The End-Benefit Is the Star for Rimmel’s Stay Matte

Suzanne Grayson
Grayson Associates

It’s not often that we have the opportunity to select a cosmetic product for this column. That’s because new color products are often variations of a theme previously established, are shade driven and/or do not create new positioning segments. But we have lots to talk about with the new Rimmel Stay Matte Clarifying Foundation which, we believe, has a couple of important features.

The name and the package says it all for the new Stay Matte Clarifying Foundation from Rimmel.

The two outstanding elements of this product are the name and the package. The name is an excellent example to demonstrate the “hierarchy of end-benefit”—that is, the further you push the name (or claim or benefit) to the farthest possible point, the greater good will be achieved. Stay Matte is closer to the final end benefit than any specific time/wear claim that can be made.

For example, “12 hour wear” says that it will stay on a very long time. But putting the beauty benefit in the name is as close to nirvana as you can get. Stay Matte says how you will look—fresh and not oily—and thereby creates a visual in the consumer’s mind that she will look better, longer. Anytime you give the consumer more of what she bought it for, you will have a very satisfied user. The matte name also projects the psychological benefit of being in fashion, also supported by the brand position, “get the London Look.” Combining a real and aspirational benefit in one name is difficult, but when you do, it’s a winning combination. The ultimate naming benefit is to create one that creates a new segment or category (see Root Awakening in April 2009 Happi).

Packaging that Grabs You

Now consider the package, and then imagine it on a store shelf. That Stay Matte benefit, so bold and dramatic on the package, just reaches out to grab the consumer as she walks by. We all know that packages have to work harder than ever, especially with advertising budgets not as bountiful as before. For cosmetics, the small size of traditional components makes standing out a usually insurmountable challenge. In many cases, the color of the product itself is the attraction value. In foundation, ounce for ounce, a flat tube generally has the size advantage over a round bottle. And when the design creates a benefit billboard, you have a coup. Kudos to Rimmel designers.

Now let’s look at the audits for the specifics that created the very good scores, and where they could have even been better. theBrandAudit 80s scores were very good in Product and Positioning, with an excellent 92.30 in Consumer Appeal. The usually difficult areas of Competition and Marketing Potential were typically lower here, too—but that’s life, isn’t it? Good that the package doesn’t try to add extra benefits and stays on target. It does communicate “clarifying” and a skinpure complex. The high scores in Consumer Appeal were driven by end benefit, package and value-added—$6.99 in Walgreen’s, $6.42 in Wal-Mart. Although pricing isn’t mentioned in the ad, in the audit analysis, it is part of the value component vs. competition.

As good as the total 88.81 score in theAdAudit is (driven by Headline and Visual Impact), it would have been higher still with some Permission-to-Believe and/or Permission-to-Buy, just find a reason to send her to the website, boosted with some emotion in the copy. A neat (and rare) feature is that the “copy” is in the No. 1 readership position, upper right hand corner. What a concept, copy that you can actually read! A little more engagement and emotion would have sealed the deal for an even higher score in Consumer Appeal. All-in-all, a very good launch package and learning for all.

About TheBrandAudit
TheBrandAudit is a Grayson Associates proprietary new marketing technique to determine the success potential of a new product concept or execution, prior to launch. Or, for an existing sluggish product or line, it will analyze its strengths and weaknesses, against key competition. The audit score is based upon Grayson Associates’ 29 “keys-to-success” criteria for the key marketing categories of Product, Positioning, Consumer Appeal, Competition and Marketing Potential. A score less than 80 (out of 100) means trouble in the marketplace. TheBrandAudit will appear bi-monthly. Contact: suzanne @graysonassociates.com

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