← The Marketing Millennials
The Marketing Millennials
How to Make a Heritage Brand Stay Relevant with Blair Lancer, CMO of Lancer Skincare | Ep. 399
00:42:22
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- [00:01]
A
There's a big gap between having data and turning that data into real customer personalization. Customer IO closes that gap. Fun personalized experiences for Every channel with AI to handle the boring stuff. Learn more at Customer IO TMM. Welcome to the Marketing Millennials, the NoBS Marketing Podcast. I'm Daniel Murray and join me for unfiltered convers with the brains behind marketing's coolest companies. The one request I tell our guests stories or it didn't happen. Get ready to turn the up. Welcome back to another episode of the Market Millennials podcast. I have Blair Lancer on the podcast CMO of Lancer Skincare. Super excited to chat to her. Lancer Skincare is one of the coolest skincare companies out there. My wife, who's a skincare girly, was like, I'm so excited to hear from Lancer Skincare because she, she's a skincare girl and so super excited to chat. And I just want to you to give a little background. What is Lancer Skincare and how you became the CMO of Lancer Skincare.
- [01:21]
B
Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. So yeah, Dr. Lancer, who's my father, has had these products in his office, but they were only available to his patients. So that started in about the 1980s, about 1985. And we decided to take this brand's commercial about 2011ish, give or take. And it's been really exciting. So my background actually was always in fashion, which people are really surprised to hear. But I moved to New York, I went to NYU for fashion. I all my internships. I was so excited to be there. Everything was fashion related. And then I got a job at Saks in their buying office right after undergrad. And I was so excited about the cosmetics buyers and everything. They were doing what they were looking for, what was doing well, what wasn't. And it was actually pretty surprising to me that I was so interested in this. I had always wanted to be in fashion, but I had this like innate desire to carry on my father's legacy. I just didn't know at the time that there was really a way to kind of like merge those worlds. And this was that first step into to that. So yeah, it was about 2016 where post grad, post all the fashion stuff and at Saks that I decided to go back to the family business and start with our team, what was called the enhancement category. So for a little bit of background at that time there really was a white space within the like Skincare makeup arena. So there weren't really skincare brands dabbling in makeup and vice versa. And I just saw it as such an opportunity. So that was the first thing we worked on, the Dani Glowing Skin Perfector, which is actually still one of our bestsellers today. It's really exciting. Named after my mom came about at that time. And truly I really learned the business from the ground up. So it was social media and then communications. I was dabbling in collaborations at the time, which looked so different. I was sending mailers to, I guess, quote, unquote, influencers at the time. Very beginning of that. It was all at the make. Makeup artists on YouTube and just such a different space, but kind of the beginning of that whole evolution, which was really exciting. And then I ended up going to business school. I went to Columbia from 27 to 19 because I really thought, you know, I was learning the business from the ground up, but through people who were already there. And I figured I really wanted to learn those hard skills somewhere like an MBA program or Columbia where I could just bring something new back. So had that little stint came back in 2019 and then Covid hit in 2020 and I was very comfortable in my communications bubble. But my CEO at the time called me and said, hey, that's all fine and dandy, but we're restructuring. I need you to essentially build and run the new product development category. And to me this was terrifying because I had never really been in this department. This was so new to me. And she said, don't worry about it. We will have somebody mentor you. We'll figure it out. And just dove in. So it ended up being really special because aside from working with my dad closely and the education ingredient piece of it, it was just so nice from a marketing perspective to be really at the forefront of our innovation. So I was helping the team come up with product ideas. I was looking through competitive landscapes and white gaps in the market. So starting from the beginning versus just picking it up at the end at the marketing piece made a world of a difference, especially when it comes to storytelling. So that was amazing. Really glad that I took that leap. And ever since then, it's just been a little bit of an evolution. You know, we had talked about, you know, for the, I think it was the 10 year anniversary that we were aiming for. We wanted to put forth some sort of rebrand and we didn't know what that would look like, but it was time. It was the anniversary. We wanted to do something new and exciting. It did not work out that Way, there is no perfect world. You know, we all thought there would be just one day where, like, everything would come together and, you know, the revamp of the website, the social media, the packaging, all that would just happen at one time. And, you know, like, things generally do not. This did not pan out, and it's actually worked for the best. I would say. Instead of having one true, like, revamp moment, it's been more of this modernization and refresh over the last several years, which has been really nice because not only are we expanding our demographic, but we're really bringing in the new generation and having them grow with us. So as we evolve over time, we keep bringing new people in, and they're really, you know, I would say our consumer is not shy. They like to share their feedback, which has been incredible for us. So happy to go into this at another time. I know I'm on a long tangent, but we revamped our body line, and a lot of that was consumer feedback, which is really exciting and was taken very positively. So, yeah, that's been that. And became a face of the brand around the same time, which has been really exciting. It's one thing to work with your family behind the scenes, but it's another to really carry the weight of being a face of the brand. Because now, whether it's social media or podcasts, I'm actually speaking directly to the consumer, which has been an incredible opportunity. So now I've merged my fashion and skincare, all these different worlds, and it's been an amazing ride.
