Ulta, Bath & Body Works and Sephora took the top spots in Engagement Labs’ ranking of the top beauty and personal-care brands in the U.S. The “TotalSocial ranking” by the data and analytics solution provider is based on each brand’s “social influence.”
Ulta’s position on the list was due to a live activation earlier this year. The brand moved up from third place in the prior year’s TotalSocial ranking. Researchers at the Engagement Labs said in their report that Ulta lead all brands “in terms of off-line consumer conversations.”
“Ulta edged out Bath & Body Works and Sephora among beauty and personal-care brands, based on the quantity and quality of conversation engagement by consumers,” authors of the report said. “The brand’s recent high point was in March when YouTube sensation Jeffree Star drew a massive crowd to a Houston Ulta store to highlight his Morphe brand collaboration. The impact could be seen in both social media and face-to-face conversations.”
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Engagement Labs said its ranking “is unique in that it combines off-line and online consumer conversations” and is based on its proprietary data and analytics, “which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand social performance.”
“The brands in the top 10 have earned the highest TotalSocial scores in the category for the last six months, compared to the company’s previous ranking published [in] June 2018,” the firm said in a statement.
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With Bath & Body Works, the brand “held steady in the number-two position” and was one of only two brands “scoring above 55 on both online and off-line conversation [the other such brand is Lush].” Sephora’s third-place ranking was followed by Dove Men + Care, “which jumped up five ranking points to fourth overall thanks to extremely high sentiment scores, both online and off-line.” Avon came in fifth, followed by Dove, Burt’s Bees, L’Oréal, Lush and Cover Girl.
Ed Keller, chief executive officer of Engagement Labs, said these top brands are leaders in online and off-line social conversations. “Leadership in social influence requires brands embrace a holistic strategy, emphasizing both online and off-line conversations,” Keller said. “The top TotalSocial beauty brands are what we call Conversation Commanders, because they excel both online and off-line. That’s important because online and off-line conversations are equally important in driving sales.”
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