We’re experiencing a deficit in joyfulness; 85 percent of people wish they felt a high level of joy in their lives, but only 58 percent report feeling that way. Ulta Beauty’s mission is to bring joy to millions of people, so they developed The Joy Project and enlisted the help of motivational speaker and podcast host Mel Robbins to empower customers and their workforce of 53,000 to embrace and experience joy.
Join Shelley and Michelle Crossan-Matos, Chief Marketing Officer of Ulta Beauty as they discuss how Ulta Beauty has prompted a national conversation about the barriers to joy and how to overcome them. Their discussion reveals how the program can transform a negative, self-criticism conversation into a supportive, connected community.
Special Guests
Michelle Crossan-Matos: Chief Marketing Officer, Ulta Beauty
Transcript
*Transcript by Descript
So start there as the most authentic place. Our associates identified the challenge. They are the face of our company to our guests. So let’s empower them to be the face of joy and to spread joy. And I’ll tell you now, Shelley, this movement, it’s infused its way into our corporate culture. Retail Unwrapped is a weekly podcast hosted by Robin Lewis and Shelley Kohan from The Robin Report.
Each episode dives into the latest trends and developments in the retail industry. Join them as they discuss interesting topics and interview industry leaders, keeping you in the loop with everything retail. Hi everybody and thanks for joining our weekly podcast. I’m Shelley Kohan and I am very excited today to welcome Michelle Crossan-Matos, Chief Marketing Officer of Ulta Beauty.
And today we are going to take a deep dive into a program that actually you developed early on in your CML role. And I am thrilled to have you on Retail Unwrapped. Oh, thank you, Shelley, for having me. I’m so thrilled to be here. And I’m particularly very excited to talk about Ulta Beauty’s Joy Movement.
I’m so excited too. But before we jump into that, because you have lots of very interesting information to share with us about the project. I think it would be really interesting for our listeners to hear about your background, because I happen to find your background super interesting. And maybe tell us how you actually landed at Ulta Beauty.
Yeah. So, it’s a long story, but it always started with beauty. That’s the irony of also beauty has always been my first love. Sorry, husband, and it really started out my previous experience at P&G. So I started out in beauty care is early in my early twenties. A nd this is where actually ironically, not in marketing, but when I used to work in IT and I rolled out SAP and our beauty care plants in Europe.
Can you believe it? Wow. That’s unbelievable. We started in the nuts and bolts of a beauty care business. I then swiftly moved on and actually did joint marketing and I became an assistant brand manager in P&G. And I worked in our master’s program beauty care part of the business. And then over time, I then also moved into our prestige business where we oversaw a number of brands.
In particular, we worked on prestige fragrance brands like Hugo Boss, Gucci and Dolce Gabbana. Um, so I had an amazing, amazing time there where I got to work on multiple categories, skincare, cosmetics, and fragrances. But at some point, you know, I then transitioned P&G. And I became the CMR of virtue. Now, for those who don’t know, virtue was a British manufacturer and retailer of luxury mobile phones.
Fascinating for me, because I was coming from a prestige and luxury part of beauty care, and it was a transferable skill and taking it over into tech. And after that, I then moved over to Samsung Electronics, and actually, that’s when I became the lead for strategy and transformation, and over the years, I assumed more responsibilities like innovation, product innovation, and later I was the chief marketing, citizenship, and communications officer.
So I know it sounds like, you know, quite a departure. Tech from beauty care, but I will tell you, there was something that there was always this red thread coming through, and that was this desire really to understand the category and how it could make the world a better place. So, for me, beauty, and we’ll talk about this later, joy in the role that it has, but then tech for us making tech accessible.
for all generations. It was really an exciting place for me to be. So now I’m back in beauty. I’m so excited to be back here because it has always played an important part of my life. Especially when I talk about joy and happiness, you’ll see how. That’s inherent to my personality. I also have two young kids and one of them is a 13 year old daughter.
So this is very personal for me as I work in the beauty care industry, I’ve always, always understood that there’s a responsibility that you have when you work for the number one specialty beauty retailer in the States. But now also I’m representing all those other parents out there that are really, really focused on developing healthy relationships for their children with beauty.
