Nicole Langford and Catherine Moore
Social Media in Journalism
Professor Bollinger
4/28/2020
Social Media Critique: Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics
Kylie Jenner’s cosmetic line, Kylie Cosmetics was started in 2014 and originally began producing just lip products such as lip liner, lipstick, and lip gloss. Since then Kylie Cosmetics has expanded its product line and now produces all things makeup and skin care, even creating a separate webpage for Kylie Skin. We selected Jenner’s self-made brand because Kylie and the company have done an incredible job not only creating the brand through social media, but have since then have expanded their reach through social media. Kylie cosmetics are primarily marketed toward the demographic of millennial women and Gen Z-ers, aged between 15-34 who are frequent social media users. While many people believe that Kylie Cosmetics is so successful just because of her Kardashian-Jenner family name, this could not be more false; Jenner knew exactly how and where to market to these women because she is one of them! The aesthetic that her website alone uses is appealing to her followers to look at and to further engage with to explore and potentially buy products. On Kylie Cosmetics’ website it links their Twitter, Instagram, Facebook accounts, but they do not have Kylie’s Snapchat, YouTube or Tik Tok linked, all of which would be good platforms for the young entrepreneur to use to further extend her reach. Jenner’s brand does not have a Pinterest that we could find, but believe could be extremely beneficial to additionally expand her brand.
Of all the platforms Jenner has utilized to promote her brand, we have chosen to focus on the use of Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Being in the generation that first grew up using smartphones, Jenner has used her vast and free forums to touch and facinsate millions of people even before launching her brand. Kylie has cleverly marketed her brand on social media, all the while also gaining product feedback.
Advertising analysis has shown that millennials and Gen Z have come to rely less and less on traditional advertising mediums, as they see social media as a more honest and organic way to communicate. Kylie Cosmetics’ Instagram, with over 23 million followers, is just the tip of the iceberg for the young CEO. What Jenner has done on Instagram has created her life and image as the central vision of the brand. She’s created this idea of a perfect life with extravagance and satisfaction, but has made it seem attainable for the average 15-35 year old woman, through imitation. Not only does she make this possible through her affordable product lines, but by making her life seem so flawless and fun on Instagram, Jenner is able to reach the impressionable youth and expand the popularity of her brand and personal follower base. Instagram seems to be the current favourite social media platform among the younger “impressionable” generation because it allows them to feel as though they have direct contact with famous icons, such as Jenner herself.
Even before launching her self-made business, Kyle Jenner was an avid Snapchat user. Being one of the most well-known influencers in this generation, people want to know what Kylie us up to around the clock. This makes Snapchat the perfect platform for Jenner to use to broadcast her day-to-day life. Her ability to create this sense of transparency with her own life and her brand by letting her audience in on her life has emphasized the organic feeling consumers are looking for with the brands they ultimately end up choosing. Jenner’s influence has such a far reach that in 2018 after a Snapchat redesign she tweeted “Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad,” plunging Snapchat’s stock down over a billion dollars. Though since then, Kylie has still made the effort to keep her followers updated through snapchat, self-promoting her brand whenever she can and just letting people know what she had for lunch or she’s wearing today. She has even linked the Kylie Cosmetics store to Snapchat when using the search feature on the app, as shown below.
Like Instagram, Kylie Cosmetics Twitter profile is also linked to the brands webpage. The account has nearly 941 thousand followers, so significantly less than Instagram The company is continuously posting new products and they have carried over the beautiful pink aesthetic that she developed with Instagram first. This is an amazing way for the brand to interact with people who tweet at them and engage in their content. Kylie and her line have done an incredible job encouraging women of all ages and backgrounds to be themselves and that they are beautiful by featuring them on their account. Kylie Cosmetics does an impeccable job engaging with their customers on Twitter as well as promoting their own products. They make sure whenever they release new products to link their online store right in the Tweet so it is easy to view and access. This is a major marketing tool to have the convenience to shop with one click after viewing it.
The target audience Kylie Cosmetics is trying to reach is young women aged 15-35 years old. She uses Instagram and Twitter heavily to have the best possibility to reach this audience. She caters her accounts and aesthetic to try and reach her audience along with posting links to directly reach her website to easily purchase the products.
