Can too much in venture capital funds alter the image of a brand and its customers–to their detriment?
This article talks about the Glossier image of being a start up has drastically changed to a well funded leader in the beauty industry, and could impact how it’s current fanbase reaction to its brand.
“Glossier first began as a product-based spinoff of beauty site Into the Gloss with an initial investment of $2 million in venture capital funding, led by Forerunner and Lerer Ventures, in Sep. 2013. Then it raised $8.4 million in additional VC financing from investors just a month after its launch in Nov. 2014; raised $24 million in a Series B round of fundraising in Nov. 2016; and also received a nice boost thanks to $3 million in tax credits from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. That’s quite the trajectory for a three-year-old business”
I’m so out of touch, I hadn’t heard of this company before today. I don’t know if I can speak for companies who see it as the scrappy underdog, but I don’t know if I would abandon a company simply because it becomes more well-known and wealthy. I actually like dit, for example, when Birchbox became more popular as they started having more samples and things available to buy. It this a trait of the user who wants to use makeup brands that are more underground, and therefore cool? I thought this Forbes Article was funny on whether Glossier had “jumped the shark” and sold out.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jannamandell/2018/02/05/has-millennial-cult-favorite-beauty-brand-glossier-jumped-the-shark/#344373e32397
I completely agree with you! I’ve been using Glossier for a while now and I don’t like it any less now–I love it more. They have consistently introduced new products since they’ve gotten all this VC money. And they’ve expanded their shade range to include a variety of brown girl friendly shades.
I think a lot of makeup users are like music lovers. They love and relish in the fact that the artist they love is underground. Once they become popular, they lose the appeal and seek out other underground artists to take that spot. It becomes a “Remember when Glossier only had 100k followers on IG? That was before it sold out.” Extremely silly, but a reality.
I feel as though the Beauty Products market is a tough one to figure out. I know that when I shop for beauty products, I am very focused on price, I certainly don’t want to put the cheapest product on my body, but I also can’t afford $200 eye cream. In the same way, I don’t want the brand that everyone has and is perhaps over-marketed on television, but I also want it to be something that I’ve heard of before. Thus, it must be incredibly difficult for beauty products marketers to find the perfect niche for their products. Popular, but not too popular. Expensive, but not too expensive. In the same way, it sounds as though Glossier may have breached the limit of being “too popular.”