Her Voice Blog

Japan’s popular Shiseido cosmetics brand now has a new magical makeup line. The new line, called Majolica Majorca, is being marketed to young women by appealing to the princess in all of us. Products are packaged like jewelry and each has detailed backstory that is reminiscent of a fairytale.

The company’s in-house design team is responsible for creating all the advertising, utilizing magazine and website ads as well as a mobile app with “whimsically animated tales” that correspond with products.

The brand also partnered with Haagen-Dazs on a website collaboration to associate the new Majo Romantica fragrance with the icre cream giant’s latest chocolate creation, calling both “melty” and “sweet.” This partnership helped to bring the name of Majolica Majorca into convenience stores where the company lacked a prior presence.

Another project included a specially designed hotel room at the Park Hotel Tokyo where guests could enjoy a fairy tale evening complete with their very own stash of cosmetics in the room. Fairy princess wanna-bes flocked to the promotional event causing it to be extended for three additional weeks after its three-month run, with this year’s event selling out in minutes.

American women might find all the glitter and magic just too silly for their tastes, but in Japan, cute goes a long way. This isn’t to say that some elements of this strategy couldn’t also work to reach American women. Ever since Cinderella fit into the slipper and true love’s kiss awakened Sleeping Beauty, there is something in all women that responds to the idea of being a princess…just as long as we also get to have our independence and our own bank accounts.

It’s not about using fairy tales to convince women to buy products. More important is understanding what women want and reaching them where they are. In Japan, this just happens to be fairytales and whimsy. Shiseido is experiencing great results with the Majolica Majorca brand marketing strategy so they must be doing something right.

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN with staff in Nashville & Los Angeles, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.