Top 10 Beauty Brands UK.

Secondary Research
 For my first section of secondary research I decided to produce a case study on the top 10 beauty brands in the uk, and find out WHAT ranks them, and why they have made the list. I decided to begin with this piece of research because it gives me a current point of view of the brands and makeup that is currently selling in our nation, this will then later allow me to hone in on the specific brands and research further into them when I produce some more research. I have found an article online which describes how the U.K beauty market is increasingly becoming digitally competitive, with "online beauty sales rising by 22% last year". This website has ranked the beauty brands on a 'Digital IQ' scale, along with an explantation of how the brand has achieved their place on the list and why.


       "New and upcoming brands are utilising digital channels to accelerate growth and sales" 

Top 10:

1. Benefit Cosmetic
2. MAC
3. Rimmel London
4. Bobbi Brown
5. L'oreal 
6. The Body Shop
7. Maybelline
8. Clarins
9. Estee Lauder
10. Clinique 

Benefit Cosmetics

 Benefit is the number one most popular brand in the u.k as of last year with a Digital IQ of 142, going from second place the previous year to now number one. The reason for this being that Benefit's website is sophisticated, product pages lead to a rich ecosystem of connected content that include videos as well as UGC ( User Generated Content ). In addition to this Benefit "clearly displays the strongest social media performance among all beauty E.U brands"

Benefit Website Homepage

MAC

Colour Column 

 When it comes to MAC their main strength are in the mobile app. Their app and website offers a visual selection finder and filter that helps customers narrow in on shades and finishes, along with live chat and FAQ's. MAC is also a "clear leader in SEO as it appears in 63% of organic searches for Colour Cosmetics terms". They received a Digital IQ of 142.









Rimmel London
 Rimmel London gained a Digital IQ of 140, they are the best-in-class e-tailer investments across the U.Ks biggest three e-tailers. They maintain strong merchandising and search for visibilities on sites such as Amazon and Boots, as well as a branded storefront on FeelUnique.com. In addition to all of this they also launch campaigns such as a competition for vloggers to become brand ambassadors

Cara Delevingne ambassador on official website

Bobbi Brown 
Bobbi Brown along with MAC boasts one of the strongest mile sites, their mobile optimised tutorials and videos are cut into short segments which makes them easy to watch on the go. In addition to this they also use UGC meaning shoppers get personalised relevant content by selecting models of different skin tones. As well as all of this each tutorial has a written step-by-step- guide below the video as well as the relevant products that can be added easily to the basket. This enhances the customers experience as they can easily purchase items and encourages them to do so as a tutorial then shows them exactly how the product should be used, getting them a Digital IQ of 139.
 *app screenshot*

L'oreal
 L'oreal have received a digital IQ of 136, they have an aggressive paid social strategy that ensures visibility for L'oreal Paris across different platforms. Much like Rimmel London they also have a wide variety of brand ambassadors, coming together with the Prince's Trust to form the 'All Worth It' campaign.








The Body Shop
The body shop failed to distribute on local e-tailers, as well as this a significant grey market problem that occurred on Amazon pushed The Body Shop down the list being rated from Genius to Gifted. For this they received a Digital IQ of 136, matching with L'oreal, however in my opinion I feel as though socially L'oreal seem to be more recognised and I tend to see ambassadors all over the place advertising products, where I when it comes to The Body Shop I was surprised it even made the list as I wasn't aware of their beauty range being so popular, this is something I could further research.

Promoting healthy products on their website

Maybelline
 When it comes to Maybelline their official distribution on Amazon as well as investments on Boots & FeelUnique ensue high performance and visibility across the e-tailers. Maybelline benefit from being part of L'oreal's Consumer Products Division, this brings with it strong content integration and a focused distribution strategy, all qualities in which help the brand rise in the list, getting them a Digital IQ of 134.


Clarins
When it comes to Clarins their website rarely poses challenges for customers all thanks to a large variety of features that include advanced features for things such as product reviews and user accounts. They also offer a loyalty program that is well coordinated, it sends emails that notifies members when products are back in stock, and also offer reward points with every purchase, much like Superdrug, the high street chemist/beauty shop. Digital IQ sits at 133.

Estee Lauder
Estee Lauder received a Digital IQ of 133, the same as Clarins, so looking at their social media Estee Lauder emphasises product focused posts on Facebook that maintains a strong link between content and commerce. Their organic search results link you to a store locater that encourages customers to continue through with the purchase.



