Forty years in, Make Up For Ever wants to evolve its brand to become accessible for all. Make Up For Ever, founded in 1984 and acquired by LVMH in 1999, was made popular by pro makeup artists who, at the time, needed high-definition-friendly products for film, TV and editorial moments. Since then, the brand has slowly become an everyday consumer favorite, too, with a budding community on TikTok.
“We were trying to find a way, through communication, distribution, innovation and content, to break the barriers and be more accessible for the everyday consumer who may be a novice and not an expert at makeup. TikTok Shop made sense,” said Sonika Malhotra, North America gm at Make Up For Ever. “This year, we’ve seen there is a big fan community for the brand on TikTok, so what better than [to invest] where there is a community that loves the brand and talks about it and to give them access to the product?”
The recent uptick in the brand’s TikTok buzz is primarily due to organic posts by influencers and public figures. One such example was a post shared by Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee, who recently participated in the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the August 7 video, Lee (@sunisalee_; 3.5 million TikTok followers) shared the products she used in her lip routine, mentioning the brand and the shade of its lip liner she uses. Currently, the post has over 15.3 million views, 1.3 million likes and nearly 6,000 comments. Make Up For Ever declined to share the EMV from the post but said it drove a lot of traffic to the brand’s site.
Investing in TikTok Shop is part of the brand’s “new arrivals campaign” strategy, Malhorta said. On Thursday, the brand announced on Instagram that it’s launching a TikTok Shop storefront, plus it shared details on its weekend-long Shop sales event full of exclusive discounts and limited-edition products.
Make Up For Ever’s inaugural TikTok Shop sale, which runs from Friday to Sunday, will include deals of up to 30%, plus never-before-offered bundles featuring bestselling products such as its HD Skin Face Palette, Setting Powder and Lip Liners. During the sale, the brand will also increase its content output. It will create new TikTok content, including livestreams featuring pro makeup artists, plus it will reshare organic posts and offer a network of affiliate creators an opt-in for product sampling in exchange for sharing on their channels. Malhotra said consumers can also expect to see trendier TikTok content, such as ASMR videos and viral songs used in tutorials, during the weekend and beyond.
Moving forward, Make Up For Ever’s efforts to increase brand awareness will include investing in three major areas. First, the team is elevating its point of sale at Sephora. “We want to make that physical experience of touching, feeling and smelling products worthwhile for customers. We’re putting money behind it because that’s what’s exciting for Sephora and that’s what’s exciting for us as a makeup brand,” Malhotra said. In addition, the team will be putting marketing dollars behind creators and influencers who are authentic fans of the brand. Last, Make Up For Ever will host more IRL experiential moments. “I like giving consumers that flavor of what this brand feels like. You can say a lot of things to people, but they remember how you made them feel. So we are trying to create those feelings or emotional connections that we started with,” she said
Malhotra added, “I don’t believe in 360-degree marketing — that on every single medium you have access to, you should spend money and hope for the best. Instead, I believe in strategically picking where you need to invest.”
Make Up For Ever declined to share its revenue figures. Parent company LVMH’s first half of 2024 earnings, released in July, showed that its perfume and cosmetics category sales grew 6% to €4.14 billion ($4.62 billion).
