How Rare Beauty built its brand community

Two months before Rare Beauty began selling makeup products, the beauty brand founded by Selena Gomez launched the Rare Impact Fund, which aims to provide young people with access to mental health education and care, and other resources based on their specific backgrounds. The decision to launch the fund first—Rare Beauty entered Sephora in September 2020—was key to building a loyal community that’s core to the brand, said Chief Marketing Officer Katie Welch. A-List & Creativity Awards Enter for a chance to be recognized as the best in advertising Submit your entry here “We committed to mental health before we even sold a first of our first product, but it all stems back to Selena’s idea for this brand,” Welch told Ad Age. “She had posted about the beauty myth [of physical perfection] on Instagram years ago and thought she could make a difference within the beauty industry by [celebrating] beauty from the inside out.” When Welch joined the brand at the end of 2019, she helped devise a campaign to feature 48 different people wearing the brand’s 48 different shades of foundation. The shoot, however, was cast anonymously. A community call asked people to tell the company what makes them “rare” and submit their application without a headshot. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) The brand received more than 20,000 submissions, but the shoot and the campaign were postponed due to the pandemic. From Zoom chats to friendships The Rare Beauty team and Gomez quickly pivoted to Zoom, holding informal chats with those who made submissions to be in the campaign. “We talked about things like, ‘What are you like?’ and ‘What are you watching on TV?’ to more in-depth conversations around mental health,” Welch said. “If we were to be a brand that wanted to make a difference in mental health, we asked them, ‘What does that mean to you?’ “We heard beautiful stories, and we heard that people wanted to have trusted resources and that conversations around mental health weren’t happening in the home or at school,” she continued. “It ended up inspiring the Rare Beauty Mental Health Council, [whose members] are in all mental health, nonprofit, academia, the medical field, and they advise us on our strategy.” The conversations allowed the team to learn more about their future consumers, and inspired ideas for creative and live events. Since then, Rare Beauty has held events including yoga classes and sound baths, “comfort sessions” featuring cozy clothing and gratitude journaling classes. “All of our community events, they create connection, but hopefully they’re [also] giving some sort of resource, like to introduce someone to the National Alliance on Mental Illness or Marc Brackett of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence,” Welch said. “Plus, it’s hard to meet new friends. And what I’ve seen over the last four years, from our online and offline events, is that the people who attend become friends.” Also read: Marketers should value communities over virality View this post on Instagram A post shared by savy ౨ৎ (@savannah.lenaa) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez (@rarebeauty) Rare Beauty has worked to maintain that community by connecting its members online through chat and community engagement platforms such as Try Your Best (TYB) and Geneva, as well as other social platforms including Instagram. The brand also engages with consumers with an informal, humorous tone on TikTok. The fund has raised more than $16 million to date, according to the brand. Also read: What marketers need to know about Try Your Best @rarebeauty maybe won't have the login much longer tho #rarebeauty ♬ sonido original - Cecilia Gaxiola Taking Rare Beauty to the next level Rare Beauty has done very little traditional marketing over the years, instead focusing on campaigns at Sephora locations, where its sold, and events with the retailer. The brand spent $449,000 on U.S. measured media in the first half of 2024, according to Vivvix, including paid social data from Pathmatics. It spent about $1 million in all of 2023. Last week, the brand launched its first global creative film, “Every Side of You.” “We needed to remind people of Selena’s ‘why.’ We needed to remind people of Selena’s vision,” Welch said. The film by Fred & Farid Los Angeles “does exactly that—remind people of why she created Rare in a way that’s beautiful, highly engaging, heartfelt, sincere and touching.” The campaign marks a new era for Rare Beauty, which has grown from a challenger to an established player in the beauty industry. The film was created to depict beauty in all its forms—from confidence to insecurity, makeup or no makeup. “When you touch this kind of topic, to invite people to ‘love their rare,’ it has to be sensitive,” said Frédéric Raillard, global CEO and chief creative officer of Fred & Farid. “That’s why the film is on the fine line between rawness and authenticity and also sophistication.” Still, the brand remains committed to its community. For Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, Rare Beauty and Sephora donated 100% of its brand sales to the Rare Impact Fund as part of its second annual “Make A Rare Impact” campaign. Rare Beauty had $350 million in net sales in 2023, according to Business of Fashion. Today, the Rare Impact Fund is hosting its second fundraising benefit to continue to expand access to mental health resources for young people. Gomez will be in attendance, along with other business executives, celebrities and mental health partners and organizations, including Tony-winning actor Billy Crudup and Grammy-winning artist Karol G. (Gomez was not available for comment for this story.) In its first year, the Rare Impact Benefit raised $2 million. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here

How Rare Beauty built its brand community

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