As the controversy continues in Washington over whether TikTok ought to be banned if its Chinese owner doesn’t sell it, one group is watching it with particular interest: many brands – especially in the wonder, skincare, fashion and health and wellness industries – that used video apps to extend sales.
Youthforia, a makeup brand that has over 185,000 followers on TikTok, is considering moving more of its marketing efforts to other platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Underlinings, which makes popular brand Nailboo, had planned to make use of TikTok to launch the product at a significant retailer in August and is now wondering whether it can have to vary course. And BeautyStat, which sells skincare products on TikTok Shop, cannot even fathom the thought of the platform disappearing.
TikTok is “just too big, especially in beauty and in some industries, in my opinion, to disappear,” said Yaso Murray, BeautyStat’s chief marketing officer.
Companies and creators have known for years that TikTok might be in danger. But those concerns seem more real now that the House of Representatives has passed a bill that would ban TikTok within the United States unless its owner, ByteDance, sells it. (Work on the bill within the Senate has slowed down since last week’s vote.)
Some lawmakers in Washington consider TikTok is a spying platform run by the Chinese government. Parents are furious that that is rotting their kid’s brains. However, many corporations – large and small – appreciate TikTok and its group of influencers for presenting their products to potential customers, especially young ones.
Retailers, whether Sephora, Walmart, Target or Amazon, have also been big beneficiaries of TikTok, said Razvan Romanescu, CEO and co-founder of Underlinings and 10PM Curfew, an organization that connects content creators with brands.
“If something goes viral on TikTok, it will sell out,” Romanescu said. “So I feel like the whole ecosystem is driven by the discovery opportunity that TikTok provides.”
For some brands, TikTok has turn out to be an integral a part of their marketing strategy and sales growth. This is partly because short videos are easily digestible for consumers, and partly because marketing on the platform is comparatively inexpensive for smaller brands. TikTok Shop, which launched last 12 months and allows shoppers to buy products directly throughout the app, has turn out to be particularly popular amongst beauty and fashion brands.
“Before Covid, the beauty category was pretty flat and was growing by maybe a few percentage points every year,” said Anna Mayo, vp of beauty and private care at market research firm NIQ. But through the pandemic, as consumers had more time on their hands and Zoom calls became more popular, beauty and skincare videos exploded on TikTok.
“Since then, the beauty industry has continued to grow and show no sign of slowing down,” Ms. Mayo said. “TikTok is the main driver of this growth.”
New products or clothes could also be highlighted by individuals who, unlike movie stars and models, feel more identified with viewers. Short how-to videos can show you one of the best strategy to pair spring sweaters and jeans, or the order wherein it is best to apply toner, serums, moisturizers and sunscreen as a part of your morning skincare routine. Some people say they use TikTok before shopping.
“The first video was a makeup tutorial showing how to flawlessly cover acne with three products,” said Mikayla Nogueira, a 25-year-old influencer who began making videos on TikTok 4 years ago. “You learned a new skill in just 60 seconds.”
That’s when Ms. Nogueira had her hands free when her college suspended classes and Ulta Beauty, where she worked, closed its stores as a consequence of the pandemic. Today, she has 15.5 million followers on TikTok and usually collaborates with beauty and skincare brands.
While larger corporations may spend money on marketing on various sites, TikTok offers a less expensive promoting channel than platforms like Google and Meta, which owns Instagram.
“For a direct-to-consumer company like ours, the platform is very unique,” said Nadya Okamoto, who began posting videos about her company’s organic menstrual products on TikTok in August 2021.
First, TikTok’s “For You” channel consistently serves August videos to recent consumers, slightly than those that have chosen to follow the brand on other social media platforms resembling Instagram. Second, the platform allows Ms. Okamoto to be an internal lead content creator.
“Other brands spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising every month, and we spend next to nothing,” she said.
When asked a couple of possible TikTok ban, Fiona Co Chan, CEO and co-founder of Youthforia, said: “I don’t know if anything could bridge the gap in the same way.”
TikTok allows Frida to discuss baby products and postpartum in a way that other promoting platforms and social media may consider taboo, said Chelsea Hirschhorn, the corporate’s founder. The brand joined the app as an energetic user relatively late – it began adding more posts a couple of 12 months ago – but it has around 123,000 followers and a number of other videos have gone viral.
Still, Ms. Hirschhorn said, there are legitimate concerns that TikTok will disappear or change in a roundabout way, and Frida isn’t overly dependent on the app. It found out how you can advertise each in traditional forums (it’s currently sold in 4,000 Walmart stores within the United States) and in additional creative ways (by sponsoring Jason Kelce’s pregnant wife, Kylie, through the Super Bowl when his Philadelphia Eagles last played 12 months).
“I think it’s really important for brands to have a bulletproof, robust marketing plan across media channels, both traditional and emerging, to address any potential challenges,” Ms. Hirschhorn said.
While some corporations are working on contingency plans for brand spanking new products, others are watching and hoping that lawmakers won’t ban the platform.
On BeautyStat, Ms Murray said she was “trying not to get too concerned about everything that’s going on because I think a lot of brands would suddenly feel a big gap in sales.” She added: “It would be very harmful.”
