A brand’s eye view of beauty on Twitter in Thailand
Thailand’s beauty community on Twitter is passionate and engaged. Tweeting about the latest trends, new products and sharing opinions on Thai and international brands, Twitter is the place where people are talking about beauty. Even the pandemic could not dim Thai people’s enthusiasm for beauty with more than 60 million conversations about personal care on Twitter in Thailand in the past year alone.
According to Euromonitor International’s "Trends in Asian Beauty and Personal Care" report, Asia Pacific is one of the fastest growing markets globally for beauty and personal care with 32% of the global marketplace, and Thailand is one of the fastest-growing markets in the region. The significance of the beauty market in Thailand is underscored by Twitter’s active Thai beauty audience; 77% of people on Twitter in Thailand are interested in taking care of their skin and body, and one-third are enthusiastic about cosmetics.
From creative campaigns to engaging conversations and valuable customer insight, local and international brands are choosing to launch their beauty products on Twitter first, connect with beauty enthusiasts, and build brand recognition.
Defining the consumer: Who are Thai Twitter beauty enthusiasts?
Thai Twitter beauty enthusiasts are passionate. They want to be the first to discover, buy and try new cosmetics and skincare products; 72% come to Twitter to discover new beauty items while more than 50% want to be the first to buy and experience those items.
Female beauty enthusiasts dominate the conversations on Twitter in Thailand with a 62% share of voice, however, personal care products are increasingly appealing to a male audience also and savvy brands are reaching out to these informed customers in creative ways on Twitter.
Twitter provides brands with an opportunity to better understand their customer base, and brands are finding that Thai Twitter beauty enthusiasts are a diverse group who have a wide range of interests beyond beauty. Twitter data shows that their interests also include healthy food, music, healthcare, food and drink, and cooking, amongst others, opening up opportunities for marketers to connect with customers across a variety of conversations.
Beauty trends on Twitter in Thailand
74% of cosmetics enthusiasts research products online before they buy. They ask questions on Twitter and look for product suggestions. They want to be the first to buy and they value the opinions of others on Twitter.
There are a proliferation of hashtags that Thai beauty enthusiasts actively Tweet and for brands, searching these hashtags can provide valuable insight into consumer trends. Using hashtags is also a way for brands to be part of those conversations. Popular beauty hashtags in Thailand include #ไว้รีวิวห้ามขายของโว้ยยย, #HowToPerfect, #ใช้ดีบอกต่อ, #ของดีบอกต่อ, #ของมันต้องมี.
Word-of-mouth is a powerful tool and Thai beauty fans like to Tweet, Retweet or Quote Tweet their opinions and point of view. With 46% of people always giving their opinions on items they have used while 53% of beauty fans in Thailand like to tell others about products and/ or brands, reviewing products with hashtags #ไว้รีวิวห้ามขายของโว้ยยย and #ใช้ดีบอกต่อ is popular with Twitter’s beauty audience in Thailand.
Local beauty brands are on the rise
While brand power can be important, people on Twitter actively look for new products. Local Thai beauty brands are tapping into this desire to try something new and armed with knowledge of local consumer trends, Thai brands are increasingly using Twitter to reach out to Thai beauty fans.
Home-grown brand Skinsista recently turned to Twitter for the launch of their new HYAx5 Ceramide booster with a video campaign that spotlighted the product USPs, created awareness, and drove conversations. Commenting on the launch, Nathaporn Phongcharnchawalit, Managing Director, Skin Laboratories, said “We wanted to create buzz around our recent product launch and our Twitter campaign delivered that. The video concept resonated with Twitter's beauty audience and during the launch period, we saw a lot of positive engagement.”
Shine your brand with ‘40:60’ strategy
Savvy brands are using a three phase launch formula – Tease, Reveal, Reinforce – to ensure that beauty enthusiasts know about the launch while engaging them to talk about the launch. They are employing a 40:60 strategy, whereby 40% of the marketing budget is spent over the Tease and Reveal phases. This “go big, then reinforce” approach leverages Twitter's user insights and enables brands to maximise their ROI.
1) Tease
During the Tease phase, brands proactively create conversations. They apply learnings from earlier listening and conversation analysis, and lead conversations around key beauty topics while sharing tips and advice like in this thread from @EucerinThailand.
Brands also tease announcements to build up interest before the Reveal; an important part of marketing on Twitter as 53% of people on Twitter in Thailand want to be the first to try a product.
2) Reveal
This is the period for high-impact. It's when brands look to dominate their Twitter space with prime real estate advertising spots. Owning the moment, Pantene Thailand (@PanteneTH) employed Twitter’s First View offering, commanding the most valuable real estate with an engaging video to promote their new Pantene Gold Perfection collection.
With 54.4% of people on Twitter looking for the best deals, this is also a time when brands offer sampling and product giveaways. As people on Twitter value reviews and the opinions of others, advocacy strategies are popular where brands leverage influencers to review their products.
3) Reinforce
Often overlooked, this is where brands should look to allocate the majority of their launch budget, and over a sustained period. While influencer advocacy still remains powerful, at this time many of Twitter's first-mover audience have already bought the product, tried it and are Tweeting their insights. These organic reviews can also be high quality advocacy and brands may leverage and Retweet this organic content.
“Following the launch of our OLAY Essence Water, we looked for an advocacy strategy to engage with Twitter's beauty community in an authentic way. Partnering with the right influencers, combined with the power of Twitter conversation, has enabled us to raise and sustain awareness of the product while connecting with new consumers,” shared Nutchaya Kootiratrakarn, Senior Brand Manager, OLAY.
