Difference between revisions of "YouTube Beauty Community"
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| − | The '''YouTube Beauty Community''' is a group of people of all ages, races, and skill-levels who upload beauty related videos on YouTube. Labeling themselves as “beauty gurus”, they give advice and tips on how to stay up to date on | + | The '''YouTube Beauty Community''' is a group of people of all ages, races, and skill-levels who upload beauty related videos on YouTube. Labeling themselves as “beauty gurus”, they give advice and tips on how to stay up to date on current beauty, makeup, and skin care trends. Theyupload videos of make-up tutorials, product reviews, hair styling tutorials, and home remedies. Some have extended their videos to discuss general life topics after they have gained reputability and fame through their beauty videos. Others have rose to national and even international prominence and have partnerships with multiple beauty companies such as Maybelline, Jaclyn Hill, and Anastasia Beverly Hills. As a result of YouTube success, some have created their own make up lines, and businesses. However, there are ethical concerns related to product placement and transparency of advertisements within videos. |
[[File:Michelle.jpg|300px|right|Michelle Phan, YouTube's most popular 'Beauty Guru'|thumb|right]] | [[File:Michelle.jpg|300px|right|Michelle Phan, YouTube's most popular 'Beauty Guru'|thumb|right]] | ||
== History == | == History == | ||
| − | <nowiki>The beauty community started as a small subset of YouTube in 2006. Since 2006, the community has grown in popularity and | + | <nowiki>The beauty community started as a small subset of YouTube in 2006. Since 2006, the community has grown in popularity and size and now has its own category, 'How to & Style,' on YouTube. YouTube members may subscribe to their favorite gurus as a way of easily keeping up-to-date on the latest beauty secrets. Some Guru's upload videos every day while others upload weekly or once a month. Professionalism also varies - some gurus shoot their videos in an informal setting (e.g. bedroom floor, kitchen table, couch) while other gurus shoot their video with the help of hired film and editing staff. |
</nowiki> | </nowiki> | ||
| − | The most popular gurus have been able to make a sustainable living from their YouTube channels - thanks to YouTube and company partnerships. Currently, the most subscribed beauty guru is Michelle Phan | + | The most popular gurus have been able to make a sustainable living from their YouTube channels - thanks to YouTube and company partnerships. Currently, the most subscribed beauty guru is Michelle Phan (michellephan), who has over 1.6 million subscribers. After rising to fame from YouTube, Michelle is now a Lancôme representative, has done makeup for 2010's Fashion Week, and has appeared in multiple media articles, including Seventeen, Vogue, and Forbes. <ref name="MichellePhan">[http://www.michellephan.com/about "About - Michelle Phan"]. <i>michellephan.com</i>.</ref> Phan's successes also include the three companies that she helped started: FAWN Inc. (For All Women Network), Ipsy and IQQU along with her personal jewelry line, Ever Eden. Other top beauty gurus include Elle and Blair Fowler (allthatglitters21 and juicystar07 respectively), who have their own cellphone accessory line through Cellaris, book deals, and an online store. They were also recently nominated for the "2011 Teen Choice Awards" as the "Choice Web Star" but lost to Rebecca Black <ref>[http://www.elleandblair.com/post/omg-were-nominated-for-the-teen-choice-awards "OMG! We're Nominated for the Teen Choice Awards"]. <i>Elle and Blair.</i></ref>. All of the top gurus state YouTube and the community as being the stepping-stone to launch their careers. <ref name= "ElleandBlair">Boudreau, A. & Singh, N. (May 31, 2011). [http://abcnews.go.com/Business/shop-haul-videos-turn-shopping-sprees-potential-profits/story?id=13694508 "Shop-And-Tell: 'Haul Videos' Turn Shopping Sprees Into Potential Profits"]. <i>ABC News</i></ref> |
Company endorsement does not always have a positive impact on the trust consumers place in a guru's recommendations. Studies have shown that when people are paid and/or given products to promote, fewer people view their videos. Subscribers make the assumption that the guru's recommendations will be altered by the guru's personal incentives. | Company endorsement does not always have a positive impact on the trust consumers place in a guru's recommendations. Studies have shown that when people are paid and/or given products to promote, fewer people view their videos. Subscribers make the assumption that the guru's recommendations will be altered by the guru's personal incentives. | ||
Revision as of 17:25, 10 April 2018
The YouTube Beauty Community is a group of people of all ages, races, and skill-levels who upload beauty related videos on YouTube. Labeling themselves as “beauty gurus”, they give advice and tips on how to stay up to date on current beauty, makeup, and skin care trends. Theyupload videos of make-up tutorials, product reviews, hair styling tutorials, and home remedies. Some have extended their videos to discuss general life topics after they have gained reputability and fame through their beauty videos. Others have rose to national and even international prominence and have partnerships with multiple beauty companies such as Maybelline, Jaclyn Hill, and Anastasia Beverly Hills. As a result of YouTube success, some have created their own make up lines, and businesses. However, there are ethical concerns related to product placement and transparency of advertisements within videos.
