As two of the leading cosmetic brands, Covergirl and Maybelline have approached their

social media marketing in what may seem like identical tactics on the surface but just

underneath lies content from two different worlds. Covergirl is an American cosmetics brand

founded in the Noxzema Chemical and later acquired by Proctor & Gamble, their current parent

company. Maybelline had similar beginnings. Tom Lyle Williams sold his makeup company to

Schering-Plough, a U.S. Based Pharmaceutical company. In 1996, Maybelline was acquired by

L'Oréal. Today, both Covergirl and Maybelline are among the preferred brands of teens,

according to “Teens and Tweens Beauty Market” Mintel report. Over the last decade, most, if

not all brands have begun to make a digital presence through social media. For cosmetic brands

in particular, social media platforms have been a great way to engage their consumer. New

products and trends drive this industry which is why “as a result, technology is playing a bigger

role in how women navigate the category, whether through online tutorials, beauty blogs,

beauty vlogs, or apps”. While the ages for their target market are broad in spectrum, they have

a focused target market aspect of gender. They are ultimately targeting women. “Women in

particular are connecting with brands and requesting samples through social networks, which is

good news for the beauty industry since women are more likely to be involved in the category”

(Mintel). Over the last couple of years, the color cosmetics industry has seen a 17% growth. This

in part because many women now see makeup as an important part of their grooming routine.

It is no wonder both Covergirl and Maybelline have chosen to cover every social media channel

aggressively, as there is large projected a growth in the industry through 2019 (Figure 1).

Figure 1, Mintel.

 

 

Because Covergirl and Maybelline are ultimately competing for the same consumers

their engagement tactics platform by platform may seem quite similar. Furthermore, once

researching their content and social media posts on all the different channels it is clear each

brand hopes to inspire a different sentiment within their consumers. Covergirl has taken the

approach of offering enhancement of natural beauty through their products by being “Easy,

Breezy, Beautifull”. In contrast, according to Maybelline’s SVP of marketing, Carolyn Holba,

“What Maybelline is all about is empowering every woman to dare to be more every day.” An

in-depth look into the content that is delivered by each company tells the story of two very

different companies. Reflected in their global success, Maybelline appears to have the more

mature social presence across all platforms through remaining cohesive and consistent in their

overall brand message. 

                   

 

 

For Covergirl, historically, the brand’s leadership has been in face cosmetics, such as

foundation and concealer, with some products that have been around for more than 50 years.

Maybelline, in comparison, has been “known as a mascara brand”. Both companies ultimate

business goal is to be the best overall color cosmetic brand in all three cosmetic categories:

face, eyes, and lips. As Carolyn Holba describes it, for Maybelline “strategic vision is key”. She

described the three pillar system employed at Maybelline New York, saying, “First, it is

necessary to bring true innovation to the marketplace, with on-trend products. Second,

accessibility is key. Maybelline is available in 40,000 doors across the country. Third, offer

products at an accessible price.” Maybelline has been able to perfect their strategy not only

within the U.S. but globally. This is something Covergirl has not yet perfected. While being

prominent in North America, Covergirl is not present in the 130 countries that Maybelline is.

Covergirl’s strategy does not stray far from Maybelline’s. They strive to be accessible and

affordable to all different types of women. One of their more unique strategies is the specific

models they use for their ads. Covergirl is known for using celebrities as their models. Each

celebrity endorsement represents a different segment of their target market. Maybelline in

return uses models that are not known to the general public. As many beauty products do.

As seen on the main pages of each brand’s website, a product from each specific

category (face, eye, lips) is highlighted and no category is left out.

 

 

For Covergirl, they highlight their highest rated products in each category (Figure 2). For Maybelline,

their products were highlighted through a slideshow separated by category product lines (Figure 3).

Both of their main pages displayed content that are consistent with their goal of being leaders in face,

eyes, and lips category. More recently both brands have launched nail polish products. While the nail

polish products are not highlighted in either of the companies websites, nail polish mention is noted

on both of the companies social media platforms.  

 

Beginning with their main websites, it is clear CoverGirl and Maybelline are both aiming

to display all of their newest products and campaigns on the front page. Only a couple of days

ago, Maybelline kept it simple with only five pages ranging from “What’s New” to their blog

page named “City” . Today, they have changed their blog page tab to “Make-up advice” and

have added on a new page, “Makeup trends” that includes an extra link for their blog (Fig. 4).

