Social Listening

Fenty Beauty is a cosmetic brand created by Rihanna in 2017. Besides many people loving the brand because it was founded by a famous female celebrity of color, it is also loved for its wide range of foundation that spreads from the lightest skin tone to the darkest skin tone. When the original 40 foundations were released, many people were thrilled to finally find a shade that fits their skin tone. It was ground-breaking to finally have this very inclusive brand that many other cosmetic companies have attempted but have fallen short of. Before long, many people were posting themselves wearing Fenty Beauty cosmetics. 

 

One person wrote, "I saw other dark skinned girls in Sephora getting matched in this foundation, and it literally melted by heart because it was so awesome to see such a huge launch, and there were girls that looked like me that were able to get matched for it, it was amazing." –@nymatang 

 

Another person wrote, "It looks super, super natural. It doesn't look cakey. It doesn't look overdone. Your skin but better." –@lifelongpercussion

 

A third person wrote, "wtf is this sorcery @fentybeauty thank u for making the perfect shade for a pale bih like me ✨💅🏼" –@juliaficek  

 

These three praises posted on Instagram came from three different women of different colors and backgrounds. And with a wide range of people using their product, Fenty Beauty accomplished another game-changer – diversity in their advertisement and social media posts. No other cosmetic brand before had such a diverse group of models modeling their makeup before. If you see any ads for Fenty Beauty, one can see the different backgrounds all the models come from. If you visit their official Instagram page, fentybeauty, there is a lot of diversity splashed across their posts. This includes people that are models and ordinary people. And it's not just females wearing their cosmetics on their page. Fenty Beauty has made it clear to their audience that their product is not just for one gender only. 

There is no doubt that Fenty Beauty is well received by the public, so it's not a surprise that their products run out fast. However, some customers have shared their complaints about the long wait time for restocks to be in. In Rihanna fashion, she replied to one compliant with "Sis. we overstocked for 4 months plus, but what can I do when errbody luh da kid?!...also what's your shade sis?" Rihanna is known for witty comebacks on social media and her fans eat it up. If this was the first time of her light-hearted and slightly sassy responses, this may not have been as well-received by the public for customer service, but since it's not, her fans had a laugh.

 

If I was the brand manager, I would want to have that ability to reply as Rihanna did without having it being taken to heart. But without having that platform built up, I wouldn't respond to small complaints like that that are posted on social media (because many people complained about the long wait). I would just post a notice of when the product would be out and leave it like that. If they have major complaints, they should email them to customer service. And sometimes you're unable to help certain customers no matter how hard you try, so you need to be able to know that some people will leave bad reviews.

 

From this assignment, I learned that you need a really good, new idea to be well received by the public. Makeup has been around for a long time and there are multiple cosmetic brands around, but Fenty Beauty took it one step further.