Contents
History
The beauty community started as a small subset of YouTube in 2006. Since 2006, the community has grown in popularity and size and now has its own category, 'How to & Style,' on YouTube. YouTube members may subscribe to their favorite gurus as a way of easily keeping up-to-date on the latest beauty secrets. Some Guru's upload videos every day while others upload weekly or once a month. Professionalism also varies - some gurus shoot their videos in an informal setting (e.g. bedroom floor, kitchen table, couch) while other gurus shoot their video with the help of hired film and editing staff.
The most popular gurus have been able to make a sustainable living from their YouTube channels - thanks to YouTube and company partnerships. Currently, the most subscribed beauty guru is Michelle Phan (michellephan), who has over 1.6 million subscribers. After rising to fame from YouTube, Michelle is now a Lancôme representative, has done makeup for 2010's Fashion Week, and has appeared in multiple media articles, including Seventeen, Vogue, and Forbes. [1] Phan's successes also include the three companies that she helped started: FAWN Inc. (For All Women Network), Ipsy and IQQU along with her personal jewelry line, Ever Eden. Other top beauty gurus include Elle and Blair Fowler (allthatglitters21 and juicystar07 respectively), who have their own cellphone accessory line through Cellaris, book deals, and an online store. They were also recently nominated for the "2011 Teen Choice Awards" as the "Choice Web Star" but lost to Rebecca Black [2]. All of the top gurus state YouTube and the community as being the stepping-stone to launch their careers. [3]
Company endorsement does not always have a positive impact on the trust consumers place in a guru's recommendations. Studies have shown that when people are paid and/or given products to promote, fewer people view their videos. Subscribers make the assumption that the guru's recommendations will be altered by the guru's personal incentives.
Video Types
Topics vary between gurus, but these are a few types of common videos.
Hauls
A haul video is a video that shows the most recent purchases of a guru at a particular store (sometimes from multiple stores). Products range from drugstore purchases to boutique purchases of many things including makeup, clothing, and grocery store food. The video-bloggers (vloggers) will hold up their purchases and elaborate on the details of each item. Haul videos can be made every time a guru makes a purchase, or often times they are made weekly or monthly. The concept of hauling took of in the United States, but this phenomenon has recently spread all over the world and is especially popular with British teens. Many haulers strive to have as many viewers as possible, and occasionally their videos become so popular that beauty companies begin to send them free products to expose to their follower base. [4]
Hauls have become widely recognized and increasingly marketable, with more than 159,000 posted as of 2010. Retail companies support the influence of these videos; they consider them to be free promotion. Companies such as JCPenney and Forever 21 have hosted haul video contests where entry videos show how they would style the company’s clothes and create fashionable ensembles. Judged by the company, other peers, or a panel of stylists, winners of these contests can win thousands of dollars.[5]
Product Reviews
A product review video is done after a guru has used the product for a period of time and describes its use, value, and his or her overall satisfaction with a product. Typically, a guru will discuss particularly good and bad features of the product. At the end of the video, the guru will say whether or not he or she recommends the product to viewers, as well as put links in the description bar of the video to direct viewers to locations where the product is sold.
Tag Videos
Tag videos vary across different themes, but are a set of questions that one answers in a video and then selects her friends to answer the same questions. The most popular tag in the beauty community is “What’s in my purse?” where gurus display the contents of their bags and give any tips as to what items to carry or how to organize their bag. Other tags include “monthly favorites” where gurus display their most used and preferred products of the month as well as “products I regret buying” which gurus showcase products not worth the purchase as a way of warning their subscribers.