This recent change shows Maybelline is aiming to drive traffic to their main blog. In comparison,

Covergirl has six different pages. Both brands provide a tab for new products and a tab for a full

 

 

list of their products. Where the brands differ most are the divisions of advice tabs they

provide. Maybelline has a blog and a page for makeup videos. Covergirl took the “segment the

pleasure” approach and includes a live beauty chat, a page for behind-the-scenes with their

celebrity models, an advice page, an offers page, and even “fablab,” a virtual makeup studio (Fig.

5).

Maybelline uses a more direct approach in providing any offers available on the main page

of their website. In contrast, Covergirl’s multi-step process to provide their offers is not instant

and requires a non-digital call to action of looking for coupons in Sunday’s paper. Both brands

provide their social media network links on the landing page of their websites. Covergirl

includes eight different platform links while Maybelline only includes six. Because Maybelline is

global brand, they do have a presence in all eight channels but not all are linked on their

website. It should be noted that Maybelline has only recently added their Google+ plus link

onto their website. Figure 4 shows the changes Maybelline has made to the website as of a few

days ago. Figure 6 includes the overall data found on each social media platform.  

 

 

 

  

With almost 5 million likes on facebook, Covergirl has a couple of thousand more likes

over Maybelline. After a thorough look at both of the brands facebook pages, it is clear they

 

 

have different goals shown by the types of content they post. It almost seems as though

Maybelline creates content specifically for their social media. Their posts relate the consumer

to their product through an organic approach. Not every post is meant to drive the customer to

their website for purchase (Fig. 7). Maybelline spends time customizing their posts to the

season, day, or events that are going on in real time. Covergirl’s posts, on the other hand, are

ads that promote their new products and links consumers to the e-commerce site (Fig. 8). It is

clear that Covergirl’s facebook posts are focused on creating brand awareness while Maybelline

is driving to improve brand image awareness. This is further demonstrated through the

difference in each of the brands cover photos. Maybelline’s cover photo simply displays

different lipsticks shades with no signage of new product. Covergirl’s cover photo is an ad for

their Katy Perry line, once again pushing their product instead of trying to relate to the

customer.

 There is evidence that both brands do listen to their audience on Facebook. Maybelline

seems more consistent in responding to their audience. They reply to both positive and

negative posts on their facebook. Covergirl seldomly responds and do not reply to the positive

comments on their page. They do occasionally answer questions or respond to negative

comments. Overall, Maybelline seems to be a more relatable brand, maintaining their

professionalism while continuing to respond as if they love their company as much as others

might. Looking further into audience’s comments, I noticed Covergirl’s comments were mainly

coming from a third party generator, BzzAgent. BzzAgent is a website where subscribers are

sent new products and they are prompted to review the received products in order to continue

to get more new products. It seems as though BzzAgent had launched a campaign with

CoverGirl recently and many of the consumers are getting incentivized to interact with the

CoverGirl facebook page. Although all of the comments from the consumers using this third

party were positive, I would argue this is skewed data because the audience was incentivized to

comment after getting free products. Overall, Maybelline’s facebook seemed to be more

engaged and interactive in comparison to Covergirl’s product awareness approach.

 

 

 

  

On the twitter platform, Covergirl has once again gained more followers than

Maybelline. With a little over 400,000 followers, Covergirl has almost twice as much as

Maybelline’s twitter (Fig. 6). On the twitter, Covergirl’s social media marketing goals switch to

those more similar to Maybelline’s. Covergirl’s twitter posts highlight their products without

necessarily always driving the consumer back to their e-commerce page as seen on their

facebook. More relatable posts help define the company as a more noticeable brand. Covergirl

finally begins to initiate a conversation with their audience on twitter (Fig. 9). Maybelline

continues to be consistent with their goal to improve brand perception. They engage in what

the consumer is interested in and continue the conversation. They educate the consumer of

ways to use their product for certain time-appropriate occasions such as Halloween in

October(Fig. 10).Maybelline also retweets far more often than Covergirl, showing they are

listening to their audience more closely than Covergirl. Just in the month of October 2014,

Covergirl only retweeted twelve times as opposed to Maybelline’s thirty-three retweets. On

average, Maybelline is retweeting almost three times as much as their competitor. Also,

Covergirl mostly retweeted their own Covergirl celebrities while Maybelline retweeted many of

their followers and none of their own models. Covergirl also seems to employ the hashtags

#instaGlam and #GirlsCan. With the #instaGlam, influenster consumers can review their free

products from Covergirl while promoting their new Katy Perry campaign. Similarly to facebook,

Covergirl has managed to incentivize consumers with Influenster, a website that has the same

business model as BzzAgent.Maybelline has not made any apparent partnerships with any word

 

 

of mouth driven websites. Hashtags are seldomly used in Maybelline’s campaigns. Like many of

their posts, Maybelline uses hashtags more organically as a way to describe their new

campaigns. The latest hashtag they used on their twitter is #upyourbrowgame. While this

hashtag was used to promote their new eyebrow product, it did not put any pressure on the

audience to use the hashtag to promote their product. Both Covergirl and Maybelline use

twitter effectively as a platform to begin a conversation with their followers.

