Luxury brands like YSL, Tom Ford, and Dior have gotten into high-end beauty products like blush, lipstick, and fragrance to expose consumers to their brands with more affordable price points. And drugstore brands are fighting back with similar but cheaper products as well as marketing that calls out competitors’ high prices.
Drugstore brands such as e.l.f. Cosmetics, Maybelline New York, and MCoBeauty have developed formulas similar to those of more expensive brands. These brands are also increasingly running marketing to show consumers how these products work just as well as high-end options.
While the drugstore brands don’t call out their competitors by name, their packaging and marketing positions themselves as alternatives to more expensive brands.
MCoBeauty, for example, recently ran a social campaign where beauty creator Sofia Divene dressed similar to singer Sabrina Carpenter while handing out mascara on the streets of New York. MCoBeauty referred to its product as a “dupe” in the post.