And it really inspires me. And that’s why I’m so excited I have this opportunity to, to do that. And also, at the same time, spread joy to millions and millions of guests that we serve every day at Ulta Beauty. That’s amazing. It’s almost as if you’re coming home, coming back to the beauty where you started, right?
It totally feels like I’m coming home. It is amazing how as of day one, being enrolled, and I was out of beauty more eight, 10 years, it just all came back real quickly. It was a beautiful and joyful moment. That’s awesome. So last year when we actually met, it was right at the launch of the joy project.
And I was actually. Really impressed with you because when I interviewed you, you talked to me about how you spent so much of your first few months in the role, actually in stores, talking to associates and talking to customers. And you also talked a little bit about what you learned from that. So I think it would be great if you could share what did you learn when you were out there talking to associates?
Yeah, well, we’ve always said, and it was very true for me, passion point, that whatever we did would be an inside out initiative. And our store associates for me and for our entire marketing organization, probably we consider them our biggest influencers as, you know, when they speak, we listen because they really do have that personal relationship with guests daily.
And, and I think as leaders who listen. We really gleaned the best insights because we’re listening with an open heart and empathy. And our guests and our associates are interacting with our guests. They’re also listening with a big open heart and empathy. And that’s when actually the joy project was born.
So we visited a number of stores. You know, it’s a long story, but I’ll cut it short. We visited a number of stores, and there was a reoccurring theme that I kept hearing, and it was this growing concern that our associates had because shoppers and our guests were struggling with a couple of things. And when we were digging deeper, it was really about Self image and confidence.
And when you’re in the beauty industry, those two issues are real issues that you really want to address. So when we were listening to this, kind of like there were like warning signals basically from the associates. We’re like, we got to learn a little bit more about this. And so we conducted a deeper dive into this issue and we commissioned a joy study, which was really to help us understand, you know, how are adults and teenagers really feeling about their confidence and self image and how is it related to joy?
Now, this 100 person study. Actually, it was very robust. We surveyed. Over 5, 000 adults and teenagers, and we asked them a series of questions. And, um, and it really, really was quite eye opening some of the results. Now, a majority of the people that we, we were meeting and that we actually conducted this study against, they truly, truly believed that joy should be accessible and attainable for all.
However, this joy study, what it really confirmed is that that is not the case. In fact, um, that actually there is a gap of what people desire on what people are actually feeling. And so with this joy study, it really gave us here at Ulta Beauty, this unique opportunity to understand what’s the role that we play in the beauty industry and what can we uniquely add value and help shoppers and guests.
So with that, you know, we created this joy project mission and more specifically, we created a roadmap to combat these barriers that were emerging through the joy study so that we could help consumers experience more joy in their everyday lives. Fundamentally, that’s what beauty care is all about.
Absolutely. And I love the fact that you really address the confidence because the confidence is so important, especially with shoppers in a beauty environment. So I know that, uh, you did this study and then you have lots of data that you’re going to share with us about the study. And you also enlisted the help of Mel Robbins, who’s a motivational speaker.
And she’s also an awesome podcaster. And you put together a toolkit of joy. So can you tell us about what you learned from the data and maybe a little bit about Mel Robbins role? Yeah, definitely. Right. So let’s go back to the point I just mentioned that there’s a gap and there’s a gap in people’s desire for joy and feeling joy.
So specifically what we learned was that 85 percent of people in this study wish they felt a high level of joy in their lives. 85 percent but only 58 percent of people report feeling that way. So big gap. So we asked the why. And what we learned is that, um, the majority of people would report that negative self talk, that inner critic, that little voice in your head is the key obstacle that hinders people to access their joy.
So 91 percent of the people, and by the way for teenagers is 93%, they rate the effect of self talk on their ability to experience joy to be very impactful. So that is kind of like, if you think about there’s a gap and the why is this inner critic, this inner critic saying. You’re too young. You’re too old.
You’re not experienced enough. You’re, you don’t have the right body shape. So this is some of the things that we were learning there, but there was also something that, um, made me quite worried. And it was this, this aspect that not recognizing self talk. So we know that negative, negative self talk that inner critic is quite prevalent.