 

 

 With over fifty thousand followers on Pinterest, Maybelline comes out on top as the

major player on this platform. With twice as many followers and pins, it is clear Maybelline uses

pinterest as one of the major ways to connect with their consumers. Even though Covergirl has

more boards than Maybelline, most of their boards focus on their products or their brand.

Maybelline has a couple of boards highlighting their products but most of them highlight

fashion trends they follow. Even the boards that include their products are interconnected to

fashion trends they enjoy and believe their consumers will be interested in. Pinterest is perhaps

an easier fit with Maybelline simply because of their strong ties with the fashion industry. This

is mostly reflected through their sponsorship with Mercedes Benz fashion week. Currently, they

are the official makeup sponsor of Mercedes-Benz fashion week. Comparing Covergirl’s boards

(Fig. 11) to Maybelline’s boards, you can clearly see that Covergirl focuses on their own

campaigns while Maybelline seeks to connect with their audiences through pinning pictures of

fashion trends that are relatable to the timing and real-time environment such as “Fallin’ into

Fall” (Fig. 12). Covergirl’s boards are more product focused and almost a quarter of their boards

are only specific to the hispanic segment of their audience. This could be seen as one of

Covergirl’s strengths in Pinterest. They are reaching out and tapping into a segment of the color

cosmetic market that has a big impact on sales. Maybelline’s strengths rely on being consistent

with the effortless engagement of their consumer’s and not seeking to increase brand

awareness on every social platform. Their products are not simply displayed. They are

 

 

incorporated into fashion trends and posts that relate to the consumers. Maybelline stays

honest to their promise that is posted on their Pinterest page: “We’re pinning our favorite

beauty looks, fashion trends, must-have products, pretty pictures and more”. Maybelline’s

promise is more transparent than Covergirl’s pinterest promise of “Helping you rock your

beautiful with inside access to all things COVERGIRL.” When you take a look at their boards the

only “inside access” given to the consumer is the backstage board that solely focuses on one

photoshoot of one of their Covergirls, Janelle Monae.

 

 

 

 

    

Maybelline’s instagram feed is a mixture of their facebook and instagram content.

Covergirl is a bit more original in their instagram pictures than Maybelline. For Covergirl,

instagram highlights their Covergirl celebrities and their products. Their approach for their

instagram is to show behind the scenes and show the more playful side of their

models/celebrities. They are improving brand perceptions by making their content more

relatable to the audiences everyday. Maybelline repeats a lot of the images they use on

facebook and twitter but they also include original images of influencers, such as youtube

makeup stars, using their products (Fig. 14). Like Maybelline with their other platforms,

Covergirl customizes their images to tell a story to begin a conversation with their consumer

rather than simply displaying their ad’s for their new products as they have in some of their

other social media channels (Fig 13).

 

 

Maybelline reigns supreme in terms of instagram followers, with 515,007 followers,

they have almost twice as many as Covergirl. Many may think because Maybelline has more

followers because of they are global brand but to refute this idea Maybelline has created social

networks for many of their largest markets worldwide. India, UK and many more have their

own instagram and other accounts to be personalized to their own particular markets and

target segments. 

For Maybelline, Tumblr seems to be an extension of their instagram and all other

platforms. Similar images and a lot more product awareness is being driven onto their Tumblr.

Because Maybelline already has a blog on their main website, it seems as though Tumblr is

mainly used for a way to engage their consumer onto connecting to their other social

platforms. In the meanwhile, their main blog “City” is used to thoroughly educate the consumer

about their favorite city, fashion trends, and ways to use their products. Most of their tumblr

 

 

posts are hyperlinked to one of their other social media platforms or to their main website.

Covergirl, in comparison, uses their “Kiss & Tell” Tumblr as a way to not only to incorporate

fashion onto their brand perception but as another way to include and continue support of

their Covergirl celebrities perspective talents and projects (Fig. 15).