- [07:07]
A
Yeah, it's pretty cool because I see on TikTok you're giving all the advice of skin care fashion, which is cool because it blends all your words and worlds together. And also, since you have a luxury skincare brand, I think people who come for skincare are also looking for fashion advice and styling advice. And if it was a different category, they might be not in the same. But luxury skincare pairs well with getting ready for going out, getting ready for the day, and everything always starts with a skincare routine.
- [07:41]
B
Totally. And, you know, we always say you want to feel beauty from the outside in, but also the inside out. So, you know, I share things like the supplements I take or, you know, the skincare I'm using as well as, like, where I'm going, the fashion. I think people, especially now with AI people want to feel that intimacy. They want to get to know the real you. And I think you really have to be transparent because people can feel authenticity. So it's my TikTok, my Instagram a place for me to really like share all of my passions and give people kind of a view into what my actual life is as a CMO versus just sharing kind of like a marketing overview, if that makes sense.
- [08:20]
A
Yeah. I have a question. So you're. So you're leading a brand that has huge clinical credibility and decades of heritage. So when you stepped into that CMO role, what were two or three of the biggest gaps between how the brand saw itself and how consumers actually perceived it online?
- [08:40]
B
So the biggest thing for me is we were very much perceived almost like your mother's brand. Like it almost had that negative connotation where it was, you know, people thought that skincare, that really works. So now that I'm in my 20s or 30s, I don't really need that. I can deal with the fun, pretty, like pink watermelon scented skincare. And then when it's time and my skin is mature enough, then I'll step into that. So a big thing I wanted to do with this modernization was have everybody feel like it is their time to be there. We want it to be multigenerational and bring in grandmothers, mothers, daughters, everybody and have them grow with us again, not feel like it's so clinical and so science backed, which it is. But we needed people to have that experience where it was almost approachable. We were missing that piece. Like people didn't feel welcome. It almost seemed intimidating. So I would say that's definitely the biggest piece of.
- [09:37]
A
I know you said you saw a lot of consumer feedback. What are the channels you're looking at to diagnose where this feedback's coming from? Where are you looking to get the feedback to help enhance product, enhance marketing to hands, branding and positioning?
- [09:55]
B
So I'd say our biggest point of difference is that we do have a board certified dermatologist on board practicing five days a week. And that's something that's very rare. It's not something that you see often. So a lot of brands will have focus groups are kind of reach outside. For us, we're lucky because Dr. Lancer is in the office every day, so he's constantly getting feedback, whether it's about our brands in particular. For example, I can talk about the body line, but they gave very specific feedback constantly about the packaging and the sizing and the foil, all of those kinds of things. But he'll also hear things like, you know, I come in for Botox and then I have this lull in between appointments. I need something to like hold me essentially in between those appointments. So then we come back and think, okay, what can we do? That's almost like a Botox in a jar, like something that you can use at home. So it's almost them sparking ideas within us of, you know, we can look at a competitive landscape and see what's out there, what's not out there, what are the gaps? Or we can look within people who actually love our brand, have grown with our brands, love our products that can say, this is the one piece of the Lancer skin care routine that's missing. So having that is very different. Separately, people are very vocal on Instagram, on Facebook. I would say those are probably our two biggest platforms. People have emails. People are really vocal with us, which is nice. They don't. I think people are not afraid to speak up. And I don't know if it's because we have that doctor on board or we have that family aspects where people feel like they can chime in and like, there's a real person there to speak with.