Clinique 
 Lastly on the list is Clinique, the brands site features a large array of content and strong product page features. In addition to this Clinique is one of the top 10 brands in terms of search visibility on Boots.com, where 2/3 of the top 10 brands distribute their products to! They received a Digital IQ of 132 on this list.

Conclusion

 To conclude, by researching the Top 10 UK used and loved brands I was able to hone in on specific brands and what ranks them on the list. A lot of the information I gathered from this internet article was based on their use of advertising as opposed to the physical product which wasn't what I was necessarily expecting however it was more useful than I initially thought! By seeing their social media, ways of advertising and how their website differ it has allowed me to open up with my creativity for my products and the website mock up I will make, as I can now revise the top 5 websites and what makes them useful and unique, applying them to my own work.



SOURCES

https://www.l2inc.com/daily-insights/top-10-beauty-brands-in-the-u-k


https://www.l2inc.com/research/beauty-u-k

https://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/mac-cosmetics-new-members-only-app-includes-tiered-loyalty-levels-offers

Presentation Reflection.

Presentation
 When producing my presentation I needed to ensure that I included:

• Key Dates
• Deliverables
• Process to making project
• Demand
• Audience

 After presenting my FMP and showing my ideas, aims, and proposed dates I was given some feedback regarding my idea. Nick and I discussed the idea afterwards and collectively decided that by aiming to produce 3-5 products, a website, an interactive app including augmented reality, an advertisement poster and digital adverts as well as the physical printed products would be way too much to produce, which I completely agree with. So I've decided to produce the website but not have it to be a finished product, but experiment with templates on WIX. This way I can show my creativity and experimentation and the pathway I would want to take if this project lasted longer.
 In regards to the interactive app, again I think I will create some mock up visuals of what it would look like as I think experimenting with the likes of augmented reality would be really interesting to learn. Below are some screen shots of my presentation:

My idea was vaguely described, as well as the reasoning for wanted to produce the makeup collection. 

I decided to also discuss the demand for new makeup and how with the use of social media it is an ever growing industry.

 After discussing the practicality of my idea's we then discussed the time frame I created myself, I was told that it seems a bit vague, however I couldn't include my larger spreadsheet that includes weekly dates and what I was going to produce in those weeks as discussed here. After gathering my feedback it has backed my confidence in my idea and the practicality of it. It is easily doable and hopefully to a high standard, and it is also something I have interest in therefore it will push me to produce the products to the best standard it can, all of which will be backed up by the research i've undertaken.

Link to presentation

Time Scale.

Planning Schedule
 Before continuing with assignment 2 I decided to devise an in depth plan of action to stick by so that I know exactly what I need to do every lesson and in he evenings, to ensure I stick to the deadline and achieve it.
 I have produced a spreadsheet in addition to this google doc, the difference being that the spreadsheet requires links to be added and the google doc has slightly more detail. Below is a screenshot of my plans step by step for me to refer to every lesson to ensure I get the things I need to get done!








 By doing this I have taken into consideration time scale and ensuring to use all the time I have and put it to the best use. Planning this means that I can complete every task within the given time frame, I have also ensure to finish the project slightly earlier than the proposed due date, the reason for this being that I then can be slightly lenient when it comes to things such as experimentation and printing as it may take longer than I anticipate to print, all of which I should find out in my research!

Ideas.

Ideas
 As the FMP has begun I've been exploring things I could possibly do, to better myself from the last final major project but also keep it reasonable and interesting from my point of view. As time was approaching for the brief to be set and released I knew I wanted to 'create a product and market it'. An idea I have had for a little while as I am interested in creating products / packaging and also the marketing side of businesses. Creating posters and new products having new features such as augmented reality has been something that makes me want to begin working.
 So baring this in mind I creating some 'initial ideas' where I explored products I could create that have meaning to me, and also the ways in which I would be able to do it. Below are my sketchbook scanned ideas that explore three ideas as well as a collage including images and potential colour themes:



The image above explores my first and second idea, the first being my strongest and the one in fact I ended up sticking with. Despite being confident with my first idea we needed to explore some other options or possible ideas to do, however they are all vaguely related and are also quite text heavy, there are some illustrations on idea two however the exposure on the scan does not show these.
 I also decided to add my Time Scale dates that I created for my FMP presentation, ensuring to allow two weeks before the due date for extra time and allowance for work to be caught up etc.




 This next picture shows (left) a collage of the possible products I could re design/ re package / produce my project on. I decided to do this as it visually shows what I am speaking about so that those not knowing the products can see what I mean.
 Next to it (right) is my third idea, I decided to lay this out as a mind map as opposed to a 'tree/list' like the previous idea. This focussed on rebranding a product and its packaging / meaning. For example I sketched a Cadburys Dairy Milk but made the packaging very colourful and creative (unfortunately doesn't show up on scan) and I also experimented with the idea of involving a charity or way or creating the product without something like animal testing etc.

