Benefit is planning to introduce a new customer to its playful millennial-pink lifestyle with a new home goods collection in collaboration with Pottery Barn’s PBteen line.
Launched Thursday online, the 20-piece collection includes beauty organizers, a toiletry and duffle bag, a Benefit carry-on suitcase stuffed with products and more.
As the broader retail and beauty industries rapidly evolve, brands are looking for additional ways to remain relevant, while simultaneously building an offline lifestyle for customers. Benefit specifically is looking at its partnership with PBteen as a way to test what other lifestyle areas it can expand to, in addition to introducing itself to the Gen-Z customers who have yet to engage with the 40-year-old brand.
“This is a real test bed for us. We have spent 40 years on this brand, so now we are asking [ourselves] how we can extend it further and anchor our storytelling,” said Susan Kim, svp of U.S. marketing for Benefit Cosmetics. “How do we make sure our consumer and Gen-Z girl, who didn’t grow up with us, gets to know us?”
Overall, home decor and furnishings have proved a popular way to reach customers where they are: in their home. For example, brands like Goop, Dolce & Gabbana and Lily Pulitzer have launched their own furniture lines, relying on the lifestyles they portray online and notable aesthetics to further enhance their brand. Retailers like Walmart, Moda Operandi, Urban Outfitters and Target have also taken notice of the interest in home furnishings, and have recently begun offering more within the retail category. Overall, retail e-commerce sales of furniture and home furnishings grew 16 percent in 2017 to reach $35.95 billion, and will total $62.36 billion by 2021, according to eMarketer.
It is the offline component of building a lifestyle that is of particular interest to Benefit, because of the 24/7 engagement a brand earns. Although the brand would not disclose its monetary projections for the collections, Kim said there were “high expectations” for performance, in part because it allows the brand to determine what resonates with customers.
“Offline is still going to be a real experience for us and a big component of our marketing,” she said. “Online is important because that’s where our girl is, but being offline and having that sensorial and tactile experience with the consumer is very important.”