- [11:37]
A
Yeah, I think it's really cool to have. You don't see many brands get someone who has in person feedback day in, day out that's saying, my skin's breaking out. I use this, this happens. Or my skin's breaking out. I might have got a rash. What should I do? Or my skin's. It's pretty cool to have someone leading the charge. I want to ask you with like a legacy brand, how did you go from making it feel clinical to aspirational and luxury? What are some, like, steps you took to make that, that feeling more aspirational than just a luxury? I mean, a clinical brand that people are a little bit intimidated and scared about when they hear that.
- [12:18]
B
Well, that has been a big piece of this. And I keep saying it's a brand refresh, not a rebrand. I think when you fully rebrand, sometimes you lose your core, you lose your heritage, and therefore you lose the consumer. This really has been a true refresh because we have our heritage. I always say, like, even with our packaging changes, I want it to be that if you walk into a store, you're a consumer, you have no idea that we've repackaged. You can still walk in and recognize us. Like, we'll still have the same packaging, we'll still have the same swoosh in the corner. Like those heritage pieces are still there. But I do think it's a lot of, you know, we have Dr. Lancer. He is the science, the authority. He's the white lab coat. So we still have that and people know that if they buy something, the benefits will be there, the science is there, and all of the ingredients are essentially cooked into this formula properly. It's not just marketing fluff. But that was my role of coming in, you know, showing people you have that one piece of the brand, but now you also have another face of the brand who, you know, I'm in my 30s, so I'm showing that generation of 20s, 30s, let's call it that. Like, I do take my skincare very seriously. The people around me take their skincare seriously. Like, it's time to dive in. And like I said, you know, I have this social channel, whether it's TikTok or Instagram, where I am sharing my life. In some ways, it's very transparent. Like you're seeing, yes, I do my skincare, but I'm also just a normal girl. I love fashion, I love going to restaurants, I love traveling, whatever it may be. So people can, I think, resonate with me and feel that it just feels a little bit more approachable to have somebody like me speaking at certain times and having Dr. Lancer speak at certain times. So we kind of just know our audience. I would say the other piece of it is just transparency. I think when I started, let's Call It, I went back officially in 2016. Social media was all about esthetics. Everything had to be beautiful. Everything was this like perfectly crafted photo shoot. Everything had to just be perfect all the time. And now you see, and especially with AI, like I keep saying, this will be more and more. But you know, you look at TikTok and even sometimes on Instagram, it's very much UGC focused. You have people in their bathrobes in real time, hopefully showing you what they're doing, how they use it. Sometimes people will come on and say, hey, I tried this product. It didn't work. It broke me out. I don't know what it is. Like, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I think building that authenticity is so critical that transparency really builds trust. And I think that makes the brand less cold and clinical and a bit more approachable.
- [15:06]
A
We all know marketing has to feel human to work. But when each message has to be built, built, tested and managed across every channel, feeling human is easier said than done. Customer IO makes it possible with AI, automation and integrated marketing tools, so you could speed up repetitive work and skip the boring one size fits all marketing. Give customer experiences that feel like they were created just for them wherever they are. Learn more@customer ioTMN I, I like the term that you use, brand refresh to keep the, the legacy, the heritage part of that. When you started the brand refresh, where, what is the. Where are the first places? Where did you start? Did you start with the positioning? Did you start with the packaging? Did you start with the creative? Did you start with who you're tar targeting? Where was like the first start of that brand refresh?
- [16:08]
B
So it's interesting. I have one answer to that and I'm sure the team would have a different answer because it did not go how I wanted, which I think is great, honestly. That's why you have a team, right? So you can all like rely on each other. But I wanted to start with packaging. I had this whole vision of what the line was going to look like and it still is becoming this line, it's just happening slower. We've done one piece of it and slowly you'll start to see more and more. But like, I had this whole presentation together. The colors were changing, the packaging was changing and that was the core for me. But of course everyone else on the team was like, okay, let's calm down for a second, let's take a look. And like you said, we started with the overarching strategy. What is the positioning? Who did we want to bring in? And that's why, you know, a big piece of this for me was I wanted to make this, this a multi generational brand. So I was thinking, you know, to bring in this younger generation, visually, I want the packaging to resonate with them a little bit more. But yeah, we started there. We really looked at who are we talking to now, how are we talking to them, who can we bring in? Again, like a big piece of our work now is on Facebook. And, you know, I was saying, let's skew more towards TikTok and let's like bring this up. And, you know, the team was right that TikTok isn't necessarily the right place for us. We do really well on Facebook, we do really well on Instagram. We throw a couple things up on TikTok here and there, but it's not our core. So I think it was having them keep me in reality, if that makes sense. Instead of jumping into like, this is what I want, this is how we're going to do it. Let's do it. They said one piece at a time, let's look at this realistically. So I would say the first actual change we made was probably either the website, we did a full website refresh, or social media. So we hired somebody new on our social channels and the look and feel was just very different, which truly is where we probably needed to start because that's essentially like the first point most of the time where people see you or your consumer sees you. So you'll see we had a mix of both UGC and reality, like I was saying. And also this again, kind of like aesthetic, beautiful look and feel for our products but in a way that just felt really relatable, not so stiff. So that's probably where we started. And then it's evolved to, you know, different social channels, our website, our emails are different. Having me as a secondary phase and Dr. Lancer having the packaging evolve, whether it's the body line, now we have the gravity line and that's a little bit different. So it's just a slower evolution.