We know that, but it doesn’t always register with everyone. 67 percent of people say that their negative self talk is so common and natural, they don’t even recognize it. That’s terrific. That’s amazing, right? And the most impacted people were the youngest ones. Young people are the most unaware with 74 percent of Gen Z not realizing when they’re engaging in negative self talk.
I find that heartbreaking. And quite frankly, Gen Z is the least equipped to overcome their self talk. I mean, think about it. They haven’t had that wealth of life experience that, um, some of us have had to draw strength and learnings from. In fact, they would report, 65 percent of the Gen Z would say they’re lacking the tools and the relationships and the resources to really enjoy.
And maintain joy. And that was quite a difference versus Gen Pop because if you think about it, 65 percent of Gen Z are saying they don’t have the tools. 54 percent of Gen Pop are saying that. So we know that Gen Z and the younger ones were needing this more than ever. So that’s why we went to Mel Robbins.
Everyone loves Mel Robbins and Mel Robbins just was the perfect fit for us. And of course, you mentioned that she’s the host of the Mel Robbins podcast. She’s a bestseller author. Um, for me personally, I listen to Mel every day and we hear from our own people that they loved Mel Robbins. So we engaged with Mel and Mel understood our mission.
She understood the role that beauty care was playing and we asked her to help us with resources and toolkits. Um, and that is really what the cornerstone of that partnership was with Mel and Ulta Beauty. Basically, creating this toolkit for joy, so that Our associates that work in our stores every day, we have 53,000 of them, and if 53,000 associates meet one person and can share a joyful moment and spread joy, then think about the chain reaction of joy that we can create.
So it was so core to the success of the joy project because male fundamentally would inside our organization and empowered our associates to help people understand what is joy. How can you identify if you are experiencing joy? Experience the inner critic and how can you bust that inner critic so you can experience more joy?
And then fundamentally, how can you share more joy with the people around you? And so we’re full steam ahead. The joy project launched last year and now we’re in our next project of the joy project. And really this is where we’re bringing in even more experts. And we’re talking about joy and, and, and a much more broader way so that we can bring joy to even more people and many more millions of beauty lovers nationwide.
So I think the way I understand it is you’re training all the associates. with a very, I would say regimented, uh, program that teaches them how to get joy in their own lives, but you’re also, I believe teaching them how to then connect with customers, right? Absolutely. So, but you know, it really, really, really starts from And that’s what we, we realize is that if the general population are telling us they don’t have the toolkit resources, we can assume our associates don’t have the toolkit resources.
So start there as the most authentic place. Our associates identified the challenge. They are the face of our company to our guests. So let’s empower them to be the face of joy and to spread joy. And I’ll tell you now, Shelley, this movement, it’s infused its way into our corporate culture. Every meeting you go to, there’ll be a little joy card and someone will be writing a joy message to someone.
You know, just this morning, in fact, I received an email from Gina in one of our stores. Um, and she’s a general manager. And she’s telling me about how much joy has inspired her, how these little videos we create little videos weekly to our associates, how she looks forward to them and how she uses them so that she can inspire other people.
So this is more than just a training program. It’s a movement about showing how beauty and community can help us live our best lives. That’s awesome. And before we move into your next project, which you just came out with, um, your next study, I do want to mention that Ulta Beauty allowed anybody to read the results of the Joy Project.
So I’m sure if they go to UltaBeauty. com, they can actually dive into a lot of that study, right? Yeah. And We have another study that just came out as well. So we just launched, um, a new report and we’ve called that the Generation Joy Report. So you can get the Joy Study and then also the Generation Joy Report because Shelley, this is core to what we do and we really, really want to encourage people to join us on this mission to create more joy in the world.
I think it’s amazing and I love the fact that you’re sharing it with the industry. So can you talk a little bit about some of the findings that came from the Generation Joy study? So Generation Joy, right? So Generation Joy, first of all, is defined by beauty enthusiasts of all ages united by joy. So basically what we have fundamentally learned is that beauty And wellness will kind of marry them together that when our beauty enthusiasts experience a routine of beauty and wellness, 77 percent of people say it will help them feel more joy.
