Glossy’s Jill Manoff on innovative brands and shopping behavior
Posted by Marcus LaRobardiere on Dec 16, 2020
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For many brands, one of 2020’s key themes centered on being able to pivot—and pivot quickly. In addition to the onset of a global pandemic, 2020 ushered in the popularity of more social media platforms, such as TikTok, and a spotlight on specific retail industries, including skincare and wellness. To stay afloat among the competition, brands were forced to think outside the box and adapt to consumers’ different mindsets and expectations.
Jill Manoff—editor in chief of Glossy, a media brand covering the fashion, beauty, and wellness industries—and her team have been examining how brands have responded to these cultural and behavioral shifts on Glossy’s podcast and website. According to Jill, when podcast guests ask about the topic for their episode, the answer is, “anything and everything.” As a guide to the retail industry, Glossy aims to explore timely issues, challenges that are top of mind for brands, how brands are acquiring customers and maintaining loyalty, and how they’ve pivoted to driving e-commerce sales during this time.
During a recent Endless Aisle podcast episode with NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Marcus LaRobardiere, Jill provided insight into how her team created the new categories in the Glossy 50, an annual list featuring fashion and beauty’s top changemakers, why brands are entering new marketplaces, and how retailers are getting creative on popular social media platforms.
Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Jill’s discussion, some of which have been edited for clarity.
On the new categories included in the Glossy 50
“This year, we really wanted to drill down into those meaningful areas that stood out. [For example], people who are making change in diversity and inclusion—we called that category ‘leadership,’ and that included people who really rallied other brand founders and helped the industry.
“We [also] had a category called ‘brand acceleration,’ and that included folks like Julie Averill, the chief technology officer at Lululemon. She has a massive team—she oversees 900 people worldwide. As all things were moving to e-commerce and this brand was so in demand, they were able to handle those new e-commerce orders. They were able to not just [offer] pickup in-store, but they launched pickup curbside. Where [Lululemon sees] high traffic and where they see the lines outside of the store, not only are they enabling their sales associates to go outside with a pad and service those people that can’t come in because of the capacity limits, but also they’re launching pop-ups in the same mall to get that overflow and get more customers coming in and out. So smart.”
On the most innovative industry right now
“A large percentage of our coverage has turned to beauty, as that’s the industry that we’re seeing is moving faster. These young brands are doing more innovative things—especially during the pandemic as self-care and skincare ramped up.”
On brands entering new marketplaces
“We have stories constantly about more prestige beauty brands launching at drug stores, Walgreens, Costco, and Target, and then we see the fashion brands, [like] Oscar de la Renta on Amazon. There are no boundaries; it’s meeting the customer wherever they are. It used to be ‘limit your sales channels,’ but it seems like every brand is on every new marketplace that sprouts up.
“What’s the difference between them? Probably the marketplace that’s paying more in digital advertising is getting the sale. One of the designers said on my podcast, ‘Nobody’s going to judge you for what you do now. It’s kind of like, everything’s a go.’ And I think this is temporary, potentially, but I do think that as brands see that the sales [are] happening in these more mainstream channels, it’s going to be tempting not to stay there.”
On the evolution of shopping malls
“The mall’s going to evolve to be less focused on retail. Retail is going to be a small piece of the pie, as we’ve been telling for years. [It’ll have] more entertainment because people are no longer discovering at the mall and browsing and looking for their next buy. They are finding that next buy online and then going to find it in a convenient, quick manner.”
On luxury brands embracing TikTok
“Moncler with their TikTok campaign with Charli D’Amelio drove 2 billion views. I was so late getting on TikTok. Now, I’m sucked in. The day I got on, Louis Vuitton joined. And it was just a [coincidence], but I think that luxury brands [are] embracing TikTok. I don’t know if it’s going to be equivalent to Instagram, but definitely more of a go-to for where brands are putting their investment and their efforts.
“As everybody gets more used to consuming content on video versus these still-life images on Instagram, I think that will help drive live-stream shopping.”
