Rowena Lam's Blog

Whenever I recognize a need to purchase a particular beauty product, I will perform an external search for information so as to assist making the buying decision. Michelle Phan, the popular Youtube makeup guru , is probably the source of information that first comes to my mind.

Michelle Phan, the popular Youtube makeup guru.

I have followed Michelle Phan on Youtube since her first video around 2007. Her makeup tutorials usually incorporate her voice for instructions with nicely chosen background music. She demonstrates her unique and artistic makeup application methods through the “How-to” video style using the products she has chosen. Her videos are so informative and valuable to the audience because they are home-made videos with the function of providing us product reviews (in motion). They are therefore more persuasive and influential to the consumer decision process than the exaggerated, distorted or biased commercial advertisements.

Her first Youtube makeup video – Natural Looking Makeup Tutorial:

Her most viewed Youtube makeup video – Lady GaGa Poker Face Tutorial

Lancôme is a high-end makeup brand. Since Michelle’s success has been recognized around the world (with appearances in popular magazines and over 1 million subscribers), she was hired by Lancôme in 2010 as the official video makeup artist for the company. I was not familiar with this brand until Michelle introduces their products in her makeup tutorials.

Glamorous Fall Look – video sponsored by Lancome

Why would Lancôme pay Michelle to advertise their products?

Looking at the immediate environment – Competition

According to a makeup artist of Lancôme, the company was losing their youth market over the years to other brands such as MAC and Clinique. With the help of this young Asian Youtube makeup guru, Lancôme is able to advertise their new innovative beauty products by redefining their brand to be modern, trendy and fresh, so as to take on the youthful and probably the Asian demographic.

Looking at the macroenvironment – Technology

Lancôme has realized the power of the internet and capitalized on the popularity of Youtube. By incorporating their products into Michelle’s makeup tutorials, the company is adding their own commercial advertising into the user-generated content, so that this way of promotion appears more authentic and persuasive to the community-minded users of Youtube. In addition, they can effortlessly and quickly capture more customers through Michelle’s huge fan base.

Michelle Phan has become an opinion leader for beauty products since a lot of people want what she used or recommended – successfully exert a certain degree of social influence to the consumer decision process.