- [18:53]
A
And I know, I know you have a core product, the method core Coraline. And I think you were also trying to reimagine that because that's the, the core skew. That's your, your Dr. Lancer's core method of how to do skincare. So how were you thinking about that as part of the like baking that into the skew strategy when doing this refresh?
- [19:20]
B
Well, I will tell you, out of all the skus and at that point we had probably 40 something or high 30s Polish, cleanse, nourish were the only three that we weren't going to change. So the Lancer blue was staying the Lancer blue. And that kind of goes to what I was saying about keeping things as they are and keeping your heritage. Packaging was staying the same, sizing color, all of that. And we have that like the cap, we call it our pillow top. The cap is very special to us. So that was absolutely never going to change. I will say people always ask us about reformulating the method since it's been so long, I will tell you that we haven't needed to. Like even now the feedback we get on those three products is incredible. We still redo our before and afters and our clinicals for those products and you know, if it's not broken, don't fix it. However, without sharing too much because it's a bit early, there is something in the works for the method down the line which people will see and I think be very excited about.
- [20:24]
A
I'm excited to hear about that. But also I, I think one thing too which is pretty cool, that's part of the messaging because I think having a clinical face that is a dermatologist is cool. But Dr. Lancer also worked on some of the best celebrities out there. So I think that also takes the halo effect even bigger because he wasn't just like a dermatologist that just saw everybody and then became a skincare line. He actually saw people seeked him out to for dermatology, which adds, I think, another layer of credibility. There's a credibility of a doctor and then there's credibility of like people like that halo effect of all those cool celebrities that went there. So how does that go into the storytelling of the brand?
- [21:15]
B
Totally. And I will add to that another special thing about the method is every single patient who comes into the office uses the method. So when you talk about celebrities, influencers, you know for a fact that when they came to see Dr. Lancer, those were the three products they started with. There are people who come in and want treatments, procedures, whatever it may be. He will only start them on the method and a couple weeks later, if they still need something, they'll do it. Oftentimes they don't need anything. So I think having that added layer of oh, my favorite celebrity has used this exact exfoliator is really exciting. But I will say, you know, when we started, everybody was so about celebrities. It was all about a list celebrities all the time. Like, award shows were so big, magazines were so big. And I mean, some people may disagree with me, but I don't think that's the case anymore. I think celebrity has been downplayed a little bit. And at one point it really was influencer. You know, everybody trusted what the influencers were doing. And of course we have some in our office as well. But in my opinion, and again, a lot of people may disagree, I think that's even shifting a little bit. I think there are so many influencers out there now, and I think there are so many opportunities for influencers to get paid partnerships or get paid for their work. And a lot of times it is authentic. I will give them that. But sometimes it's not. So for me as a consumer, and I would assume other people feel the same way. When I see one of my favorite influencers posting, here's my favorite product, but in the corner it says paid partnership. There's something in me that immediately kind of steps back. Even if they've been using this product for years and I've seen the same, you know, face wash for three, four years on their page, I still get that uneasiness. So I do feel like at a certain point we do use influencers and our, you know, celebrity marketing in certain ways, but we've almost shifted to UGC and real testimonials and people showing you, hey, this product works. I've been using it for a week. This is what I've noticed. I think it's just that culture has shifted a bit. It's just such a crowded market.
