Jet-setting off on a brand trip to an exotic locale has historically been an activity reserved for those with seven-figure follower counts. Nowadays, though, it seems any number will do.

A growing number of brands are adding regular customers to the guest lists of adventures to desirable destinations like Mallorca or Bora Bora, including influencer-founded beauty label Refy, skincare brand Topicals and cosmetics label Tarte, which developed a reputation online for its extravagant influencer trips. The term “community trip” has begun to pop up in place of “influencer trip” as brands bring a democratised aspect to events that once thrived on being exclusive.

Previously functioning as a setting for aspirational content to inspire purchases, the influencer trip began to have its drawbacks in recent years. As resentment over the perceived privilege of social media’s elite has grown, trips such as Tarte’s events in Dubai and Bora Bora began attracting backlash over the extremely lavish perks that came along with them, from flying business class to five-star hotel rooms stocked with clothes, beauty products and other gifts.

Now, brands are hoping that by inviting customers in to be a part of the experience, they’ll be able to not only avoid some of that negative attention, but also engage with their wider audience, increase user-generated content and create what marketers call “immeasurable” positive brand sentiment for customer retention. And while the average customer likely won’t generate the same sort of earned media or sales impact an influencer would, it brings different benefits, too.

“There’s always a lot of pushback on influencers. In a time where people don’t feel like they have a ton of money and there’s a recession happening, seeing people go on a trip and not having access to that doesn’t necessarily feel good,” said Natalie Holmes, the director of community and social impact at Topicals, which described a recent brand trip to France as a “community trip” with a combination of influencers and regular customers. The brand also recently brought customers on a trip to the Hamptons, and plans to continue to do so on all upcoming trips.

For Topicals, bringing customers on trips is a “‘need to have’, not a ‘nice to have,’” said Holmes.

Keeping Aspiration Alive

Influencer trips first emerged in the 2010s as an aspirational marketing tool. Attendees would take to social media to show off aesthetically pleasing photos of their luxury hotel rooms stocked with free beauty products and clothes, as well as the parties, dinners, spa treatments and workout classes they’d attend while they were there. Customers’ place was at home, attending vicariously through their phone screens.

But recently, online audiences — dealing with inflation and an increased cost of living — are less receptive to the conspicuous consumption the trips often put on display. It was something of an evolution to the backlash that began in the early days of the pandemic, when users accused influencers like Arielle Charnas of privileged or out-of-touch behaviour, travelling or receiving Covid-19 tests when they were still in short supply. When travel finally resumed, extravagant influencer trips were the next target of online ire. On TikTok, some commenters questioned why Tarte couldn’t bring essential workers like teachers or nurses on their trips instead of high-profile influencers like Alix Earle. Some brands began to tone down their trips as a result.

People “don’t want to necessarily be doing their mindless scrolling and be reminded, ‘Oh yeah, I can’t afford a trip to XYZ place’” said Halie Soprano, senior influencer marketing consultant at influencer marketing platform Traackr.

In 2023, Tarte began bringing regular customers on its “Trippin With Tarte” events – after receiving backlash for its Bora Bora trip, the brand pointed out that two of the attendees were customers who had won a contest to attend. A July 2023 visit to New York City brought 13 contest winners and their guests, as well as influencers, to a Beyoncé concert. Tarte founder and CEO Maureen Kelly said that they didn’t make the shift because of the backlash, but instead after receiving feedback from customers asking to come on the trips.

Community trips preserve all the trappings of an influencer trip – fabulous destinations and free stuff included — but remove some of the exclusivity that comes when it’s only mega influencers that are invited.

In late July, influencer Jess Hunt’s beauty label Refy hosted its first-ever brand trip in the format of a community trip, bringing a mix of micro-influencers and customers to an Instagram-ready villa in Mallorca, Spain. The brand stocked their rooms with free products and clothes, and took them to activities such as a natural wine bar and sound bath with Hunt over the weekend.

“We wanted it to be aspirational, understated. We’re not a garish brand anyway, but the villa wasn’t overly branded,” said Refy’s brand experience and PR manager James McKeown, who organised the trip.

Everyone’s an Influencer

While audiences have taken to questioning whether influencers deserve to be jet-setting to luxurious destinations, countless brands have determined over the years that the expense of the traditional influencer trip delivers a worthwhile return in earned media value, engagement, brand awareness and eventual sales.

With community trips, ROI is calculated differently in terms of both tangible results and sentiment. While the attendees don’t have the follower numbers to gain visibility for the brand, pre-event hype among a brand’s audience can be just as valuable. Benefit Cosmetics’ former digital director Lauren Spearman said in a recent viral TikTok video that a 2019 Benefit community trip had stronger engagement and positive sentiment than a separate luxurious influencer trip the brand held in the Maldives, which she said “completely alienated our customer.”

