AdWeek Europe: Max Factor Aims To Offer Customers A Seamless Online And Offline Experience

The cosmetics firm saw a gap in the market—70% of consumers search online before they purchase, but only 10% buy online. It turned to the visual discovery app to make the physical store digital.

Cosmetics giant Max Factor has teamed up with visual discovery app Blippar to make all its products and content searchable through the Blippar app.

Announcing the partnership at Advertising Week Europe, Laure Murciano, global marketing, Max Factor, said the brand was aiming to offer a seamless online and offline experience for shoppers. Customers scanning the brand’s products and content using Blippar will have Max Factor content delivered to their phone via the app.

“We’re making our entire brand Blippable; all 500 products and all our branded content, all our advertising,” she said. “The intent is to offer a personalised, multi-touch point service for our customers.”

Mikela Eskenazi, a senior brand partner at Blippar, said the move would simplify shoppers’ lives.

“We’re making the physical store digital,” she said. “We’re making products a new consumer channel.”

Murciano observed that the beauty sector has too much content, but that women are willing to listen to bloggers and make-up artists in their search for products that match their own individual look. And she described what Max Factor saw as a gap between online and offline experiences of the brand.

“Seventy per cent of beauty consumers search online before they purchase, but only 10% buy online,” she said. “We see an opportunity to give women the content they want at the point of sale.”

The Max Factor content delivered via Blippar will vary depending on the product, but will include diagnostic tools to help women select products to match their skin tone, tutorials, buy-now buttons, and reviews drawn from the websites of online retailers.

Eskenazi said the move was part of a trend for fewer apps that do more.

“We will see app consolidation, with brands building experiences within existing apps,” she said.

“We didn’t want a Max Factor app,” said Murciano. “We believe the future is browsing via visual search.”