HBR On Strategy

How Glossier Maintained Brand Integrity While Scaling

Dec 18, 2024

Jill Avery, a Harvard Business School senior lecturer known for her expertise in brand management, discusses Glossier's remarkable journey. She reveals how Glossier maintained authenticity while scaling through innovative marketing strategies. By leveraging paid micro-influencers, Glossier enhanced its brand value without losing credibility. Avery also highlights the importance of community engagement in shaping product development and navigating the transition from digital to brick-and-mortar retail.

28:59

Episode guests

Jill Avery

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Glossier's success is rooted in building a digital community that taps into customer insights for product development and brand loyalty.

To scale while preserving authenticity, Glossier strategically employed paid micro-influencers who foster genuine connections with their audiences.

Deep dives

Building a Brand with Community Engagement

Glossier's emergence as a leading beauty brand can be attributed to its unique approach to community engagement. The founder, Emily Weiss, began by creating an online platform called Into the Gloss, which effectively built a dedicated audience of millennial and Gen Z women. This allowed Weiss to gather valuable insights directly from her readers about their beauty preferences and needs, which drove the development of Glossier's product offerings. By fostering a conversational relationship with her audience, Weiss positioned Glossier as a brand that listens and responds rather than dictating beauty standards.

Intro

2min

The Rise of Glossier: Redefining Beauty Standards

15min

Visionary Leadership in Beauty and E-Commerce

3min

Navigating Marketing Strategies in the Beauty Industry

5min

Innovative Retail Strategies and Consumer Engagement in Beauty Branding

6min

Glossier launched in 2014 as an e-commerce, direct-to-consumer makeup and skincare brand aimed at millennial women. From the start, Glossier’s founder Emily Weiss built a strong digital community around the brand. But after the company received its first major round of funding, Glossier was ready to scale up its marketing spending. The challenge: How to do that while also preserving the brand’s all-important authenticity?

In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jill Avery explains how to think about marketing when scaling a business. Drawing from her business case on Glossier, Avery breaks down how their management team incorporated paid micro-influencers to grow their brand value without undermining their credibility. She also explores how Glossier leveraged their existing community to engage new customers.

Key episode topics include: strategy, growth strategy, marketing, social media, beauty care, startup, scaling, DTC, digital marketing.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: Glossier Built a Cult Brand and a Digital Community, but What’s Next? (2020)

· Find more episodes of Cold Call

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