Into the Gloss, Glossier, and “You”
Where Glossier Started — Into the Gloss
A blog by founder, Emily Weiss, called “Into the Gloss,” started Glossier’s journey from its original name, initially copying the blog title, to the brand we all know, Glossier. Some people don’t know how to pronounce it, but it isn’t “Glossy-er” as you might think, but more like Hermés — “Glossy-aye.” The blog started out as a place for Emily to talk about embracing the “skin first, makeup second,” philosophy, and playing on the word “gloss” as a way to describe dewy and healthy skin. The posts on the blog no longer say, “By Emily Weiss,” but, “By Into the Gloss,” so it seems as if perhaps she is still the “face,” of that website, but it is no longer only her ideas or opinions, but a team of unknown people and editors. Not sure how much this draws me into the information I am receiving, and perhaps an unpopular opinion, but the posts look more like news pieces than blog tips/tricks/opinions now — Less personal, more corporate. We’re getting ahead here though, we aren’t talking about “Into the Gloss,” but how it turned into Glossier. The blog gained a lot of traction, and Emily eventually began to pitch her brand, featuring her “skin first” philosophy, to investors. She received a lot of rejection, many of them citing that the it wasn’t what consumers wanted. It was 2014, girls weren’t doing all the skincare trends and “no makeup makeup” they are now, they were doing block eyebrows and rainbow eyeshadow! So, it took her awhile to find the funding, but eventually, she was able to launch the company, Glossier, with just four products, including a cult classic, the original balm dotcom. It gained a lot of traction into 2018, and much of this was done through their branding and the way they talked about their products as “for you,” essentially “clean girl” makeup and aestheticism before that was a term.
Glossier’s Success
While Glossier recently launched in stores in Sephora last year, much of their success was curated through their online presence on instagram and their online store. Emily Weiss and her blog was somewhat well known before her brand started, but it was no where near the tycoons of the time, such as Urban Decay, Too Faced, and KVD. These brands also had the advantage of being available in stores for people to test before buying. How did Glossier combat this problem? Aesthetic packaging and brand identity. I am not going to lie, I am a Glossier lover and have been a fan of the brand for years, and I definitely got sucked in because of the aesthetics. Yes, the products are great on their own, but the driving factor was having something from the brand, something recognizable that would allow me to feel like part of the community of “Glossier Girlies.” I have multiple sweatshirts from them, again cute on their own, but a lot of the appeal comes from the identity associated with the brand — clean, sophisticated. They released their iconic pink sweatshirt early on and this generated a lot more traffic to their brand because of the aesthetics of the pink and the minimalism of the brand. This is what we could call in rhetorical communication, “creating a virtual experience” for the user via their website and instagram (Campbell et.al., p.15). They have formulated a consistent “experience,” of aestheticism into the brand from the way they package their products minimalisticly and distinctively, and often with pink packaging, to the way they advertise their products on instagram with various pinterest-esc photography. For example, they recently released the fourth perfume in their “You” perfume line, “You Fleur.” You can tell from the name it is going to be floral, but they chose a French version of the word to keep up with their aesthetics of luxury and “Glossier.” Even the light purple color of the bottle, a soft and sophisticated color, gives the consumer clues into the type of person who might wear it — a clean girl. You can see how much white they used in the photos, including the flowers. The minimalism tells the consumer about the product before they can even smell it themselves; they already have the chance to identify themselves in the product.
If we look at their website, they almost always have the “free standard shipping on orders 40$+” at the top, and if there is a sale, it will often be there too. This already influences customers, before they even start adding things to cart, to buy more so they can reach the free shipping threshold, even if they were just coming to the website for one thing. This can be seen as both good and bad — as a consumer, I like free shipping, but it also encourages more consuming of stuff you might not otherwise need. In rhetorical communication, this tactic could be considered, “initiating,” or “maintaining action” (Campbell et.al., p.15). In other words, it encourages new customers and/or recurring customers to buy from their brand because of the incentive of free shipping for doing so. This would also include sales, big and small, which they run multiple times a year. They feature their new product duo on a big banner in the front, encouraging people to buy the set, and increasing the odds of a customer buying it if they were going on the website to buy one of the things in the set. When you scroll, you see some of their new releases, and then their “Skin First, Makeup Second,” links that bring you to either skincare or makeup. They offer both, hoping that you will indeed put their skincare in your cart first and makeup in your cart second. This philosophy encourages the use of both of their product offerings, rather than just skincare or just makeup. Next, you see a customer review and information about their “You,” fragrances, which are famously meant to be different on everyone and, “true to you.” Again, I won’t lie, this is one of my all time favorite perfumes and it is really nostalgic to me. I love the entire “You” perfume line, but to be fair, it probably doesn’t smell that different on everyone. Almost to the bottom is, “Shop the Look,” which features some aesthetic product photos from influencers and customers from social media, and tells you what is in the look/photo. Again, communicating to consumers that Glossier is a certain aesthetic, pleasing to the eye and minimalist — all about “you.” At the bottom with all their links for contacts, about, etc., they have their full mission statement I suppose you could say,
“ At Glossier, we make products inspired by real life, embracing the ethos of Skin First. Makeup Second™. We believe beauty is about having fun, celebrating freedom, and being present. No matter where you are in your beauty journey, you look good.”
Despite knowing all of this about the brand, I still love it and use their products every day. It truly it the brand for the no makeup-makeup girlies! This is a product releasing soon that, while I am excited to try, am a bit bored with. Lip oils/balms have been being released by almost every brand over the past year and a half, and they are a bit late to the party. It looks a lot like the Summer Fridays lip oil, but it supposedly has some sort of “cooling” effect? We will see about that. I have way too many lip products, but unfortunately I will still probably buy this because I am a sucker for both lippies and Glossier.
Works Cited
Campbell, K. K., Huxman, S. S., & Burkholder, T. A. (2014).
The rhetorical act: Thinking, speaking, and writing critically (5th ed.). Cengage Learning.
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