- [23:27]
A
Yeah, I think you're right about celebrities. I think celebrities are still the well known people but I think for some people the actual people who are influencing their day to day decisions are those micro niche creators who if you have a luxury because I know for example my wife will like screenshot stories or someone said here are my recommended three restaurants in New York to go to by an influencer and we have to go see it. Or this person is wearing the skin care so she will go buy that skincare even though she's never used it and it's not from like you said, paid partnerships. But she'll screenshot all the things, zoom in to see if they're using that product, try it out. So I think you're right about people in their own worlds that they're creating and someone who's a celebrity to one is, is might not, you might say your favorite person who's influenced you and I might not know them but they still have more power than if to say Brad Pitt came in and said I'm using the skin care.
- [24:35]
B
So I'm curious because I think brand loyalty is a big thing now. There are so many skincare lines, so many makeup lines, it's really hard to find loyalty. So when your wife, you know, screenshot something and buys it, does she usually repurchase or is it this influencer purchase or posted something once I'm going to purchase it now that I've tried it, I'm moving on to the next screenshot from the next influencer.
- [25:00]
A
A little calm and a little column B. I think if she loves the product she'll, she goes down the line of keep using the product. But let's say if her like eyeliner is not working for her, she's just gonna keep trying. And I think that's a Gen Z thing too. Yeah, Gen Z's are very not loyal to brands. Yeah, and they can be loyal to brands. I mean she, she works for a beauty brand so she, I'm not a beauty brand but like a skin care body wash, body deodorant band. So she knows the loyalty side of things. But yeah, it's, it's definitely if it works for her, she'll use. But I've seen some products that she's been using for 10 years. In her. In her skincare line. So it's pretty interesting.
- [25:47]
B
It's funny because obviously I don't use any skincare aside from Lancer skin care, but when it comes to makeup, I am the least loyal person, which is why I was asking. I mean, I do have a couple holy grails that no matter what, they're like my, my true products. If I need to look good, I know they work. But there are so many new launches all the time, and they're almost like drive launches where brands are, I guess, launching like three, four or five different SKUs per year. And so it's hard to even keep up. And by the time I need, you know, a new concealer, let's call it, I'm so excited to try this one. That got a lot of hype. And by the time I'm halfway done with that, I'm already onto the next concealer. So it's almost like people aren't able to focus or concentrate or even really give the proper time needed to these products because there's so much buzz everywhere.
- [26:39]
A
So it's interesting I the the divide of vitamin versus painkiller of I think skincare per se. If the skin care is working and it's curing something like dry skin or acne or wrinkles, I think people have tried and true to that, but something that's this influencer look really good with this new eyeliner. I want you to try because I want to repeat that really good. I think that's where it's a hard balance. I think skin care people are. That's why I think it's cool that you're in more of a. More of a painkiller type industry where someone's coming to you for dry skin or someone's coming to you for wrinkles, or someone's coming to you for anti aging. And they're trying to solve that, right? They're trying to solve it and work on that. So I, I mean, that's a also question for someone you're trying to bring in the younger group, like the 30s, the late 20s. How. How do you message to someone who isn't quite there yet with aging, but the preventative side of things, because I think when someone has a wrinkle, they're gonna try. I get as many wrinkle creams to stop wrinkle, but someone who's not there yet. How do you go about with either your messaging on TikTok or you're messaging on the website to try bring in that younger crowd to buy a Preventative type skincare.
- [28:17]
B
So I would say probably the number one thing for that is honestly just education, I think, educating the consumer and saying, hey, you know, you might be too young for a retinol, but you should be using SPF 365 days per year. So we always say if you can see outside without a flashlight, you need sunblock, meaning if it's gloomy, if it's snowy, whatever it may be. So I think explaining that to somebody, like everybody, you know, I know there are mixed feelings, but should be using some sort of sunblock, let's just say. And that can happen in the teens or the twenties. So I think just, just explaining to people like, hey, even if it's a chart, here's a chart. You're in your 20s if you want something that's preventative, but you're not ready for the real stuff. Here are the things that work, here's why they work. I think when people don't have the right education and they don't understand how to use something, when to use something, even if they are in their 30s or 40s and they do buy a retinol, but they don't know how to use it, they're probably not going to use it or they're going to use it improperly and then not buy your product again or say they had an irritation or whatever it is. So it's really about, about that full transparency and making sure that they really understand, like, what is prevention? What should that look like? Don't expect, you know, immediate results. Don't think, you know, you got a wrinkle. So whatever you were doing preventatively wasn't working. They need to just understand. And then I think they're more apt to use these products.