Make-up Tutorials
Make-up tutorials are videos in which the beauty gurus teach you how to create a specific look. For example, a natural-look make-up tutorial would teach you how to use different make-up products and different techniques to create a natural look. In the video, they would usually go through the whole process step-by-step. While they are teaching, the beauty gurus would usually inform the audiences what brand of make-up and accessories that they are using. They may also provide links and store locations of where the users can obtain these products. Topics of make-up tutorials vary a lot, typical ones include smoky-eye tutorial, clubbing make-up tutorial, Halloween make-up tutorial and more. Some of the other popular ones out there include tutorials that teach you how to do make up in 5 minutes or make up tutorials that are specifically designed for a season or holiday.
Home Remedies
Home remedies are videos in which the beauty gurus suggest solutions to solve different health problems using commodities that can easily be found at your house. These videos are very similar to the D.I.Y (Do It Yourself) videos. Some of the most popular ones include home remedies for acne, acne-scars, hair-growth, dark-circles, dry-lips, blackheads and etc. In these videos, the beauty gurus would usually start off with stating what the health problem is and why it exists. They then continue to talk about what common items can be used to treat those problems. Some of the popular common items that the beauty gurus suggest viewers to use include fruits, yogurt, sugar, milk, honey and other common goods that can be easily found in your household.
Ethical Concerns
Transparency
The lack of transparency on the relations between the gurus and the industry has caused some issues due to dishonesty. Before a FTC ruling in 2010, beauty gurus and bloggers did not have to disclose to their viewers that they were being compensated for a product review or being sent free products by a company. Viewers express discontent when many reviews from unknown companies are uploaded at the same time. Gurus experienced decreases in their trust from viewers, with many receiving vehement backlash. Viewers expected to be honest reviews from peers, but found traces of commercialism within their videos.
FTC Compliance
Today, under FTC law “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.” If a blogger is caught not disclosing this information they will face a fine of $11,000.[6] The new FTC rule attempted to increase the level of transparency between the vloggers and their viewers as a way to decrease deceptive and unfair practices. However, due to little enforcement, the beauty community is still very ambiguous about their product affiliations. Level of compliance can range from gurus clearly stating their ties with the company such as what they were given, and if they are being paid or may leave a simple sentence such as “I am being paid for this review. All thoughts are my own.”
Trust
Distrust between viewers and the beauty community has expanded to the companies as well, especially after an incident with beauty guru Teresa Ulrich (juicytuesday) and online retailer HotMiamiStyles.com.
juicytuesday
In April of 2010, Ulrich gave a review of clothes she was sent for free by the company. Although the company asked her for only positive reviews, Ulrich gave an honest review stating, “My loyalty is to my subscribers… this [dress] is very awkward. It’s bad. I would wash my car with this.” Within twelve hours and 5,000 views, a HotMiamiStyles representative emailed Ulrich asking her to take her video down due to a drastic decrease in sales. This decrease in sales caused the company to fire two employees who “have babies to feed.”[7] Ulrich argued that her video alone could not cause such a drastic decrease in that short amount of time. Subscribers were thankful and appreciated Ulrich’s video proclaiming their general distrust of the company due to the only raving reviews from all the other videos.
See Also
References
- ↑ "About - Michelle Phan". michellephan.com.
- ↑ "OMG! We're Nominated for the Teen Choice Awards". Elle and Blair.
- ↑ Boudreau, A. & Singh, N. (May 31, 2011). "Shop-And-Tell: 'Haul Videos' Turn Shopping Sprees Into Potential Profits". ABC News
- ↑ Stocks, J. (August 31, 2011)."Showing Fashion Hauls Thousands Strangers Online Shopaholics Young as TWELVE." Daily Mail.
- ↑ Schaefer, S. (August 19, 2011). "Translating Tech-Savvy Students’ Opinions into Valuable Marketing". MBS Textbook Exchange.
- ↑ Ostrow, Adam. (October 5, 2009). "FTC to Fine Bloggers up to $11,000 for Not Disclosing Payments". Mashable.
- ↑ juicytuesday. "The truth behind 'HOTMIAMISTYLES'". Youtube.
