Gift events…oh, man. Just saying that is enough to give me
the heebie-jeebies. Anyone who’s been in cosmetics a significant amount of time
knows exactly where I’m going with this—especially if you’ve ever worked for
the top three lines (which in non-cosmetic lingo is Estee Lauder, Clinique and Lancôme).
These three are The gift lines. Oh,
oh, there are so many avenues I could take right now for the “How Not to Shop
in Cosmetics”, but I’m going to resist. Right now, I want to talk about the events
themselves. I’ll get into the meat of gift events next time…
WARNING—Here is a post that is entirely in the customers
favor because—spoiler alert! Gift events happen…All. The. Time. No, really. All
the time.
In fact, that’s the problem, isn’t it? In previous retailers
I’ve worked with, there’s such a thing as a Black-out
Period. What this is for you non-retail people, is a time during the year
where you are unable to take time off because of an event. You may
take a day here and there, but no substantial, lengthy period away from work
will be allowed.
Okay, think about that for a second. You’ll get a week here
and there, maybe two if you’re lucky. However, if you want to go home for
Christmas or Thanksgiving? Forget it. Not going to happen.
Now, at this previous retailer I speak of, their black-out
period is a large portion of every month. Yes, that is exactly what I meant to
write. Twelve months out of the year, this retailer states that of those twelve
months, every single one has an event that cannot be missed. That’s one very important event, every single month. Do you see the
problem? Well, just in case, allow me to illuminate…
As a person who is building a business, we have a certain amount
of clients who are loyal and reliable. This is what cosmetics people do—by the
way—we build businesses. We sell ourselves, we sell a product, we sell a
service—and we really do want you to return to us. In doing this, we strive to build
a loyal clientele. Now, imagine having a business that had a special offer, one
that cannot be missed, every single
month. The people running the business know they cannot keep hounding the same
clients, month after month. No logical person is going to need a refill of
foundation, or a new eye shadow, least of all a new moisturizer, every single
month. We all know that. However, because
we run a business inside a much larger business, our jobs are on the line if we
do not call you, email you, or send you letters about each event. We have goals
we have to meet, after all.
Inevitably, there comes a point where these loyal clients we’ve
built say, Enough! They don’t need
anything else for a while. We know you don’t want those emails or those phone
calls—and trust me, we don’t contact you for every single one of these events.
If we did, you’d have changed your number by now. Still, it’s our job—and we do
want to keep them. We call our lists, when we need to, hoping the person on the
other end of the phone needs a thing, or two.
We also hope you don’t bite our heads off.
So, you may be asking yourself how this post works
in your favor. Well, at any given time, there’s most likely a gift going on somewhere.
One of those stores you love is mostly likely in some promotion or another. If
you want those freebees, then they’re certainly out there for the taking.
But let me leave you with this little tidbit—if you seek out
a makeup artist or sales person you like, and if you loyally shop with this
person when you need something, then yes you will get emails or phone calls now
and again, but 99% of them will listen if you tell them how you prefer to be
contacted, and how often you want to be contacted. We are not like those
clothing stores or body and fragrance shops that want to anonymously inundate
you with crap mailings and even crappier coupons. We know your name, we know
that certain shade of berry tone lipstick you like. We know you are two and
half months into your favorite mascara, so we also know you’ll be needing a new
one soon. Creepy? Maybe. But if you play us right, it’ll work in all our
favors.
Because you know what else you’ll get?
You’ll get way more free shit with us than you will without
us. That, ladies and gents, is a very simple truth.
Cheers, and happy shopping!
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