And that is something that is a major unlock. We’re a beauty care company and we have a huge role in the world to bring more joy. And this generation joy report. Confirmed that. Now, what is really important about this report? It was about all generations, really, really understand all generations, but it had an emphasis on the newest one, Gen Alpha.
And we’re very excited about our learnings on Gen Alpha. Um, especially because Gen Alpha, their view of beauty, I really as a space for self expression and fun. And joy. So here’s some of the data points that we learned. So I mentioned already 77 percent agree that maintaining this routine of beauty and wellness will help them feel more joy.
And I think Shelley, this is something that most people would agree with. It definitely does help. But here are some major issues. learnings from this gen alpha generation. We’ve seen that each generation engages with beauty at different ages and it’s becoming younger and younger over time. And what we’re seeing is that there’s this early bird in this early experimentation now with gen alpha.
And it’s not just females, but it’s also males as well. And they’re starting to experiment with beauty and products as early as the age of eight. And that is five years earlier than Gen Z females. So age of eight. And by the way, that’s pretty consistent for any parents out there with kids that age.
I mean, if I think about it, My son just turned 10. My daughter just turned 13. And my son has a whole array of fragrances because they bring him joy and how he smells. So that is something that, um, was pretty, um, interesting. What was also interesting. Oh, by the way, Shelly, I just noticed here, my Oh, look, can you see this?
Remember I talked about the joy cards? This was one of the joy cards that I received from, um, from someone in my team. And I’ll read it out to you. Michelle, thank you for being a great leader. You inspire all of us to be yourself. Be just amazing, Roxy. Isn’t that beautiful? That’s what joy is inside Ulta Beauty celebrating each other.
So if I go back to this celebrating and empowerment idea, it’s really about the role that beauty has. Gen Alpha in particular, 91 percent of them, that’s a huge number. They believe beauty. is beyond what you put in your face. They believe it’s about looking and feeling good beyond your physical appearance with a very holistic and focus on self care.
So this whole, people talk about it, skincare equals self care. Well, it also equals self joy. That’s what we’re learning from this. There was another, I would find it’s a very joyful and beautiful, um, data learning as well. And that is the role that parents and parental guidance plays. So we heard from our study and remember we also, we were talking to our beauty enthusiasts, our beauty reward members, that 77 percent of our reward members who are parents to Gen Alpha, they encourage their child’s interest in beauty.
And two thirds of them think it’s normal for their child to want to explore beauty at their age. But the most beautiful learning, and I can relate to it, and I think many can as well, 70 percent use beauty routines as a bonding activity with their children. Yes. That’s I totally oh my gosh. I totally believe that that’s great.
Yeah, I’d see it I it was one of the key reasons why I joined Delta Beauty My daughter was so passionate and it was a moment to help her learn About how to style her hair how to be herself the best skincare for her skin. So It’s really, really, really, um, a very, very powerful study in understanding with the role that Gen Alpha plays, but also the role of the parent and Gen Alpha too.
There was also something that came through in Generation Joy too, and that is this natural preference that keeps coming through. And, and really we’re seeing with Gen Alpha. 92 percent of them prefer a much more natural look and they’re prioritizing skincare over makeup because remember skincare equals self care and 97 percent believe skincare is self care and that is why we’re so excited that when they are talking to us about how to, what are my beauty goals?
How can I keep my skin clean? How can I keep my skin hydrated? How can I enhance my natural beauty? That is joy, because if you can feel good in your skin, you will feel much more joyful. I know I could keep talking about this Shelley forever. It was such a powerful report, and it really opened our eyes.
And the minute I saw the 70 percent use it as a bonding moment, it just, it really made me warm from the inside out. Well, I’m going to bring you joy because I’m going to tell you a quick story about bonding. So I have two sons. I don’t have any daughters, just two sons. And my 13, when my son who’s now 16 was 13, we would shop together in Ulta Beauty and we would look for his skin routine.
So it, it totally was a bonding thing and it’s how we connected and we’d make a trip to the store together. So I can validate. That finding personally myself, but I love it and then, you know, and Shelley, this is a beautiful thing about all to beauty. It is not uncommon when you go in there to see multiple generations shopping together when you open those doors.
