has everything laid out on it and is very easy to use and navigate.
Are there critical relationships with any groups or individuals?
Lush cosmetics has partnered with SO many charities, foundations, and people it's unreal. I will link a page so you can see all of them but some of my personal favorites they have partnered up with are: Redefining Refuge which is a non profit service that helps sexually exploited and trafficked girls,FaunAccion which educates and empowers animal rights activists, and Missouri Prairie Foundation which conserves prairies and promote native plants in communities for future generations. Here is a link to the rest! https://www.lushusa.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Lush-Site/en_US/CharityPot-Partners#sz=15&start=0&pid=partners&sort=new&type=all
Data:
Lush cosmetics has good reviews as a company in general and on individual products. I use a site called influenster quite often. It is a website where you try different products and leave reviews. Lush received 4.73 out of 5 stars based on 12,256 Reviews. https://www.influenster.com/reviews/lush-cosmetics
There are a lot of youtube videos giving reviews. Here is a video of one of my favorite Youtubers talking about her top Lush products: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gN6GAlJdzc
Here is a link to a buzzfeed article top lush products: https://www.buzzfeed.com/sallykaplan/im-a-lush-for-lush?utm_term=.riz33nVnb#.towvv8n89
Here is a link for Lush’s top products which all have reviews and stars. http://www.lushusa.com/best-sellers/
Here is a link for reviews on total beauty: http://www.totalbeauty.com/reviews/brands/lush
Assessment and recommendation:
All and all I think Lush cosmetics has it all they are a well rounded company on and off of social media. They give back to the community and interact with their fans and customers. They are a very “glass door” company you can visit their factory and see how everything is handmade. They also tell you where your money is going when you buy products such as the charity pot products. They have a huge following on all social media platforms and are on every social media platform available. I think it is very interesting they are on snap chat, which most companies are not so that sets them apart.
I don’t really have much advice for them they are doing amazing as a company on and off of social media they have partnered with a lot of groups and foundations and I feel like anyone who knows much about Lush knows they are trying to make the world better and spread their message of kindness for everything.
References:
Lush wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lush_(company)
Lush Twitter: https://twitter.com/lushcosmetics
Lush Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lushcosmetics/
Lush Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/5229458
Lush Tumblr: http://lushcosmetics.tumblr.com/
Lush Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Lushcosmetics/videos
Influencer Lush review: https://www.influenster.com/reviews/lush-cosmetics
One of my favorite Youtubers talking about her top Lush products: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gN6GAlJdzc
Buzzfeed article top lush products: https://www.buzzfeed.com/sallykaplan/im-a-lush-for-lush?utm_term=.riz33nVnb#.towvv8n89
Lush’s top products reviews and stars. http://www.lushusa.com/best-sellers/
Total beauty review: http://www.totalbeauty.com/reviews/brands/lush
Lush mission statements: http://www.lushusa.com/Stories-Article?cid=article_we-believe-statement
Information on Lush charity pot: http://www.lushusa.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Lush-Site/en_US/Charities-Show
Lush landing page: http://www.lushusa.com/
Lush animal testing policy: https://uk.lush.com/article/animal-testing-our-policy
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