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Writer's pictureCharlotte Nunnerley

How Cosmetics Brands Are Making You Ugly

Updated: Oct 10, 2020

We, as consumers, need motivation to buy products, so how do brands make us crave the foundations and eyeshadows we feel as if we need? This is often referred to the process that causes people to behave the way they do.


Brands use hedonic (pleasure, enjoyment) and psychogenic (fulfilment, power) needs to create the customers interest in their products they want to sell, with the added help from influencers and celebrities, they are getting cheap advertisements that consumers will have immense confidence in.


The aim is for customers to feel more beautiful after using the products, in order for them to use them, brands need to figure out ways of communicating their products successfully to their audience by making it rememberable. The use of celebrities and influencers on trips abroad to Bali and LA have been popular with brands such as clothing brand, Motel and cosmetics brand, Benefit. They use influencers with a high following and those in their 20's, to increase the gap between their marketing team and digital influencers. This has showed effective in the past with brands, as the influencer will make Youtube vlogs whilst on the trip or at the event to show off the experience and their opinion on the product that's being launched. This creates a reputation for the brand that audiences will remember.


The feeling you get once applying the product that makes you feel amazing can reduce any feelings of worry or insecurity. It's shown that customers feel happiest with the product when they feel more positive about themselves as they are 'caring for oneself'. Researchers explain that to make someone have a positive feeling about a product, they have to firstly create a negative feeling on the consumer based on their appearance. Brands use models that have clear, bright skin so if audiences don't feel as if they have that, they'll use the product to get the desired look advertised.


The use of using such beautiful models encourages the audience to feel poorly about themselves. Whilst purchasing products, we justify it when we have made them emotionally based on our wants not our needs. We also have an emotional need when we attract to the opposite or same sex, meaning that we need to feel attractive to the other sex to feel good enough or to gain their attention. Makeup is a away for consumers to gain confidence to feel better about themselves, therefore feel as if they are more appealing to their loved ones.


There are many reasons to why consumers purchase cosmetics and stay loyal to brands but this is just some research I've done to show this case.


Hope you've enjoyed the read and give this a like if you did! Love your skin and be yourself, always x


Char x




Thanks to "Women satisfaction with cosmetic brands: The role of dissatisfaction and hedonic brand benefits" article for research.

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