AUSTIN, TEXAS — It wasn’t until nearly five years after it launched that Rare Beauty, the beauty and cosmetics line founded by Selena Gomez, ran a major ad campaign. When the effort debuted last fall, the celebrity-led upstart was by then estimated to be worth billions and already in vogue with a choosy Gen Z audience that has reshaped category trends thanks to apps like TikTok. 

Rare Beauty’s rise is a case study in how many of today’s buzziest brands are built: Influencer-first and reliant on fervent online followings to spread word-of-mouth rather than the pillars of traditional paid media. E.l.f. Cosmetics, a top brand in the vertical, had a similar path to success, with an early focus on microinfluencers to entrench a dedicated audience. 

At South By Southwest (SXSW) last weekend, Rare Beauty CMO Katie Welch compared her community-oriented marketing approach to developing a lasting friendship that needs constant care and two-way communication. Trust and transparency are necessary to ensure that such relationships don’t sour in an always-on digital age and as businesses enact changes like price increases, according to the executive.

“The best ideas are going to come from your audience. Ask, listen, shape your brand around those real needs,” said Welch, a cosmetics veteran who got in on the ground floor of Rare Beauty in 2019. “The second idea: you have to show up consistently. Community is not a one-off campaign. It is a long-term commitment.”

Rare Beauty last year ranked as the second most-popular beauty brand among teens, according to Piper Sandler, landing behind E.l.f. and ahead of legacy marketers like Maybelline. 

Navigating tumult

Rare Beauty, which positions itself around mental health causes, had a rollout that could easily have been hamstrung. Before it even had a product to sell, the marketer was ramping up outreach to a diverse group of people who could accurately represent dozens of shades of foundation. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, throwing marketing strategies and the world at large into tumult.

Rather than pump the brakes, Rare Beauty kept up communication with its followers, hosting weekly Zoom calls, dubbed Rare Chats, that have become a signature piece of company lore. A concrete brand purpose helped Rare Beauty navigate the storm of the global health crisis, Welch explained. 

“All of a sudden, our mission became more important than ever. We knew that we had to connect people,” she said. 

Providing mental health support and addressing the loneliness epidemic among young people has been a mission since the brand’s inception. Gomez, a former child TV star, has been subject to public scrutiny over her looks for decades, and wanted to create a platform to encourage self-acceptance and confidence.

As with community management, Welch cautioned that purpose needs to be engrained in a brand’s ethos versus an auxiliary marketing tactic. Rare Beauty’s commitment to social issues and inclusivity could be an important differentiator as other brands retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion due to political pressure.

“Brand purpose is not just a marketing play. If you’re going to do it, you have to commit,” said Welch. “It’s not just to generate sales or buzz. Honestly, Gen Z — your audience — will start to see through that.”

Community in focus

Rare Chats led the brand to realize that many young consumers were not getting sufficient mental health resources from school or at home. Rare Beauty eventually established a Rare Beauty Mental Health Council drawing on expertise from across mental health, nonprofit and medical fields that is now five years running, along with introducing a fund that supports 30 nonprofit organizations with grants and contributions. 

In the meantime, moments of consumer connection have made the jump to the real world. Rare Beauty hosts regular summits on mental health while Rare Chats have transitioned to in-person meetups like hikes, breathwork sessions and Sephora shopping trips. Such activations aren’t as measurable as conventional marketing tactics but keep a finger on the pulse of the Rare Beauty fanbase.  

“There’s no real KPI. It’s just, what’s the sentiment?” said Welch in response to an audience question. “Does it seem like people want to be there? Is it fun?” 

Rare Beauty handles almost all of its social and creative in-house but turned to Fred & Farid Los Angeles for “Every Side of You,” its first global brand campaign and a piece of a larger “Love Your Rare” messaging platform. The effort, which debuted in October, shines a light on the range of people in Rare Beauty’s community, with voiceover provided by Gomez. Media spans social, out-of-home, Sephora retail touchpoints, connected TV, influencer marketing and paid digital.

Rare Beauty has made other plays at the big leagues: The direct-to-consumer brand mulled a sale for up to $2 billion last year before putting that process on hold, Axios reported in September. Whether Rare Beauty could preserve its deep-rooted community orientation under a larger cosmetics group is an open question. Welch sounded confident that the business has successfully fostered long-term loyalty and pushed other brands to pursue a similar route to growing consumer favor. 

“True loyalty will come from the experiences where people feel valued just beyond a purchase. I really believe any brand can do this,” said Welch. “I can argue not every brand has to have a brand purpose but I do think every brand should have a community. That’s why you exist.”