 

 

 

 

 From the beginning of my research Covergirl has always included a link to their Google +

page. Maybelline originally did not include their Google+ page on their main website and only

the Maybelline India and UK accounts were found when searching for the Maybelline brand on

Google+. Currently, Maybelline only lags behind Covergirl by 91 followers even though it has

only been recently linked to their main website.

For Maybelline, their Google+ page is all about sharing their youtube videos. From

makeup tips to commercials, their goal is to drive consumers to watch their videos and learn

about their products. Covergirl’s Google+ page does not solely focus on videos, while there’s

occasional videos, most of their post revolve around advertising their new products. It is

important to note that Covergirl has not made a post on their Google+ plus page in almost 2

months. In contrast, Maybelline posted recently last week. Ultimately, Maybelline is using

Google+ as another page to increase traffic to their youtube page. This is the perfect platform

for this purpose simply because both Google+ and Youtube are owned by Google. This decision

to keep these to platforms cohesive may simply come down to the convenience of occupying

two platforms with only having to apply the post once; Hence, “Killing two birds with one

stone”.

Video content is particularly important to the color cosmetic industry. Tutorials on how

to use makeup not only educate the consumer but it will also create a demand within a new

consumer if they believe the end product of the tutorial is satisfactory. On Youtube, with

almost 15,000 more subscribers, Covergirl has a larger youtube audience than Maybelline.

Covergirl’s media content ranges from makeup tutorials featuring popular Youtube makeup

 

 

gurus to behind the scene footage of their Covergirl shoots. Perhaps this platform is much more

popular than Maybelline’s page because for Covergirl, Youtube is a more appropriate channel

due to their celebrity endorsements. Their celebrity models are a big part of their youtube page

and their own personal artists pages are even featured on the main Covergirl Youtube page.

Many of the women who are fans of the Covergirl’s artistry will want to follow their campaigns.

The best way to relate the celebrities with the consumer is through behind the scenes footage

because their personalities are covered through video. Covergirl’s videos have a couple of

different goals. They are using the tutorials as a way to educate the consumer of how to use

their products. They are using the behind the scenes footage to improve brand perceptions

through their celebrity models. Before, Covergirl focused on a using a professional makeup

artist to demonstrate the tutorials. Their most recent approach is using popular Youtube

amateur makeup artists to demonstrate how to use the products effectively. This is an

important approach to make the brand more relatable as if their products are for the “girl next

door”.

Maybelline focuses their videos on tutorials for the all-occasion consumer. While their

some of their tutorials are more professional and glamorized, they continue to be consistent

with their emphasis on the latest fashion trends. Similar to Covergirl, they include popular

Youtube amateur makeup artists to demonstrate how they use Maybelline products.

Maybelline uses these influencer’s videos differently than Covergirl by featuring their videos on

their main Youtube page as opposed to producing them, like Covergirl does. Every influencer

has a different style and this is shown through how they videos are individually edited. While

Covergirl is seeming to bring the girl next door to the forefront with the collaboration of

Youtube celebrities, Maybelline is creating the same effect without over-branding themselves

in their tutorial videos and letting them be their own creator. All of Maybelline’s videos are also

available on their main website. To increase brand awareness, they include their commercials

on their page as well. With no specific face connected to their brand, there is no need to use

their platforms to promote their models or to engage the consumer with their models. The

videos are produced to educate and increase brand awareness along with supporting their

latest campaigns and products.

 

 

  Last but not least is the video creator, Vine. Vine is linked onto Covergirl’s main website

but not existent on Maybelline’s. Although no linked on their main website, there is a created

Maybelline Vine account. Covergirl seems to have recently be more active on Vine than

Maybelline. Covergirl’s latest Vine video was created three months ago. Maybelline’s last Vine

video was created over a year ago. This could explain the gap in the number of followers and

the exemption from Maybelline’s main website. Maybelline’s lack of interaction with this

platform is across all existing global Maybelline Vine accounts. None of them have posted

within the last year. Covergirl’s vines revolve around their Covergirl’s events and their

pertaining upcoming campaign. The latest post was a vine of Becky G, one of their Covergirls,

performing at an award show. It is clear Maybelline has ended the use of Vine, in which case it

is better they no longer include it on their homepage. While visual content significantly boosts

content marketing success, Covergirl has not been consistent and only posted 3 vines over the

last year. Their clear attempt in including their vine on the homepage is cover all of the

platforms. Increasing brand awareness through their Covergirls and displaying products is the

main goal.