Brands are also bringing customers along for the planning process. Ahead of Refy’s Spain trip, it allowed followers on its Instagram broadcast channel to vote on the destination before opening up an application to attend that received over 4,000 applicants. Posts about the trip helped drive a 250 percent in its broadcast channel membership and earned a reach of 6 million views in three days. Topicals, meanwhile, asked people to share videos about why they wanted to attend the trip on social media.

Sentiment is another key reason to include customers on these trips, as regular peoples’ opinions on brands – both positive and negative – spread like wildfire on TikTok.

“The impact that it has for the company, and being a type of company that brings their customers, their loyal fans, to the trip, is actually kind of immeasurable,” said Holmes. “It’s brand loyalty, and it deepens that relationship and ultimately leads to customer retention.”

But given that only a tiny handful of customers will ever get to experience the trips, brands are working on creative ways to bring influencer trip elements to the masses. Tarte is currently doing a 25-city tour with a trolley that gives out free gift bags of full-size products to the first 500 attendees; it has given out $1.5 million in products so far. Topicals, meanwhile, hosts events such as pickleball and line dancing classes in US cities. And Refy held a promotion where it offered free glam sessions and photos to fans, photographing over 1,000 people in Los Angeles.

In the future, it appears likely that both influencers and customers will continue to get to experience trips, as both have their specific place in the influencer marketing ecosystem. Earlier this month, Topicals opened up applications for its next community trip, asking customers to create a 60-second TikTok or Instagram Reels video for the chance to receive a spot. And Tarte is not giving up on its Trippin With Tarte series.

“Like anything on social media, there are some outspoken voices that have strong feelings one way, but for every voice in one direction, there’s 10 times in another direction. And I see people being so happy for these influencers,” said Kelly.

But from now on, Kelly promises that customers will always be part of the equation.

“We will definitely always bring customers on to our Trippin With Tarte. We listened, we heard the feedback, and it was super successful, and we will do it forever more,” she said.

Unilever may be looking to slim its skincare portfolio.

On Sunday, Sky News reported that Unilever has hired advisers from Pricewaterhousecoopers to explore a sale of Kate Somerville, a facialist-founded line popular with celebrities. It’s also reportedly considering disposing of Ren Clean Skincare, a skincare line that targets sensitive skin. It acquired both brands in 2015, and houses them under the Unilever Prestige division.

In June, the division’s founding chief executive officer, Vasiliki Petrou, announced her departure to launch her own investment fund. A successor has not yet been named.

Under her tenure, which began in 2014, the company acquired 10 brands, including hair care line K18 in December 2023. On July 1., the chief executive officer of Ren Clean Skincare, Michelle Brett, stepped down from her post without a successor named.

The skincare market has seen increasing saturation, as affordable lines such as Cerave and The Ordinary have grown rapidly, while premium lines like Augustinus Bader and Eighth Day have created buzz with wealthier shoppers, leading to something of a squeezed middle for premium brands.

In its second-quarter earnings in June, Unilever noted softer growth in its prestige beauty unit.

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Unilever Prestige CEO Vasiliki Petrou to Step Down

The executive is leaving the beauty conglomerate to launch her own investment fund.

This past February, the world of surprisingly affordable cashmere was rocked by a scandal.

In a series of TikTok posts, cashmere label Naadam blasted rival Quince, which sells unbranded basics like sweaters and button-downs, over social media ads that claimed its $50 sweaters were comparable, if not better, quality than Naadam’s $100 options.

“We’ve seen this brand, Quince, use our name in their marketing. I don’t know if it’s illegal, but I know that it is strange,” Naadam co-founder and chief executive Matt Scanlan told Glossy in February. “It does cross a line.”

Competitors may not love Quince’s nearly ostentatious marketing tactics, but it seems they’re working. In 2023, the five-year-old start-up’s annual sales tripled to around $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter. This year, it aims to triple sales again, this time to $1 billion, the people said.

The company’s ubiquitous social media ads have helped, but a big reason Quince has managed to break through is that it’s one of a handful of retail start-ups still courting middle-class shoppers at a time when many of the most successful retailers are laser-focused on catering to the 1 percent or offering rock bottom prices.