- [29:47]
A
So we do have a lot of millennials listening to this podcast. So what is, what is your. I know you used lens of skin, but what is the step by step that you use? And then you can also give me one or two, three that you do that's outside of Lancer skin. That's also like makeup and that just so people know your routine daily. Because you, I know you share it on TikTok, but we could share it on here too.
- [30:14]
B
I would love that. My routine is extremely simple. I think people just make the assumption that because I work with a skincare brand that I have this like 15 step routine every day and I really don't. My core is the method forever. So when I wake up, I only do, I skip the polish. I do that in the evening. So I just do the cleanse, I do the nourish. I use one of our eye creams. We have a couple so I rotate them and spf, that's it. And then in the evening I will do polish and cleanse in the shower and then I have very sensitive skin so. So I will throw in a retinol maybe twice a week I would say but I mix it with my moisturizer so that's mixed in with the nourish and I use my eye cream. So that's pretty much it. I also use the body method but for face keep it very simple. And then things that are not Lancer skin care, I would say I use a red light mask at home which I absolutely love. I use the one from current body and I swear it makes a difference. I really do. I should have taken before and afters but I find it really annoying to use. Like I hate having it on my face 10 minutes a day but I'm always really happy that I do. So that's a good one. I mean not necessarily related to skincare but I have a hatch alarm clock that I absolutely love. I just think there's something about falling asleep to a certain sound or having the red light is really relaxing. I like to wake up to just a very peaceful alarm sound. I've never like jolted out of bed like I used to be with the iPhone alarm. See I take a couple of supplements. I used silk pillowcases. I find that to be really important. Definitely better for the skin. Yeah. So and makeup I try to skew a little bit more on the clean side. Certain brands that are, you know like chemical free but that's pretty much it. I'm very simple.
- [32:13]
A
Yeah. It's funny because my wife we, we just had a kid like seven months ago but her whole we during the pregnancy she like we got rid of all. Now she's all like clean beauty. Cuz like when you're pregnant she. We went all very granola when it came to like skin care because we wanted to make sure nothing happened. So now she's a clean skin care person. So it's, it's, it's, it was a cool journey. I want to know what are, what are some things you're thinking about in the future for Lancer Skin? What are some channels you're trying to use or break into to hit the younger crowd or go multi generational so you hit multiple generations.
- [33:00]
B
Yeah, I mean I would like to continue to play with TikTok a little bit. Again, I'm not sure that it's the right fit for us. And I don't think every single channel needs to be the right fit for every brand. I do want to play with that a little bit more. Same with Instagram. We do really well on Facebook. We do very well on Instagram. But I think we can try, you know, reels are now starting to do really well on there, so try to play more in that field. I don't know as far as other channels, I mean, it's just been. It's been so nice to speak to people the way we have. We've been updating our emails, our email cadence. The way we talk to people are copywriting, and that's done really well for us. So I'd like to continue that. And I also think just utilizing my voice in different ways and then Dr. Lancer's voice choice in different ways. I think that's probably the biggest thing. We're kind of figuring out what does well and where we each kind of fit separately. I think the biggest thing is, you know, I don't know what the skincare world will look like in 3, 5, 10 years because of AI. I have an idea of what it could look like, but, you know, nobody really knows. And I think to myself, you know, AI will probably take away the need for trial and error. I think that's the biggest thing right now. You see a new product, you try it out, you break out for it, and then, then from it, and then it takes two weeks to come back and get your skin back to normal. So will AI have that ability? Is there a way, you know, right now you can try makeup on somehow online, you can try clothing on online. I don't know how that would work with skincare. Again, I'm not an AI expert, but, like, will AI step in that way? So I think finding ways to not be terrified by AI because it is a little bit scary in some ways, and to really just embrace it and see how it can not only help us as a brand, but. But help the consumer and make their experience feel just really seamless and luxurious and convenient.
- [34:57]
A
No, I think you're right. I think what happens a lot with, let's say, skincare or people who don't understand skincare. For me, for example, I think people are gonna start taking a picture of their face and say, I have dry skin under my nose and I have this, and I have this, and I have. What are the. Make me a skincare routine that solves these, these, these, these problems. And that's where brands like yours have to play in the field of like talking about dry skin under eyes and, and being the voice of those areas because people are going to search on AI and if you don't pop up in the results, you're not going to be one of those brands that they going to try out in their, their skincare routine that AI gives them.