 By producing these three potential ideas it allows me to think and expand my ideas and creativity, even if I don't necessarily use all of them, I could incorporate certain aspects from each idea. I wanted to keep them on the same path of design / marketing / product design because that is something I would be passionate about. So once I had produced three ideas I decided to print some example of existing makeup collaborations to show what I mean visually. Below I tried to get a large variety of brands and collaborations, for example brands with brands, celebrities, social media influencers and more. This is a small portion of my secondary research, I more so wanted to do it to see the products out there and show those what I mean by a collection of makeup with interesting packaging and ways of advertising.





I decided to go with my first idea where I produce a collection of makeup and market it online using a website, posters and more. I want to explore the different packaging opportunities and create a collection that reflects me but also reflects what the target audience aesthetically and practically like, and regularly purchase. I didn't add too much information regarding augmented reality in my sketchbook because this was something I later discussed with my lecturer which can be read here.

 Now I have produced the three ideas and created a presentation showing my reasoning, audience, time scale, materials needed and more I am able to continue on to assignment two where I can begin my research and experiment with the types of ways I research!

Reflective Blog.

2018
 So far this academic year I have undertaken a large number of different briefs, creating new visuals and pieces of work that have stretched my knowledge and skills set. I have briefly discussed the more 'fun' and 'boring' side to the year here. However I want this blog post to specify things into larger detail.
 Adobe Illustrate
When it comes to the adobe softwares such as indesign and illustrate I struggle slightly. Over the past few months (particularly Steve's lessons) he has encouraged us to use illustrate as opposed to photoshop, which used to be something completely out of my comfort zone, however by taking a more relaxed approach and a 'trial and error' manner I have seemed to make myself comfortable with it almost overnight. I used to struggle sketching and drawing in illustrate and then making it look exactly how I could in Photoshop with the different types of pens etc. After producing the paper engineering project which all in all didn't turn out too successful in my opinion (down to execution) I spent a long time drawing and using text on pages, meaning a lot of experimentation to achieve what I envisioned which can be seen below:

Adobe Indesign
 One application that was repeated in my '12 month action plan' in unit 11 was indesign. this academic year I have not yet used indesign purely for the fact I have not created anything needed to go on indesign, however last year I produced a look book on there as well as my FMP. To my understanding you use indesign when sending something off to print as it is the correct way and better application/software for the job. All I have had to do on indesign however was import files in which I create don photoshop, so was the case of setting up the document with the appropriate slug and bleed, then just dragging my file into the empty pages. I think this is probably my largest weakness because it is a crucial software when it comes to print, but I almost wouldn't know where to start I had to produce a document solely using indesign.
 When it came to tutorials with Steve he has been the most helpful, for example the short lessons on indesign style sheets and setting up documents. One lesson we had a thorough tutorial on style sheets, their uses, how to make one, and how to alter one, which went from very complicated to not so overwhelming as first appeared. Below are some screenshots of how my lesson went, showing the key points (which I remembered to screenshot!)




Marketing & Experimentation
Putting the software skills aside, this year I have conducted high amounts of research, particularly for the LJ Hug's brief, that has opened my eyes to the world of advertisement for a company. It was an extremely interesting part of the brief for me as I was able to look at statistics and the theory side of advisement for businesses, but also the visuals and aesthetic side to advertisement. With this project I looked into different point of views for a project rather than just my own and the person I'm creating it for, which has extended my knowledge and skills when it comes to research and advertisement as well as expansion on the current audience and demographic of a local business. Below are some of my final pieces taken from my presentation.



I would have to say one of my strengths this year is my thorough research into projects, gathering information for the brand i'm working for, the ways of advertising on social medias, down to location, time, demographic, successful ways and more. It has helped me complete a project to a high standard and form multiple point of views, taking into consideration lots of things I didn't think about in the previous academic year. I think Photoshop is also one of my strengths, I'm comfortable using it and all of it's tools, however am intrigued to learn more and I do this individually through youtube videos.
 A weakness of mine I want to try and improve would have to be my visuals and the execution of them. When creating a product I envision things very creatively however wish i could execute them better to really show what my intentions were for the project. When it comes to things such as sketching however, for me 'practise makes perfect'. Tutorials do not personally help me, it's more so becoming comfortable and more confident with my drawing, doing this by using my sketchbook ALOT more in comparison to the last academic year. So far I am achieving my goal of using my book more, this is something I will continue to do throughout the FMP to visually get across my creative ideas.

