BC NYC Fashion Week 02.12 Recap from Jason Smith on Vimeo.
What a whirlwind this month has been! First, NYC Fashion Week, then the beautiful Grand Velas resort and Leadership Conference just next week. That is a lot for the shortest month of the year!
Thanks for all of you who followed us via my Facebook Page for this year's Fashion Week in New York City. It was a huge sucess. I wanted to take this oppotunity not only to share with you the looks that you will see in both makeup and fashion for Fall/Winter 2012, but also explain to you WHY we participate in Fashion Week and what it does for you. I have had so many people say to me things like, "Gary, I live in the mid-west, and Fashion Week means nothing to me. Why does the company spend money on something that isn't helping me build my business?" Sometimes, we have to step outside of the world we live in each day and look at a bigger picture.
Remember our Vision...putting BeautiControl on the lips of every woman? Well this is how it starts. NYC Fashion Week is the single most influential 2 weeks (Spring and Fall) out of every year. It is like the Oscars for Fashion. It is where all the fashion editors, Bloggers, writers, photographers, buyers and designers go to feature their designs for the following season, purchase designs for their stores, report the trends that will influence style and fashion, and where the celebrities go to look for unique designs to be worn on red carpet events around the world. Celebrities of all levels, ranging from current super-stars to a host of has-beens and wannna-bes are collected under one roof to see and be seen.
Here is an interesting fact, MAC cosmetics was an UTTERLY UNKNOWN brand until they created 'Russian Red' Lip Color for Madonna for her Blonde Ambition tour in the early 1990's. Overnight, they became a household name because of one very famous set of lips.
If you have been reading my BeautiControl 101 series, I have been very transparent as to where we spend our money as a corporation...either through our compensation program, incentives and rewards (to put money in your pockets) or the performance of our products (to put money in your pockets). We don't have a Public Relations budget, so we take advantage of every opportunity to do our part to make BeautiControl a more widely visible name which helps you do your part by sharing BeautiControl in your local communities. Fashion Week puts us on the world's most influential stage, with the most influential players in the fashion and beauty industry twice a year. It gives you something to talk about, something to be proud of and endorses your company's reputation as a leader in this industry...it feels good to run with the big boys. Oddly enough, we are a much larger company than many companies (like MAC) that have a higher brand recognition. Simply put, Fashion Week is our investment in your business. Regardless of where you live or whether or not you sell any color cosmetics at all, it gives you brand recognition...and you can't put a price on that!
The key to getting the most brand recognition as possible is by putting yourself where the action is. You can do that by being with the largest names in fashion such as Prada, Armani, Dolce Gabanna, etc, OR you can do that by aligning yourself with brands that are more niche, unpredicitable, avant garde and always fun...sounds a lot like us, huh? Style360 is a fashion production company that combines multiple designers for a series of very unique shows. Because each and every show is so unique, you can guarantee that not only will you get all the fashion influencers, but also the fashionistas...and where there is a fashionista, the paparazzi is not far behind. When we were there this past September, we received over 1 BILLION media impressions for 3 days of shows...that means that BeautiControl was mentioned in over 1 BILLION places either in print or through web mentions. Not bad!!! This year was no exception. While we still don't have a count on our media impressions, I can assure you it was time well spent.
You may be wondering exactly what our role is during this week of shows. I know by looking at pictures it seems that we do nothing more than sit on the front row during each fashion show and go to glamorous parties. While this is true, it is the things that you don't see that make our time so valuable.
Not only do we provide the makeup for each of the shows, we also provide Swag Bags for each of the guests at each show. For the shows which we are key sponsors or for celebrity Swag Bags, we use the "BeautiControl on the Lips of Every Woman" bag filled with our more demonstrable products such as TFF, BC Spa Facial Eye Cream, Extreme Hand Therapy, etc. Before and after each show we stand in our Sponsor Booth area, pass out hand cremes and talk to guests and media about BeautiControl.
The minute they hear we are more than just another cosmetic company they are hooked. What impresses them the most? eBeauti and skin s.p.a. without a doubt. When they learn that they can get their own prescription for skin care and color cosmetics, their jaws hit the ground. The most common reaction that we get after we share who we are is, "Why haven't I heard of you...this is INCREDIBLE". I love the reaction we get every single time we demonstrate the eBeauti and skin s.p.a. They are 2 of the most unique and powerful tools in the industry today. If you are not leading with these as your competitive advantage, I would love for you to reconsider your competitive advantages and re-ignite (or even ignite) your passion for these tools.
Once again we teamed with one of the world's leading makeup artists, Victorija Bowers and her team of artists to create statement looks for each of the designer's shows using BeautiControl's makeup and skin care products. In addition to providing Victorija with all of the makeup that you already know and love, we actually pre-launched a new line of lip colors that you will be seeing in the very near future and the results were WOW!
This year, Victorija has documented the products and techniques that she used for each show. Here are a few to get you started. Click on the links below to be directed to Victorija's blogs that feature very detailed information about each of the shows:
And, just for giggles and grins, if you want to see one of my favorite shows of this season, click HERE Enlarge it to full-screen and turn up the volume. The perfection of this show is RIDICULOUS!
Ok, that should give you enough content to keep you busy through the weekend. Be sure to check back in on Monday as we continue our BeautiControl 101 series. The topic will be creating a concise and duplicable Spa flow. Have a great weekend!
Ciao.
