Yahoo Lifestyle Benefit Cosmetics Aims to Reinforce Mascara Dominance With BadGal Bounce Launch
Benefit Cosmetics is doubling down on its key category with its latest launch.
The LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned makeup and skin care brand is debuting another mascara, this one focused on volume. Called BadGal Bounce, the product retails for $29 and will debut in the brand’s full U.S. distribution, including Sephora and Ulta Beauty.
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Benefit is the top prestige mascara brand in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, according to Circana data provided by the brand, and it launches a new product in the segment every other year.
“You don’t stay number one by resting on your laurels,” said Toto Haba, senior vice president of global omnichannel marketing. “You have to constantly innovate to be the category leader. A lot of people equate us with being the leader in brows, and we want to be in the same place with our mascaras.”
Benefit sells one mascara globally every three seconds, and the top seller, BadGal Bang!, sells one globally every nine seconds. Kate Helfrich, Benefit’s senior vice president of product and service innovation, thinks the new launch could be the brand’s second top-selling mascara.
“We’re always ‘future hunting’ and we think about needs, looks and trends for things we see coming down the pipeline,” Helfrich said. “We are committed to a new mascara launch every other year to make sure the customer knows we’re listening, and this time, we were focused on finding an innovation in volume.”
Market research from the brand indicates that volume was the top attribute desired by mascara shoppers, and that it comprises 68 percent of total mascara sales.
“We identified a consumer need in lighter volume that was more separated, fluffier, a bit more of a false lash look,” she said. “This is visibly full, feathery, pumped-up lift. And we got this mega-claim, that it’s 242 percent volume increase [after three coats].”
Helfrich added that the formula is a bit lighter and drier than BadGal Bang!, and that much of the secret was in the custom, double-sided brush — one side with fiber bristles and the other with a fine-tooth plastic comb.
“The combination of those two sides is what’s going to give you the really clean and lifted look, because the fibers hold a lot of formula, and the fine tooth comb has an upward detangling effect,” Helfrich said.
Haba is relying on two key pillars to market the launch – both digital and real-life experiences. “This may be a bit different than the digital-first things we used to do, but when you’re talking about so much great science, you also have to have people experience it,” Haba said.
To that end, in Mexico City, 49 creators will go on a hot-air balloon trip with the brand, in addition to a consumer-facing “bounce house” in London and retail events at Sephora in the U.S. The launch is also the brand’s largest mail send of product to press and influencers globally in Benefit’s history.
“This is our biggest mail-out ever that we’ve done,” Haba said. “For people who can’t attend our in-person events, we want to make sure they’re able to experience the products themselves.”
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