1. Introduction
Tarte is a beauty company. Last year we launched tarte adored lip, and people love it. We’ve done a lot of research about what people love about tarte products and what is the most popular tagline for our products, and in the end we decided to go with one of our core values: “it’s so true,” which we think perfectly captures the way we approach beauty.
2. The History of Tarte Cosmetics
Tarte is an American cosmetics brand founded in 1992 by Stefanie Markkula and Jennifer “J” Bonthron. It is a luxury cosmetics company with its headquarters in Malibu, California and has its main manufacturing facility in New York City. The company focuses mainly on lipsticks, but also sells eyeliners and nail polishes.
Tarte’s products are sold at Ulta Beauty, Sephora and Macy’s. It was the first cosmetics brand to sell online (eBay) although it is no longer an e-commerce brand. As of December 2017, Tarte was valued at $3 billion.[5]
3. The Philosophy behind the Tarte Brand
Tarte was founded in 1998 by two young women and their friends (Marie-Josée Crozat and Élodie Pestel) as a small boutique brand, where they could share the passion of fashion. They were inspired by what they saw all around them — young women from all over the world who were excited to be part of a community. At the same time, they wanted to bring something of their own to the market.
To better understand why we do what we do at Tarte, I decided to talk with Marie-Josée about her personal journey with her company and how she came to embrace her role as Chief Brand Officer.
Marie-Josée Crozat: “I started at Tarte in 1998 as a consultant. I was helping other interns develop their own brands, so it felt very natural for me to become a brand manager.” “We had this idea that we wanted to create more than just our own brand; we wanted everyone else’s brands too.”
Marie-Josée Crozat: “We loved the idea of being a boutique brand that could make other people excited about fashion and make them want to buy our products.” “It was this sort of feeling that came from being surrounded by women who worked so hard for so long for little pay. We wanted women everywhere to feel like they had this opportunity.”
Marie-Josée Crozat: “When you’re working for yourself, you tend to think about yourself as an individual rather than about your team or your clients.” “In our job descriptions, we always wrote down “marketing manager” or “brand manager” because that was how people viewed us. We never thought of ourselves as a brand — we were just consultants who happened to happen to have our own brands too.”
Marie-Josée Crozat: “We never intended on making money off products; it was more about having fun with our work and having fun with each other.” “It wasn’t until after 10 years of running companies online (where anyone can become part owner) that [we realized] that there is still no model for someone who is not an entrepreneur or someone who is not well known but is doing something different from everyone else.””We didn’t know if this would be successful because it would have taken us forever before anyone noticed us otherwise,” Marie-Josée says. “But
4. The Products
This is a tricky one, but one that I think is a core tenet of product development. We should never make the mistake of falling in love with any particular product or brand. There are many reasons for this:
• The brand’s history and its trajectory
• Its position in the market
• The way it is perceived by the consumer (e.g., as a luxury brand vs. consumer device)
• The product’s positioning in terms of quality and performance
Just because we like products doesn’t mean we can buy them. As with anything else, we need to build trust — so that customers make the decision to buy our product (and not somebody else’s). And whether you like it or not, we all make decisions based on perception: if somebody says “This looks good to me, let me buy it”, then you give him your money; if he says “I don’t think so; I prefer this other nice thing that [somebody else] has made”, then you have no choice but to pass on it. Even if you find something people really like and admire, there are going to be some people who will be unhappy with it and who will use it less than they would have otherwise — so expect misperceptions and dissatisfaction if you build too much too soon.
5. Conclusion
I was reading a post about a tarte lip balm ad with a pretty female model. I couldn’t help but notice that the ad has nothing to do with the product. Maybe it’s just me, but seems like there needs to be just a little more focus on what your ad is about when you are going for that “viral” effect?
It is not too late to change your message, so if you have an interesting, really well-designed ad, follow these steps:
1) Take notes from successful ads.
2) Take pictures of yourself wearing the product and use them to create a template of how you want your ads to look.
3) Change the copy or copywriting in your ads (or both).
4) Create a list of actionable phrases or keywords that come up in searches over time.
5) Use that list of actionable phrases or keywords as your taglines in your ads.