Soyoung Kang didn’t have a big marketing or media background when she was hired as chief marketing officer of skin care and beauty brand Eos five years ago. What she did have was a successful track record in retail for brands like Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.
Nonetheless, Eos gave Kang the marketing keys to the company, and she essentially learned on the job. Since then, she has taken a small challenger brand that had one key product—a colorful, spherical lip balm—and has grown it into a company that now features a full line of skin care, beauty and shave products that is a huge hit with younger generations.
Kang and the Eos team made their mark through taking chances on new, largely social marketing techniques, which led to smart efforts that stemmed from talking directly to the brand’s customers and showing up big on social media, most notably TikTok.
Most of Eos’ core marketing efforts live on social, where Kang spends a great deal of time connecting with consumers. It’s a strategy that keeps Eos constantly evolving—listening to consumers and designing products and marketing efforts that come from those online conversations.
The connection to the consumer came from Kang’s years in retail, when she was physically in front of the customer. “I literally put on an apron and sold product to people and got their feedback,” said Kang, who took that respect for the customer to Eos.
Kang hears directly from her young consumers by going deep into the comments on all social media platforms, where Eos has more than 9 million followers combined, and speaking in their language. “We’re having many small conversations on TikTok instead of one single mega conversation, but it’s been driving our business in a significant way,” she said.
She also made the wise decision to hire Mischief @ No Fixed Address, which has helped the brand lead through creativity. The agency has created several notable campaigns for the company, including turning a TikTok fan post into an actual product called Bless Your F*ing Cooch shave cream.
If you’re not looking for ways to cut through the clutter through creativity, through experimentation, through risk-taking, then you’re probably not going to make it.
Soyoung Kang
Meanwhile, Eos continues evolving and diversifying its product portfolio, growing its body care line and venturing into men’s shave products earlier this year, which Kang said keeps Eos a challenger brand, even though it’s grown. That, in turn, inspires the team to continually look for new ways to make a splash and disrupt the category, which is key since the brand’s targeted consumer is Gen Z, a segment that is notoriously attuned to ignoring marketing efforts.
“If you’re not looking for ways to cut through the clutter through creativity, through experimentation, through risk-taking, then you’re probably not going to make it because you have to really think entrepreneurially when you’re a challenger brand,” said Kang.
Eos and Kang’s efforts have resulted in rapid growth for the brand—which has seen more than three consecutive years of revenue and market share growth, and double-digit growth over the last seven quarters—and more importantly has positioned Eos as a go-to company for a diverse array of younger consumers.
Because Eos is a relatively small company, Kang sees all the data and has noticed that marketing initiatives from Eos such as leaning into a diverse creator marketing strategy have led to over-indexing on brand metrics and over-indexing with diverse purchasers.
“Seeing that connectivity has been awesome,” said Kang, “because it really gives us a high degree of confidence that our strategies are really working, and that good strategies actually can lead to good business.”
This story is part of Adweek’s Brand Genius 2023 honors, recognizing the top marketers who have delivered long-term success for some of the world’s leading brands.
This story first appeared in the July 2023 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.
