If you attended the Fashion 360 Conference  Beauty Panel that was held on September 22nd in DC then you know that it was a success. DC welcomed drones of business professionals in the fashion industry to educate them on ways to improve their business while working on themselves. It was a day filled with excitement, networking and learning tools of the trade. Today we offer you a recap on what took place during the Fashion 360 Beauty Panel. Leslie Wooldridge of Capitol File Magazine served as the Fashion 360 Moderator and had the privilege to engage our panelist. She fielded questions from Kara Manos, Ada Polla, Nova Lorraine, and Aleah Rae Dorsey. The focus of the Fashion 360 Beauty Panel served to give Makeup Artist, Skincare professionals, Hair Stylist and Beauty Bloggers the ability to discuss how to broaden their reach. Ada Polla co-creator of Alchimie Forever, a Swiss based skincare line in the US, discussed building a niche beauty brand. “Building a brand, creating a connection with consumers, establishing a unique selling proposition in what is an overcrowded marketplace is indeed the most challenging part.”  Ada offered several tips as to how this can be done. 1. A cult brand needs a cathedral, a physical place that believers can come visit. Aka a flagship store or showroom.
2. Every brand needs its own “bible,” a brochure perhaps, a way to tell its story and weave its tale.
3. Every brand needs a Holy Grail, namely, a hero product. Think of the Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse (one of my favorite products of all time), or the Kiehl’s Crème de Corps. Ada also stated that “it’s important to keep an eye on competitors to see what they are up to.” They are what help drives the direction of the market and so is your brand. Knowing the market is critical to your existence. Aleah Rae Dorsey the Makeup Artist behind Shape Up Your Makeup made a great point on how important it is to work with others in positions you would like to have. “Working with professional brands is helpful for continuing education services. You learn things via work that you’d otherwise have to pay for.”  A few of the lessons she discussed are: 1. Understand that communication plays a big part in how you provide a service to a client. “If your interpretation doesn’t match what’s in your client’s imagination, you have failed as an artist.” 2. When you work with others you begin to develop skills such a patience and how to give the right advice to clients. “It’s trial by fire when you work behind the counter for a major makeup brand, and it’s the type of skill set that will carry over to your own “brand” as an independent artist.” 3. Network with people outside of the beauty industry—and to tell everyone what you are doing. She says you never know who knows who when meeting new people.  Nova Lorraine is the Editor in Chief of Raine Magazine. She brought a wider perspective to the beauty panel allowing attendees to actually talk to a magazine directly.    Nova recommends reaching out directly to an EIC with an editorial request and copying a staffer lower on the masthead. She says this can be helpful. Nova along with Kara Manos noted that people should definitely reach out to lower-level editors—think editorial assistants and assistant editors—as they often have the ear of higher level editors and can go to bat for a pitched product or brand.  This also applies to makeup artists reaching out to bloggers to foster relationships. This could be about cross-promoting products and services, and makeup artists can even offer to do bloggers’ makeup for shoots (for more exposure). 

 

Kara Manos the beauty junkie behind Politics of Pretty. What Kara brought to the Fashion 360 conference was a wealth of knowledge in marketing and how Makeup Artists, Image Consultants, Hair Stylists and beauty brands can further push their product or service into the market. Here are a few things that were discussed. 1. An attendee asked about how to manage online reputations. Kara noted that if a brand receives a negative review online it should respond to the review nicely and professionally (never in a snarky manner) and ask the person who left the review to chat offline. 2. She says you can also “push reviews down” in search engines or in Google by creating new, positive content, such as a Tumblr blog.  3. On how to reach beauty brands Kara says “to not let fear get in the way of reaching out to someone you don’t know. The worst thing can do is say “no,” and even then you can always reach out again a few months later.” Each of these Panelist at the Fashion 360 Beauty Panel provided key elements to build a larger audience. We encourage each of you to reach out to our experts and find ways that benefit your individual business.  

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