- [35:47]
B
Well, and to your point, we're now blogging as well, which helps with that. But I 100% agree. I think tailoring and customization will become so, so big. I also, I mean, and again, people may disagree with me, but I do feel like that like ten step routine is starting to disappear a little bit and people are just getting a bit more focused on what they actually need. And you know, what are those benefits that, what are the concerns that I currently have? Let me hone in on those versus trying to address like 15 things at once because then you don't get anywhere. So I think I will be able to kind of be the voice of reason for that where it's saying, you know, here are your issues. This is a tailored routine for you. Stick to this. But no one really knows. We'll have to see what happens.
- [36:35]
A
Yeah, and I think having voices like yours and your Dr. Lancer saying things, things publicly, in press, in on podcasts, on social will bring in into the AI and say a like celebrity dermatologist recommends that if you in your morning routine should have a, let's say spf and this is the best spf and you need to cleanse your face and you need to do the, whatever you're based on, your issues you're trying to set. And it will, it'll pull in all these sources and then give you a recommendation which I think will be pretty cool in the future. But we'll, we'll see, we'll see if they're actually accurate, if it actually helps. That's the, that's the part that we don't know.
- [37:30]
B
Time will tell.
- [37:32]
A
Lastly, I always ask people this question on my podcast, but what's a marketing hill you would die on?
- [37:38]
B
Oh God. I mean truly. And I keep saying the same thing over and over, but sometimes I think when you say things over and over, that's just your truth. I really think as a marketer, the number one thing, you have to be extremely transparent because authenticity is felt whether it's somebody doing their own thing, like it's me on my own channels, separate of my life, whatever I'm doing with fashion, yada yada, or if it's with the skincare line, Any sort of marketing. I think if you're not transparent, people are not going to fall for it. I don't think that people at this point are even falling for any sort of like marketing fluff. But I think again, as we start to have more and more transparency, more information, people start to get more curious. That's going to just be the most important thing out there. And I will say as part of that, like my one piece of advice kind of going off of that, try not to just look at one influencer or one person you admires routine and copy it 100% because somebody online might say, you know, hi, I have dry skin. Here are the 10 steps that I use. You may also have dry skin, but you don't necessarily have the exact needs or composition that this person would have or needs. So, yeah, I think being transparent and really educating the consumer.
- [38:58]
A
Yeah, I think like you said this earlier. Yeah, the age of, the age of having that ad and having people say things they want that that's why Alex Earl blew up because she, she even, she came on transparent in her worst and her best and still gave people her, her totally routine. And I think people love that. That's. Yeah, people don't want the 2016 portrait editing face tuning error where you can, where everybody knows you're using some sort of tool to, to manipulate what you're doing.
- [39:43]
B
So I will say though, the crazy thing is even Today, like in 2026, people come into our office and look at Dr. Lancer and say, here's a picture of me. I used a filter on FaceApp. This is what I want to look like. So it's funny that even when you look at someone else's picture, at least for me, it's very easy to tell when somebody Facetunes or face apps. But even with that knowledge, people think that that's attainable and they still want that. So it's a very interesting thing. And again, I'm curious how this will change over the next couple of years.
- [40:19]
A
I mean they see a lot of people doing it like you said and celebrities doing it and influencers doing it. So they think, oh, this person has perfect sk. Don't have get pimples. Like how do I get lips like that? How do I like how do I get a jawline like that? That's why I like this looks maxing and all the stuff that people are trying to do in the, the in the space are crazy. But thank you so much for coming on. Where could people find what you're doing, follow you and follow Lancer Skin and all that good stuff.
- [40:50]
B
Well, thank you so much for having me. This was amazing. If you want to find Lancer Skincare, we're again on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok. I'm pretty sure all of them are just at Lancer Skincare and then mine are Instagram and TikTok just at Blair Lancer.
- [41:06]
A
Well, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
- [41:10]
B
Thank you.
- [41:13]
A
Thanks so much for listening. Keep tuning in to hear more great insights from the coolest marketers from around the world. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe and follow the Marketing Millennials Podcast us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. And if you like what you hear, I would greatly appreciate you giving us a five star rating. It helps bring more marketers into our community.