Sephora’s TikTok Training Holds Lessons For Social Beyond TikTok

Retailers and brands want a marketing presence where potential customers are looking, and that increasingly means establishing a presence on TikTok. Sephora is now helping up-and-coming beauty brands get the most reach and value from the world’s most popular small-form video-sharing platform with a new marketing incubator.

The recently announced Sephora x TikTok Incubator Program will consist of three sessions, two via Zoom and one in-person meeting at TikTok’s offices in New York City, according to Glossy.

Three beauty brands launched through the retailer’s accelerator in 2021. Eadam, Topicals and Hyper Skin were chosen to participate and will attend data-focused training led by three established TikTok beauty influencers.

Sessions cover such topics as building a strategy and using TikTok content to feed into an overall marketing plan. The program will finish with “community creators,” selected by the incubator’s influencers, who will create six pieces of content for each brand. Sephora says the TikTok incubator is not a one-off and will be available to three new brands each quarter.

Despite its brand-building potential, U.S. retailers may be rolling the dice when they devote resources and money to TikTok as the future of the app in the U.S. is still being determined.

The Biden administration is beginning to take a more rigid stance on the China-owned app over national security concerns, The New York Times
NYT
reported last week. The administration demands that the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sell the app or face a ban from operating in the U.S. The White House has also been negotiating with TikTok to get ByteDance to implement new data safeguards or to seek a sale.

In an online discussion last week on RetailWire many of the industry experts on the BrainTrust saw wisdom in Sephora’s move, regardless of how things turn out for TikTok.

“Anything that helps influencers deliver better content is a win for all parties, including the customer,” wrote DeAnn Campbell, chief strategy officer at Hoobil8. “And the lessons learned from TikTok will be easily translatable to other platforms should U.S. regulation force a platform change. I applaud Sephora for taking this step to continue to take charge of their brand voice and invest in delivering the best content possible to their end-customers.”

“TikTok is merely the marketing model of the moment,” wrote Dave Bruno, director of retail marketing strategy at Aptos
APTOS
. “Marketing models always change, but the long-term play of incubating and growing brands that can potentially differentiate their assortment and expand market share is, in my opinion, the bigger story here — and a very sound strategy indeed.”

“The continuing rise of social commerce presents a burgeoning opportunity for retailers and brands because the hottest leads on TikTok today are people and influencers, not brands,” wrote Shelley Kohan, associate professor at Fashion Institute of Technology. “As yet, brands are missing out. Retailers have a golden opportunity to figure out how to create revenue from social media and drive future social commerce if they can secure followings like the top individual influencers. Whether or not TikTok is banned from video-sharing is not a concern because a new emerging technology may take its place!”

In fact for one BrainTrust member, the ephemeral appeal of social platforms was an argument in favor of focusing fast on TikTok.

“If one is going to get involved in TikTok now is the time,” wrote professor Gene Detroyer. “It is nearing the top of the growth curve. How much longer until the next great thing comes along? The life cycle in tech is continuing to get shorter. TikTok is made for stimulation. When will the users get just plain bored?”

BrainTrust member Ken Morris, managing partner at Cambridge Retail Advisors, pointed out an additional challenge posed by reliance on a third-party platform.

“User generated content is a hot topic, and this incubation platform makes perfect sense,” wrote Mr. Morris. “But retailers face another challenge: how to keep shoppers from leaving them, mid-session, to research the items on TikTok and elsewhere. Now it’s time to bring UGC content inside the beauty brands’ own online world and keep them on-site.”

For at least one BrainTrust member, a looming TikTok ban means retailers should already have an eye on other social marketing avenues.

“Investing in anything TikTok related is a terrible business decision right now,” wrote Stephen Needel, managing partner at Advanced Simulations. “Regulators appear to be out for blood and I don’t see that letting up for some time. Instead, figure out where TikTok users will go when it gets banned, then have a strategy for that platform.”