Influencers are a key factor in helping Generation Z make beauty purchases, but their influential power drops when it comes to all other women, Are Media’s first BEAUTYVOICES consumer survey has revealed.
Sampling beauty products is the most successful form of marketing likely to drive purchase for all women aged 18 to 74, followed by online reviews at 39% and magazine reviews and features (30%). However, social media posts from influencers and beauty ads on social platforms influence less than a quarter (24%) of all women.
When it comes to Gen Z, influencers play a more important role in the path to purchase for 18 to 24-year-olds. Four in ten (43%) said YouTube videos are a key influencing platform, followed by social posts and ads (38%) and influencer reviews (35%).
Are Media’s BEAUTYVOICES survey questioned 3,867 women on their views around what beauty means to women, their consumption habits, marketing and advertising preferences.
Alicia Melville, head of beauty at Are Media said: “Beauty remains a key priority for Australian women of all ages and BEAUTYVOICES has been designed to provide our partners with the most current data on how women feel, what they are interested in and how they want to be engaged with.
“While influencers continue to play an important role in driving Gen Z women to make beauty purchases, the research shows that sampling and reviews are more likely to lead to buying decisions for women over 24.”
When it comes to Instagram posts, on average the best performing images likely to drive women to purchase a beauty product are packaging shots and flat lays as opposed to those which included influencers or advertising talent holding the product.
Despite a general shift towards online shopping as a result of Covid-19, just one in 10 women (13%) said they made beauty purchases online, compared to 59% opting to buy in-store.
Almost eight in 10 women (78%) said the more money they plan to spend on a beauty product, the more research they do and nearly nine in 10 (88%) said they were most likely to buy a product if they had sampled it first.
Are Media has recently announced its flagship beauty platforms, beautyheaven and BEAUTYcrew will be completely relaunched in 2021 to include the latest innovations in beauty technology and enhanced rewards program.
The BEAUTYVOICES survey found that 80% of beautyheaven and 73% of BEAUTYcrew readers had purchased a product after reading reviews on these sites.