Research Project Self Reflection.

Structure
 In regards to structure I needed to ensure that I incorporated the following:
- Title Page
- Abstract
- List Of Contents
-  Introduction
- Research (Primary & Secondary)
- Conclusion
- Word Count & Bibliography

 I included all of these sections in my research project to produce an effective research project/book. When producing my research project I wanted to ensure that I included some pictures and also that I split the text up as much as I could, this way it would differentiate the separate sections. Content wise I didn't spot any grammatical errors and I was also happy with the text size and the gaps between each line, along with the gaps between paragraphs.
 The title matches the content inside the book as I explore different social media marketing campaigns in different businesses. I think that if the word count for the project was larger I would have been able to delve deeper into different campaigns, both in smaller businesses and larger businesses.  Having the word count limit it meant that I wasn't able to add everything I would ideally want to, I needed to sift through all the information (including primary and secondary research) to narrow it down to the specific question I was asking. I think after reading some peer's projects I would have liked to have my book reviews flow nicer into my question rather than having them as separate segments.
 Next I looked at my case studies, I produced three case studies on three different businesses and the digital marketing campaigns they produced, in these I inserted some pictures as well as some relevant statistics of success rate, this later helped me when it came to my conclusion. I think if I were to redo this or had the opportunity to extend the project further I would want to research into smaller businesses, perhaps more local businesses, to see if they use social media to their advantage.

 Once I had self assessed my work we each had to do a peer assessment, I received back my review and I gathered that...

  I clearly answered all the questions, and I also answered the question in my title exploring different methods of research really well. However Oscar came across a few spelling errors in my project but nothing too major. To finish it off he said he really liked the case studies I did and that they were all fast food based as it made it easier to understand and absorb the statistics I gave.
 To improve my project I was told that I could have perhaps gone more in depth in my book reviews, something in which I completely agree with, however given the word limit I had no choice but to cut them down as in my opinion they were the least important in regards to my research and overall idea of the project, by cutting something else down it wouldn't have made the research project as easy to understand in my opinion. Overall he said he thinks due to the internet articles, book reviews, in depth research and case studies it should receive a high merit/distinction.

Paper Engineering Project.

FairyTale
 For this paper engineering project Steve asked us to decide on a fairy tale and produce a pop up book on that tale. Before we did this however Steve brought in some examples of interactive / 3d books to inspire us :



 These two in particular stood out to me, I liked the dark but delicate cuttings out and this is where I got the idea to do Rapunzel. I decided on this fairytale mainly through the visuals I had created in my head. I thought the long flow of hair, bricks in a building and a forest scene would look magical in a pop up book, so this is when I started testing and sketching ideas.

 Firstly I hand drew a tower with some vines wrapped around it, then I decided to move on and produce some visuals on photoshop (before I moved to Illustrate)



























 What I wanted to make was an A5 sized book, and once I had written out the story I divided it into 5 separate pages, to convey the story using different visuals for each element and key part. Below are my designs on Illustrate for a few of the pages:

The designing for this project was really interesting for me, I was able to chose specific elements on each page that I wanted to pop out, for example the page above the music notes would be cut out separately and stuck down to make them pop out. I wanted to make the book colourful which was a change of plan slightly compared to my first idea as I wanted to have one page and put a market twist on it!

 I became more confident using Illustrate with this project which I'm really happy about as that was one software I didn't particularly like doing, but now would be happy too. 

When it came to making my book I intended to print it out on normal a4 paper, then get some thin cardboard to stick the 3D elements too in order to make them stand out more, however when it came to printing I had some difficulty. I exported the file and sent it to print, however only 3 pages came out at the correct size, the others came out very small. So I tried again, altering the settings as much as I could and still didn't manage to get it how I wanted it, and the deadline was looming.

 What I decided to do was make use of what I had, although this project and aim was to make a 3D pop up book, I think I focused too much on using illustrate to build my confidence, that I over estimated A; the amount of time I had and B; the amount I wanted to complete. I think if I set myself a goal of one pop out I would have completed it, but because I had larger ideas I thought I would push myself out of my comfort zone and produce a whole book.

 I wouldn't say i'm pleased with my 'book' what so ever, however saying that over the past 5 ish weeks I have built my confidence using Illustrate and would now be happy to do a project just using that software which i'm very happy with. Perhaps digital books are my forte, but if I were to do this again I would reduce the amount of pages and make better use of my time!