Morphe’s Marketing Is Taking Over The Makeup Industry
Let’s take a look at the social media and marketing strategy by the company “Morphe” (brushes & cosmetics). Founded in Los Angeles in 2008, Morphe started as just a brush brand, they were known for making professional quality but affordable priced makeup brushes. Their claim to fame is that there are no rules with makeup, they don’t believe in stereotypes and that every single person should show the world their true colours. It is a “brand created for creators”. Once they reached success in selling brushes, they decided to expand it to a makeup line, for those looking for killer makeup without killing their wallet. Most of their makeup is out there, colourful and designed for art, not just an everyday natural look.
Now that you know a little bit about the brand, let’s talk about what they look like off the bat. What do you see just by looking at their social media? The first thing I noticed was colour, intensity and artistry, on their website Instagram and all other social platforms there was diversity and boldness in every shape and form. You instantly see people of all genders, races, sizes and even skill levels. What someone my age would notice is the influencers and recognizable faces that are working with this brand and advertising for them.
Morphe is doing a lot very well in terms of marketing, they have become one of the biggest makeup brands in the world in just a couple of years. Working with so many influencers and makeup artists with a large following was the biggest reason for their success. Morphe has created collaboration lines with James Charles, Jeffree Star, Jaclyn Hill, Nikita Dragun and even Tik Tok star Charli D’Amelio.
You name a top influencer in the makeup space, Morphe has collaborated with them. Morphe is also often ahead of the game in terms of social media tactics. For example, Instagram just released a platform called “reels” which is very similar to Tik Tok. The videos are a maximum of 30 seconds and are meant to be quick and fun. Morphe is already on top of this and using reels to their advantage, unlike most other makeup brands. They have so much content out on every platform, from Instagram to Tik Tok to YouTube, there is truly something for everyone.
Although Morphe is doing a lot well, there are still a few things they can improve on. A detail I noticed was their Instagram highlights look very mish mashy.
Personally, if a brand’s Instagram page isn’t aesthetically pleasing or at least easy on the eyes, I won’t follow it. Especially in an industry that is all about aesthetics, beauty and precision. All of their social media and even the website looks a little bit unorganized and cluttered. Morphe should also change their social media handles. They are still “morphe brushes”, but their brand now is much more of a makeup brand than a brush brand. It was difficult for me to find their Instagram because I was searching for Morphe Cosmetics, not Morphe brushes and most people know them as a makeup company, not a brush company.
Makeup is a huge industry and there is a lot of great competitors in the market there are multiple specific markets within the makeup market. There’s drugstore, natural makeup, glamorous makeup, artist makeup and there are brands that fall under multiple these categories. Morphe is mainly artist makeup but also falls under the everyday makeup, similar to most brands you would find at Sephora which is the biggest retailer in the world. Two brands that are closest to Morphe comparison are Mac and Colour-Pop, both of these brands are considered Best in Class and Mac was the first makeup brand to become massive. Compared to these two brands Morphy’s Instagram is not as aesthetically pleasing or organized, with social media being such an important part of marketing I would consider that downfall to the morphe brand. However, none of these best-in-class brands have as many influencers and celebrities supporting and modelling their brand as morphe does. Although their marketing strategies are very similar but if morphe just made their media platforms a little bit more uniform they would have the edge in every aspect compared to these top brands.
In conclusion, Morphe is driven by the influencer marketing strategy, which is arguably the best strategy right now. It is especially effective in the makeup industry, where YouTube, Tik Tok and Instagram are saturated with influencers and fans. Makeup artists and people in Morphe’s demographic don’t go looking for new makeup products on TV commercials. They buy whatever their favourite influencer recommends. So, for morphe to have so many recognizable faces collaborating with their brand, they have the best marketing edge in the game. Not only do these influencers support the brand and advertise it, but they create collections and products with these influencers. Products such as eyeshadow palettes, brush collections, lipstick lines, and if you’re a fan of a specific influencer, of course, you’re going to go purchase that collaboration product. Morphe is very successful in marketing and particularly by using the influencer marketing technique. If they just cleaned up their social media a bit, they would be uncomparable.
