The cosmetic industry that embodies skin care, beauty, fragrances, and personal care is only getting stronger, as evidenced by its growth in the last few years.

Beauty PR and marketing, and brands behind those campaigns are starting to get a lot more innovative as consumers are looking for more creativity and unique experiences from their personal care and cosmetics products.

With domestic markets getting credibly crowded as more and more brands and products are being launched, many beauty brands started to expand their presence internationally.

Without a well-defined plan on the best way to expand a beauty brand internationally, it’s really easy to head in the wrong direction. While success doesn’t come overnight for any brand, it’s important for companies to keep their long-term goals in mind when deciding to expand, while also working toward all the pre-defined short-term goals.

Market and Culture

The first step in getting a beauty brand to expand into international markets is to know those markets and what their trends are. Understanding the new target market means knowing the social norms, buying patterns, and other various cultural nuances of that target market.

For instance, North American consumers have a growing desire to get more natural or eco-friendly products and are tuned to social media, where they expect to see the brands they do business with.

On the other hand, while the Asian markets are one of the biggest cosmetic markets in the world, their consumers always demand top-shelf quality and the beauty products they purchase. In fact, both retail and digital transactions are constantly increasing in this market.

The Middle Eastern market is a bit different for beauty brands, as the entire cosmetics market is dominated by retail brands, with customers preferring to go in-store and test out various samples before they make a purchase. Lastly, when it comes to the European market, there are many countries that end up creating a lot of problems for companies in the form of buying habits and language barriers.

Content

For most of the beauty brands on the market, social media is one of the biggest promotional and communications channels. Plenty of beauty brands have already mastered social media promotion, which means companies that want to expand internationally need to create content that’s going to get the necessary traction in the target market.

A great example of this is Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty cosmetics brand, which does a great job at highlighting how the different shades of foundation can be used in the makeup routines of different types of women.

Community

Another very effective way for a beauty brand to expand internationally and get more consumers is by building a local community of engaged brand advocates.

Some of the strategies that are used to build local communities include creating an active social media presence for the brand, utilizing user-generated content, and word-of-mouth marketing strategies.

All of these strategies together mean that consumers in various international markets are going to be more likely to engage with a brand and its product, as a result of coming across the branding on a variety of channels.

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As Co-CEO at 5W Public Relations, Dara Busch oversees 5W’s Consumer Practice, which includes Travel & Entertainment, Apparel & Accessories, Non-Profits, Home & Housewares, Health & Wellness, Mom & Baby, Beauty & Grooming, and Consumer Packaged Goods.