Being the younger people Kylie Cosmetics is seeking out to buy their products, we can concur that aesthetic has mattered more now than it has before. Young millennials and Gen Z-ers are looking for the clean cut, polished aesthetic that Kylie Cosmetics has already mastered and offers on its Instagram account. That being said, another media platform Kylie Cosmetics could consider using is Pinterest. Pinterest is the perfect place for those who are looking to satisfy their aesthetic itch, and by creating different inspirations boards, a key feature the platform Pinterest offers, Kylie Cosmetics could create different boards for different events, looks, product lines, features, etc, and link the product directly to the posts they make.
Another improvement that could be made by Kylie Cosmetics would be to post different content on each platform. After viewing all of her content, there are a lot of overlapping pictures and announcements that are exactly the same on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. It makes logical sense to have similar content or have the same major announcements (such as sales, new products, etc.) but the three platforms should not be as similar as they are.
On Twitter, the media they have is not always high quality or receive positive feedback from followers. They get little interaction or shares. When it is pictures of Kylie wearing the product or celebrities the content receives a lot more attention. While we think retweeting tweets and pictures from fans is a great way to get some interaction and engagement, more content from Kylie herself would have better resonation with followers.
The company should also start utilizing influencers to their advantage. Younger generations are becoming more and more diverse which makes marketing to all audiences increasingly difficult. Influencers have become an acute way to maneuver around this problem. Influencers, such as Kylie herself, but also celebrities such as James Charles, Jeffree Star, Addison Rae, and many more, are able to mimic the organic connection consumers on social media are seeking from companies such as Kylie Cosmetics. If someone with such a large following, such as Jeffree Star, recommends you use a product from Kylie Cosmetics, it translates to consumers as, “This product is reliable and I should have it too.” Kylie being an influencer herself has the ability to spread the word about new products, which is a huge advantage Kylie Cosmetics has over other cosmetic companies. Kylie is used as the face of the product, but they need other popular public figures to endorse them.
Kylie Cosmetics should create a Tik Tok account and begin utilizing all the platform has to offer. Tik Tok is taking over the social media world, and everyone of nearly all ages is using the app. They could produce videos of trying products, makeup tutorials, color testing, etc. Some of the influencers we listed above are Tik Tok famous and have millions of people who watch their videos everyday. On Kylie’s personal Tik Tok she has some content of her products, but she does not do enough self-promoting. It does make sense to keep her private account seperate from her business accounts, but it is free marketing and a great way for her followers and fans to see her endorsing her own products. It is an opportunity to showcase them in her real life.
Kylie’s main form of advertising her product is Instagram, where her company has 23.9 million followers. She should utilize the live Instagram streaming feature more often of Kylie or other celebrities/influencers using the products, doing makeup tutorials, etc. especially while in quarantine when everyone is home and bored. They do currently repost videos they are tagged in, as they also do on Twitter, but they do not always contain the high quality content or celebrity that people are looking for.
Kylie Cosmetics should begin using Facebook more. The social media platform is still relevant for the younger generation, and is definitely still used by older generations. They could reach a brand new audience that would be interested in her line. Being able to shop Kylie Cosmetics directly through Facebook, a new and completely different window to this audience is opened, further expanding the brand’s reach. If grandma is on Facebook, browsing through what her granddaughter is up to, and happens to stumble upon Kylie Cosmetics’ page through more traditional advertisements on Facebook, or tags or reposts, it would provide her with links to go directly to the website creating a convenient purchasing process.
Overall, Kylie and her self made cosmetics brand have densely capitalized on relying heavily on social media marketing to expand her company. She uses social media as a means to reach her target audience, but to gauge customer approval of her products, Jenner has nearly utilized social media to its fullest extent. Using tools such as Snapchat videos, Instagram stories, and even Tik Toks, Kylie has found the perfect opening to concisely showcase established products, and products that are soon-to-come. While almost immediately receiving consumer feedback, this has allowed Kylie to make changes to products and foresee demands, all before products even hit the market. Kylie Jenner may as well be crowned the queen of social media for her increasing ability to market and use public relations tactics to expand her self-made brand. By using the best channels social media, like Snapchat, instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok to connect herself and Kylie Cosmetics, Kylie Jenner has created a multi-billion dollar empire.
Catherine's Take 