
The beauty customer life cycle has been supported by tech for decades. But there have been several consumer groups that resisted the shift to digital — particularly older adults, as this 2018 report by research firm McKinsey explored in detail. With the advent of the pandemic, though, things have changed since 2018 — and what McKinsey termed ‘digital Darwinism’ (referring to older consumers, and the brands that serve them, being left behind as consumer tech changes) has faded out. Because the acceptance of tech among older generations has accelerated at an unprecedented speed.
For beauty brands, this is exciting. Because you don’t have to hold back anymore — you can go all in with digital solutions to streamline your customers’ brand experience, without the risk of leaving an important group of consumers feeling alienated. The pandemic has given tech an unexpected green light, if you will — so what are brands doing to push their customer life cycle strategy into the future? And crucially for marketers, what do real consumers think about the digitized brand experience?