 

 

Social media marketing relies heavily on consistency and cohesiveness. Consistency

builds reliability with the consumer and cohesiveness builds a strong brand. Maybelline’s

strengths heavily rely on both consistency and cohesiveness. According to David Greenberg,

Maybelline’s president,

“In reality, you’re the captain of your own destiny. People want a little relief, it’s a

very serious world we live in, and at the end of the day we want to have the

happy, uplifting qualities of the beauty industry. If we are developing the right

things that we know consumers want, the sky’s the limit”.

Maybelline provides the perfect cadence of creating “happy, uplifting” content while

maintaining their glamour and empowering women. Through their customization of different

content for some of the platforms and leveraging others to drive the consumer to connect to

the other channels, they have created a globally sound-proof method to engage consumers

 

 

organically and genuinely. This is even more impressive due to their large global scale. From

Facebook to Google+, Maybelline does not force a hyperlink to the check-out cart of their

website on every post. Platform to Platform, Maybelline encourages a conversation. SVP of

Marketing for Maybelline, Carolyn Holba, mentions that “when we inspire and excite our

consumer base, that is key”. To further support this argument, we can take a look at the

strength, sentiment, passion, and reach/influence of the brand. Data taken from the Social

Mention website over the span of a month, Maybelline had higher numbers on average, for

three of the four social media presence factors and tied with Covergirl for the fourth.

Figure 16 is a chart of the averages recorded of the social media presence factors based on the

data from Social Mention.

Covergirl Maybelline

Strength: The likelihood the brand is being talked about on the social web.

37.2% 43.6%

Sentiment: The ratio of generally positive to generally negative comments on the social web.

15:1 25:1

Passion: The likelihood that people who talk about the brand online will do so repeatedly.

39.4% 49.2%

Reach: The number of unique individuals talking about the brand divided by the number of mentions

35% 35%

Figure 16

 

 

Over the last 4 weeks, Maybelline has not only been more talked about online than Covergirl

but they have had more positive comments and more repeated commentators. This further

suggests that the content published by Maybelline recently, has had a positive impact on their

audience. Perhaps a place of improvement for Maybelline in social presence would be to reach

a larger audience that interacts more online. For those platforms where feedback is important,

such as Facebook and Twitter, Maybelline doesn’t hesitate to listen and learn from their

consumer. They reply to many positive and negative comments on their Facebook and retweet

many of their followers on Twitter. This listening activity also supports the consistency of the

brand. With the help of parent company,L’Oreal, and their industry and global experience,

Maybelline has learned that sometimes less is more. This idea is something Covergirl has not

quite yet embraced. They continue to be present in all of the popular social media platforms

regardless of quality and quantity of the content.

While Covergirl may not be as consistent and cohesive as Maybelline, leading to a less

effective of a social media marketing plan, they do have several strengths that could move

them ahead as they move forward. Covergirl has to begin leveraging their celebrity

endorsements throughout all the platforms to create more consistency in between the images

and posts they are publishing. While many of their platforms mention the latest campaign with

a celebrity Covergirl, most recently Katy Perry, they don’t emphasize or highlight their new

products in a manner that will create a conversation with the consumer. The only platform they

did an exceptional job at creating effortless engagement with their consumers is with their

Twitter account. This inconsistency of appropriate and effective content also affects Covergirls

cohesiveness factor. The very different campaigns they advertise simultaneously can lead to

information overload for the consumer. In a positive note, Covergirl is doing a wonderful job at

representing different types of demographics of women. The downside of this approach is that

a cohesive message can easily get lost within the different commercials, products, and models.

To combat this issue, Covergirl can create more cohesive content for their campaign through

their social media channels. In light of the recent backlash due to Covergirl’s NFL sponsorship

and the Ray Rice domestic violence scandal, Covergirl has maintained strong in supporting a

segment of the market that hasn’t been tapped into before (FIg. 17). While they responded

swiftly, they emphatically reminded everyone of their purpose in the sponsorship, is to

“develop [a] NFL program [that] celebrate[s] the more than 80 million female football fans”

while continuing to be “a brand that has always supported women and stood for female

empowerment”.

 

 

Perhaps the biggest suggestion that can be relayed to Covergirl is to thoroughly analyze

the results created by their partnerships with influencers such as Youtube amateur makeup

artists and Word-of-Mouth websites such as BzzAgent or Influencer. While these mediums may

create quality results in the beginning, incentivized responses from consumers will not last

forever. Covergirl must not rely on these third party channels to reach more consumers.

Instead, they should nurture the relationships already created. Organic word of mouth is much

more lasting. By providing inspiring and educational content that is unique to their brand, they

could reach the cohesiveness, and consistency needed for an effective social media marketing

plan just as Maybelline has managed to do.