Website woos consumers with free cosmetic samples

The website latestinbeauty.com is aimed at females who, with increasingly powerful images of themselves as consumers, are turning their backs on conventional marketing and advertising campaigns, it is claimed.

It has been set up by former Procter & Gamble Beauty executives Nort Janssen and Xander Friedlander, who left the company to set up the venture, which first went live last month.

"The inspiration came from the founders' previous experience in the cosmetics industry, which lead to them identifying a missing element in the online cosmetics market," said Janssen.

"They saw how online retail was growing fast, but felt that the lack of the 'touch and feel' element online was a major problem for cosmetics shopping online, as it is often key in shopping decisions," she added.

The creators say that in the face of the 'imminent death of mass advertising', this method, dubbed 'tryvertising' should enable consumers to try products in a way that opens their minds to them more subtly, instead of having the idea forced upon them through conventional campaigns.

A more sophisticated marketing strategy According to the website's creator, women are 'only really engaging with those brands that have developed these types of sophisticated communication strategies'.

The model is simple.

The website encourages women to subscribe to the service, asking them a list of questions pertaining to their appearance as well as their consumer needs and preferences in order to determine their individual beauty profile.

Once subscribed, the site allows women to browse products and read new product reviews that are written by an independent panel, the creators claim.

The site also gives subscribers access to several free samples every month, which can be mailed out to them at their home address as testers.

Cosmetics companies pay for a tailored sampling campaign on the site, which the creators say provides visibility for the brand as well as targeted and detailed analysis of how the campaign is progressing.

The creators are working with some of the world's leading cosmetic players and already has both L'Oreal and Procter & Gamble on board.

Currently the sampling is only being provided for UK residents, but there is expected to be a worldwide roll out in the near future.

Subscribers share product experience Subscribers can then relate their experiences with the samples by answering a few questions on the websites, before being given the opportunity to buy the product or related brands.

The creators say that this gives women the opportunity to test out new products in their own homes before buying them, as well as contributing and reading other women's reviews.

The main advantage of this to cosmetic and personal care companies is that it allows brand communication to be made directly with the target audience, as well as giving them the opportunity to get direct feedback from the consumers.

US rival launched last year The launch of the latestinbeauty.com website follows that of US-based totalbeauty.com, which was launched by former P&G executive Emrah Kovacoglu.

At the time, Kovacoglu said the website would be independent of any particular beauty company so as to guarantee the impartiality and credibility of the information and opinions it provides.

The principle source of income from the site is advertising.

In addition, brands will be able to sell their products on the site and totalbeauty.com will take commission from these sales.

One of the distinguishing features of the totalbeauty.com site is the total personalisation facility, which allows users to consult the views of other consumers with similar beauty requirements.