Brands like Quince and Italic, which also sells relatively affordable, unbranded basics, have taken the fast-fashion playbook of copying luxury aesthetics but promising customers a quality they won’t find at Shein or Temu. While that promise comes with a higher price tag, it still reads as a bargain to some shoppers, particularly those who can no longer afford the real thing. Italic, which launched in 2018, sells a $170 Mongolian cashmere sweater made in the same factories producing similar-looking garments that cost upwards of $2,000 at Brunello Cucinelli. As luxury brands have raised prices to attract wealthier consumers, more shoppers are seeking dupes without the stigma that comes with Shein hauls.

Critics say these start-ups lack their own defining aesthetic, and are dependent on ad blitzes to draw customers. The dupe trend’s longevity is also up for debate; consumers may shell out again for the real thing when they’re feeling more financially secure. Still, brands struggling to compete with fast fashion can glean lessons from the ways that Quince and Italic make the case that their brand is worth it, whatever form that takes.

“How big can a brand get without having a really defined brand identity? Conventional wisdom would say that a strong brand identity and strong storytelling is really important,” said James Nord, founder and chief executive of influencer marketing agency Fohr. “But the world is changing so quickly that that may no longer be the case. Maybe you don’t need to really tell a brand story. You just need to be really clear in your value prop and nail that.”

Revising an Old Playbook

There’s nothing particularly innovative about Quince’s marketing; brands have always sought a leg up by claiming superior quality, better prices, or both. Duplicating a better-known brand’s products is nothing new, either.

Where Quince and Italic take the formula a step further is by building their brands around that “same, but cheaper” pitch. Both sell elevated basics made in the same factories as higher-end competitors. Quince even scrapes other brands’ websites — including Aritzia and Everlane — to identify and duplicate their most viewed and purchased products, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“Folks believe they’re getting a phenomenal product [and] they know they’re not having to break their bank to do it,” said Vic Drabicky, founder of media agency and consultancy January Digital.

No matter the quality, industry insiders say Quince’s growth likely wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for its heavy spending on social media ads. Quince has raised over $100 million from serial e-commerce investors — including GGV Capital and Insight Partners — that typically give brands money to chase growth through paid ads.

“Quince’s real superpower is performance marketing,” said Brian Sugar, founder and managing partner of Sugar Capital, who has invested in Everlane, Olive & June and Savage X Fenty. “I’d imagine they could use that superpower on other categories if they chose to.”

But start-ups today can’t inundate consumers with social media ads to grow sales without clearly communicating the value of their products. The concept of “same factory, better price” can create high expectations for consumers: Product reviews on forums like Reddit are decidedly mixed on whether Quince’s materials are as good as they claim.

The stakes are high to keep consumers coming back for moderately priced brands, which tend to have thinner margins and less room to invest in brand marketing with little impact on their sales in the short-term, Drabicky said. Once a customer buys and likes the product, they’re more likely to spread the word about the brand to other people who will then click on its ads. Quince’s earned media value – a measure of social media buzz — jumped more than 300 percent from June 2023 to May 2024 as more creators on social media talked about the brand in non-sponsored posts, according to data from influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ.

“Whether people like that [price] comparison or not, what it does is it frames the conversation for the consumer,” Drabicky added.

Making It Last

Brands that are buoyed by a tough economy risk short-lived success if they’re unable to retain those customers long-term. That requires more than offering good prices.

Retention is one of Italic’s biggest priorities. The company has a monthly subscription model, where consumers pay $60 a year for benefits like exclusive product drops, discounts and free shipping. It now has more than 10,000 members and generates over 50 percent of its sales, on average, from repeat customers, Jeremy Cai, founder and chief executive at Italic, told The Business of Fashion in June.

Italic’s wide range of product categories also drives retention. In addition to sweaters, the company sells homeware — from $40 sateen pillowcases to $120 chef knives — which now accounts for 60 percent of total sales, said Avi Arora, Italic’s head of growth and marketing. When categories outside of the core offering perform well, it’s a sign that consumers trust the brand, Drabicky said. Italic expects to end the year with net profits and sales up 50 percent.

“It’s up to us to bring some uniqueness to our customers and give them both an experience and a product that they truly resonate and fall in love with … and use that to build our brand up” Arora said.

Brands with established names have found ways to pitch their values to price sensitive customers without relying on exact dupes from other brands. Mall stalwart Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, shedded its exclusionary reputation to become a destination for affordable and trendy styles. In May, the company said it expects full-year sales to jump 10 percent year over year to $4.7 billion, up from the previously expected 6 percent increase.

But the success of companies like Quince and Italic shows that start-ups today are still capable of disrupting the market if they can convince consumers why they should choose them over competitors.

“A lot of consumer brands got a bit lazy and stopped really thinking about the customer,” Fohr’s Nord said. This is “a call to rethink how they are telling their story and also the kinds of products that they’re making and their pricing strategy.”