60% of Cosmic by Kylie's budget will go to influencer marketing: Medhavi Nain

Kylie Cosmetics, which debuted in India in April 2024, has further diversified its portfolio with its latest launch of perfume Cosmic. With the increasing trend of premium beauty brands taking over the Indian makeup scene, Kylie Beauty has arrived just at the right time.

In an exclusive conversation with Medhavi Nain, Marketing Lead - International Beauty Brands, House of Beauty, she shared that Cosmic has been doing phenomenally well internationally. In India, the brand wants to leverage the influencer community and social media primarily. 

At a holistic level, celeb-owned brands like Kylie Cosmetics and Fenty Beauty abroad to Kay Beauty and 82°E in India have done well.

According to the executive, celebrities have always been a strong influence, especially for the Indian audience. Through the years, brands have always looked out for the right endorsement faces and cosmetics is such a category that obviously cannot be faceless.

With the emerging growth in India and the need for cosmetics rising, so many celebrities have started their own line of products. 

She noted that India is very hungry at this moment for international cosmetic and skincare brands. Given the demand and the large market, brands like Kylie Cosmetics and Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty are reciprocating with their focus on India.

This trend has also made the beauty and cosmetics industry highly competitive. According to Nain, more than just the global brands, Indian brands are giving them tough competition because of the phenomenal products that have come out.

“Indian brands are more cost effective and of great quality. So, I will not take away the credit from those brands. But as far as Kylie Cosmetics or any of the international brands are concerned, you know there is also already a resting brand loyalty, which is there in the consumers and the fan base.” she said.

The interesting factor is that premium global beauty brands don’t only see a rise in demand from metro cities but tier 2 and 3 towns too. Nain believes that it's not so much about premiums in pricing but more about the demand for good quality products which are popular. Products which are backed by a strong history, strong lines of communication, and strong storytelling, are building awareness in tier 2, and tier 3 cities also.

But communication meant for a Los Angeles consumer may not work for a Lucknow consumer. Marketing to these geographical segments requires localised content. 

Nain shared, “For all international brands, we have to follow the brand DNA, the brand guidelines. So, the direction comes to us from the global team that the mandates are universal across. But, brands are very flexible in terms of creating a very localised communication.” 

“During the festive season, in the case of Anastasia Beverly Hills, we will start generating a lot of localised content because it's centric to India and the festival is very strongly associated with the people,” she added.

The brand is looking at their investments into Sephora because it is the exclusive partner retailing Cosmic. They plan to go aggressive on performance marketing in order to promote it to the Sephora audience as well.

At an overall level, the marketing communication is mostly digital but for Cosmic announcement, 20% of the budget is dedicated towards OOH as well. A couple of hoardings in Mumbai have been taken for the same. Further, about 60% will go into influencer marketing and the remaining 20% is going to go into performance marketing.

Nain’s point of view on influencer marketing at large is that influencers in the category of beauty and makeup just work wonders. Kylie consumers are those people who are actually following influencers very closely, she noted. 

She further elaborated, “Whether we like it or not, it really works for the brand.  So, we want to use them as the keynote. Moreover, we want to inculcate brand advocacy which is a strong program in messaging.”

Kylie Cosmetics got launched in April and now in the next couple of months, consumers will see the cosmetic brand building those advocates to become the voice over the years.

That's exactly how brands have become very successful internationally, Nain added.

But how easy is it for a Californian brand to relate with the Indian Gen-Z consumer? Nain shared that Gen-Z these days are more forward than we can even imagine. Jenner being under her 30s, is herself a Gen-Z. Hence, there isn’t any Gen-Z who doesn't know Jenner, especially because they are the Kardashians and are unmissable.

Coming to whether the colour palette of these global brands personalise according to Indian skin tones, the executive shared that their brand is very inclusive. Be it ABH or Kylie cosmetics, they have the complexion range which caters to all skin tones.

“So, when we do our selection for the India market, we only pick the complexion ranges which cater to our set. We don't bring in absolutely fair skin tones because that might not serve our purpose here,” she said.

In the upcoming festive season, this is that time of the year when the brand goes gaga. Diwali is bigger than how Christmas is celebrated abroad. Nain revealed that they bring out all their strong portfolios, especially from the colour cosmetic ranges because Diwali is about glitter, gold and glam.

“We try to promote very strongly on social media and of course run our digital marketing campaigns during this season,” she added.

Towards the end of the conversation Nain mentioned since April, the numbers have been very well received. As per reports, In 2016, Kylie Cosmetics' total revenue was over $300 million. In 2018, the company's estimated annual revenue was over $360 million.

“We never expected the sales to turn out so well just by a single category in India, which has been so promising. So far so good and now the festive season will tell us better how it is,” Nain concluded.