I have recently been interested in improving my skincare routine. My skin has never been particularly horrible, but it isn’t always the best and I’ve hoped that creating a regular skincare routine would help clear up my skin. In order to do this, I wanted to get the best skincare products available. I know not all products work with my skin, and I also know most brands try to promote their products in the description. With this in mind, I went to social media to see how different people rated different products.
A few months ago people were raving about the brand Ordinary and their peel off mask type product. I have seen a lot more content about their products since that craze, and have become more prominent on my for you page. All the comments I have seen on Instagram about Ordinary are positive, and how their products are essential to their skincare routines and have life changing effects. Granted these are probably for the most part hyperboles in order to emphasize how wonderful the product is, but then again maybe some people were being honest considering the product may have gotten rid of their acne issues.
their customers that they are creating different products that aren’t only researched for the best results of skin, but also insinuate the methods behind the different formulas are created with morals and honest methods concerning sourcing. These things are often very attractive to a potential customer, and would help convince a customer to buy their products. When doing further investigating on Instagram (my main social media source), I found multiple opinions on Ordinary skincare. Many of which have a very popular opinion, ranging from posts about how much they “love the hyaluronic acid by the ordinary,” (@everythinglizzie) to throwing shade at the brand by posting about “not your ordinary skincare” (@deaskiaptr). I’ve also seen many people post their skin care routines on Tik Tok through Instagram (I don’t have Tik Tok), and showing before and after pictures of before using Ordinary and then after using Ordinary and the major changes that have happened as a result. There are also simple posts with a picture of Ordinary products with a caption “Ordinary” with a heart emoji following, simply showing their love for the product. However, when looking up Ordinary skincare on Instagram, I ran across multiple posts about White Lab, a different skincare product. I had never heard of this product before, so doing some research I found that they appear to be new competitors of Ordinary, and therefore were a lot of posts subtly talking about how Ordinary wasn’t a great product by directly calling them out in White Lab’s slogan. I found the shade-throwing posts rather interesting as they seemed to only be calling Ordinary out. And, as shown in the pictures the White Lab products look exactly the same as Ordinary products. Making me wonder if they are trying to mimic everything they do because they want to be the next Ordinary, which most definitely wouldn’t be a remarkable product considering there is almost something exactly the same out there. The good posts definitely outweighed the bad which reassures me as a customer, with all the positive I heard from all the different people. Especially considering it was a Tik Tok trend in which many people expressed their amazement with their products a few months ago. Since this company is trying to sell products in an effort to clear people’s skin, they need customers to tell their personal success stories with their product. In researching the Ordinary skincare, I found no official page for their company. However I did find an official page for Cerave and Neutrogena, both very well known skincare brands. While this isn’t embracing all of their resources to boost sales like our textbook talks about, as a customer I almost prefer this. I liked how when I researched the company, people’s success stories came up instead of just the company themselves boasting about their products. When the company self-promotes instead of customers promoting the products, it makes me skeptical of what I can believe as I typically think companies are in it for the profit, not my well being. By spotlighting customer testimonies as their major form of marketing, Ordinary has created its own unique way of storytelling. Having customers tell their own stories makes a potential customer believe the claims being told, as it is easier to relate to an ordinary individual rather than to a big celebrity or giant corporation that probably gets paid a lot of money to read a script. So, while the company isn’t directly telling a story, or using the best social media practices like other brands are, I almost think that in itself might be on purpose, and is kind of remarkable in itself. Normally all the skincare brands I see are always advertised, but the more I think about it the more I have never seen an advertisement for Ordinary, and in fact I have had to actively search for their products and information which I personally appreciate as a customer, as it makes it seem like they aren’t in it just for the profit. Considering their actions with marketing, I don’t know exactly what they are trying to accomplish, which makes me think their tactic to marketing is supposed to be mysterious. The mysterious feel given by the company makes me think they purposefully gave that feel to pique potential customers’ interest. By letting their products speak for themselves rather than talking themselves up, ultimately they are building brand recognition and loyalty by letting the customers discover personally how good the product is. Again, this isn’t typical of marketing tactics, but based on what we have been learning about with how risky is safe and safe is risky, it makes the tactic more of a remarkable purple cow.
With evidence pointing to an historical lack of typical marketing techniques, it is not surprising that Ordinary skincare company has not commented or responded to customers (that I have been able to find with my investigative skills). Given the mysterious nature of Ordinary and the marketing system they follow, it makes sense that they haven’t responded to the success stories or the competition with White Lab. A response to the competition would have diminished the mystery they have already established, creating less curiosity in potential customers, potentially causing a decline in sales.
If I were the brand manager and if the tactic was mystery and curiosity of customers, I would keep the same tactic in not responding, especially since so many people are highly recommending their products. If more people were to be throwing shade like White Lab was, and the bad were to outweigh the good, I would consider starting more social media advertising. However, right now Ordinary is doing fabulous with earned media through teens trying and rating their products on Tik Tok, Instagram, and Snapchat, and by then creating a mystery that thrills and interests today’s generations. However, if
I were to change something, I would recruit some not yet popular but on the rise influencers to try, test, and then rate and talk about the product. This way it isn’t big celebrities reviewing the product, celebrities that kids know are being paid to say something. But instead people who are still regular enough that the majority of teens feel they can relate to, and therefore trust a little bit more.
Throughout the course of this research, I have learned that I am more interested in buying Ordinary skincare products. I like companies that don’t advertise themselves as it makes me feel like they aren’t trying to hide anything. It makes me feel like they mean the “integrity” part of their value proposition, and almost a challenge to try the product to see if it is as good as everyone says. I sense confidence that the company has in its product, that they don’t have to try and sell people which I like to see as a customer. Overall, I think that I have learned I will get myself some Ordinary skincare in the near future.
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