It’s like a playground. We, we, we may go in, I go in maybe as a, you know, an older 40 year old, I wish. They’re all setting that decade now. And I become a child who just loves to play and explore. And when I walk out those double doors again, I’m reminded of who I was. That, that girl with those dreams and this desire to play.
And I just think there’s no industry like it. And that’s why. For us, we take it very seriously. I take it very seriously that we believe that beauty is a force for good and for all and ensuring that the young generation has a healthy relationship with beauty care is our number one priority. I think that’s wonderful.
And the gen alpha data specifically was really super interesting. So I encourage our listeners to go read that study because I think they’ll really learn a lot about our gen alpha who this is a scary thing. Guess what? Next year, Gen Alpha enters the workforce. Can you believe that? Isn’t that crazy? Yeah, so their disposable income was only going to grow over the next few years.
So that’s exciting. I am excited. This generation will do beautiful things for our world. I see it. They are such an enlightened generation. I, I, I agree with you. So I also saw on social media that Ulta Beauty is on this mission and I loved it to spread 10 million moments of joy. So tell us how this idea was inspired and how’s it going?
Yeah, we’re, we’re very excited. So that, I mean, the joy project, it has so many legs. But what we realized is that, you know, by starting Inside Out, it was time to inspire even more people about this. And that was the Inspired Millions Through Moments of Joy. And so we kicked that off during the National Day of Joy, um, which felt really timely.
And the concept is that we want to create the largest Compliment chain with over 10 million moments of joy. So we’ve enlisted a star studded group of guests, associates, brand partners, and influencers that really love the concept of joy. And we asked them to celebrate people in their lives that make them beautiful inside and out.
And you know, it wasn’t hard. There were so many people that want to be a part of this. Serena Williams, Ali Love, Angel Reese, the list goes on. We had founders from Polite Society, Beakman 1802, Elf Beauty, and everyone basically inside our own company. What they were doing is that they were complimenting their beauty besties and they were joy forwarding.
So if you saw me on Instagram or LinkedIn, you know, I would mention a friend. That I considered a beautiful friends in the inside out and I celebrated that friends. And so really what this movement, what we want to do to want to shift the beauty conversation from the one of comparison to a one of connection.
That’s really it. And that is how community is built. And that’s how community serves each other. It’s not about community, just numbers. It’s about a community that loves each other and celebrates each other. So we are so thrilled to see the momentum, the positivity from just these simple acts of joy. And we’re so excited to continue this and build in our community because our community, you can see it.
We’re bonded by this love of beauty and we’re united by joy. That’s amazing. And I love the work you’re doing. Uh, and before we leave, Michelle, I do have to congratulate you and Ulta Beauty on a great first quarter sales up three and a half percent. And I have to add that recently as part of this Ulta Beauty’s ongoing commitment to championing joy and using the power of beauty as a force for good.
The foundation, and it’s not for profit partners, the Ulta Beauty Charitable Foundation, you have actually donated more than 61 million since 2016 to improve the lives of women and families. So congratulations on that. Thank you so much. And it really is. are remarkable, is so remarkable, and it’s a privilege to be a part of something big, something that makes such a positive difference.
Um, beauty really has such an impact on this world. And especially when used for good, you can see the ripple effect of that. And we are Ulta Beauty are so committed to doing our part to spread joy and be a home, a home for every beauty enthusiast throughout their lifetime so that they can live the lives they want to live.
I love it. Thank you so much, Michelle. It’s always great to sit down and chat with you. I’m such a big fan of the work you’re doing and Ulta Beauty’s doing to really help improve the lives of employees and customers. So thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Uh, thank you for having me, Shelley.
It’s so great to, to have this conversation with you. And let’s all spread a little bit of joy today. Let’s do that. I love that. Uh, for our listeners next week’s podcast, we actually have two guests with us, Melissa Gonzalez and Matthew Goelzer from MG2. It’s a company of architects, designers, and strategists.
And our topic is actually going to be industrial design and specifically supply chain. So we’re chatting about consumer trends and how supply chain is actually adapting to the new world of retail. So don’t miss that. Thank you for listening to Retail Unwrapped. We’ll be back in one week with another podcast.
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