The skincare crisis: When beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

Oftentimes, any brand can get into a crisis from mishandling and misreading the situation. However, in the case of Obagi and Paula’s Choice last week, Paula’s Choice has shot themselves in the foot by an avoidable mistake.

The recent rivalry between Obagi and Paula’s Choice, popular skincare brands, has turned the beauty community up. Both brands have been in indirect competition for the best salicylic acid formulated liquid product for years in Vietnam. The Vietnamese consumers were all familiar with the two and usually inter-used them for their skin regime. They openly discussed their experience on Facebook, within beauty groups, on YouTube, and in blog posts. The search for a better chemical exfoliant seems to never end.

But just when we thought there wouldn’t be any major heads-to-heads in the frontline, Paula’s Choice decided to step up their game and used the comparative advertising strategy to mock their foe publicly. This action soon became Paula’s-Worst-Choice ever.

Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant

Obagi Pore Therapy Salicylic Acid 2%

At noon on May 19th, Paula’s Choice Vietnam posted on its Facebook page "Did you know BHA alcohol-based products increase skin irritation up to 90%" and attached an image comparing itself with a silhouette of the "You-Know-Who" brand.

Paula’s Choice caption went into detail about the potential risk of breakout with dry alcohol-based products while giving out quality acclaim for their fatty alcohol-based exfoliant. Within only 24 hours, the page saw unprecedented interactions with over 9K reactions, 8K comments, and 3K shares (their other non-ad posts only topped at 20 reactions).

However, the odds were not in their favor this time. The post was bombarded with critical comments, many of which were from Obagi’s disgruntled consumers. Their message was variously described as a "dirty move," an "ungrateful failure of PR," and some even went so far as to accuse their products of causing skin irritation, forcing them to switch to their rival Obagi.Many even claimed they would never use Paula’s Choice ever again upon reading this post. There was total distrust and devalued attitudes towards the brand.

It did not take long for Obagi to hit back. In fact, it took them only one day to come up with a simple yet effective announcement. They explained that the products were intended for oily and problematic skin types and implied that dry alcohol was needed to break through the epidermis for these skin types. They also mentioned other supplement ingredients which nurtured and cleared out pores, all of which contributed to the number one spot in sales for BHA products.

Predictably, this long-awaited message won over hearts. It wound up with an aggregation of 12K reactions, 3,5K comments, and 1,5K shares. People praised the message as "classy" and "elegantly written". Not a single condescending comment was spotted.

Upon firing backlash from the consumers, Paula’s Choice ended up deleting the post and making another response, which was rapid and matter-of-fact. The brand was affirmative about their quality and showed concerns about the dry alcohol ingredient, which could potentially risk the healthy balance of the skin. It seemed like the lesson had been learned. The brand made no comments about Obagi or the unfortunate event. Although there were unhappy consumers who were still grumpy about Paula’s Choice’s response, the fire has been extinguished and everyone has moved on.

In fact, comparative advertising is no stranger to Vietnamese consumers. Before this, we have seen the rivalry between Omo and Tide in the detergent segment, Grab vs Gojek vs Baemin in the food delivery market, Milo and Ovaltine in the nourishing milk market, and the list goes on.

Ariel advertisement with blocked out Omo package

Billboard ads capturing Baemin (left) and Gojek (right)’s feud

Baemin (left): I would check in Baemin to get whatever you want

Gojek (right): Anything’s good if it’s Gojek

Billboard ads from Milo (left) and Ovaltine (right)

Milo (left): The champion from Milo

Ovaltine (right): Be whoever you want to be, champion is not necessary

Much as we enjoy the war campaigns, we find the majority of consumers inevitably grimace at Paula’s Choice post. Why is this so?

Understanding your audience and their pains

I wondered if Paula’s Choice was testing water about its share of the market, but obviously their brand sentiment was not as good as they thought. Given a high probability of truth in PC’s testification, they did not realize a simple fact: Obagi worked like magic to many consumers, and they knew well about Obagi’s potential risk. Therefore, the consumers who loved and adored Obagi were not favorable to such degraded content, and they could not tolerate the smashing of their beloved brand.

What’s more, many consumers reported they got irritated with PC, and these counter-criticisms drained PC’s pride at stake when flooding accusations came up. It turned out that PC had overestimated their power. The reign had been bolted and there was no way for PC to turn the tables.

Crafting the right message

Upholding the brand value is a basic yet essential principle in the brand building process. A little derailed experience could drive away years of effort and send off your hard-earned customers overnight. What PC presented in their message was nothing but fact, but their chosen tactic of delivery, including tone and visual, seemed to have backfired. Rather than seeking flaws in the competitors’ product, PC could have given a shot at looking into the limitations of their own product and finding why it could not solve the problems of the majority.

The same tactic could be applied if they were to launch a new product with a new formula that had been proven to work wonders for skin. Else, nothing seemed to fix the damage.

Final thoughts

The issue showed how important it was to know your brand value, brand love and measure the audience sentiment towards your brand and the competitor's. Being unaware of how you are perceived could lead to a fatal mistake, and on social media, where badmouthing spreads like wildfire, there is nothing more dangerous than taking a single wrong step.