Photo: istock | Mel Robbins
Ulta Beauty Is Helping Associates Find Joy. How Will the Brand Benefit?
Ulta Beauty has launched The Joy Project, a long-term initiative focused on helping consumers find, embrace, and experience joy, in partnership with best-selling author, motivational speaker, and podcast host Mel Robbins. The project was inspired by feedback from associates who said they regularly witnessed customers struggling with negative self-talk.
The Joy Project is kicking off with the release of The Joy Study, third-party research commissioned by Ulta Beauty with the goal of sparking a conversation about the barriers people face in achieving joy and how to overcome them. The survey sampled how 5,000 adults and teenagers feel joy, as well as the barriers in the way of experiencing it. While 85% of people wish they felt a high level of joy in their lives, only 58% of people report feeling that way.
Negative self-talk was one of the top barriers at 73% of those polled, and 70% of those experiencing it don’t recognize negative self-talk when it’s happening. Additionally, 91% of those who experience negative self-talk said it was one of the primary obstacles in the way of their ability to experience joy.
These findings will tie back into retail through a training program for all 53,000 Ulta Beauty associates that will help them change the way they think about themselves and empower shoppers to do the same. The series of mini courses, which is also being developed in partnership with Robbins, has been named “A Toolkit for Joy” and aims to help associates “identify their inner critic, interrupt the negative patterns, and inspire themselves and others in the process.”
Ulta Beauty will also reach beyond its stores by inviting influencers and creator communities to post about their own journeys to joy by using the hashtag #joyforward.
“Knowing Ulta Beauty’s associates hear this self-criticism from their guests every day, Ulta Beauty and I are giving them the tools to help their guests silence the inner critic and experience more joy,” said Robbins in a press release. “There are so many brands and companies publicly discussing well-being, but few are activating in such a meaningful way. I’m honored to work with Ulta Beauty, creating custom trainings that will empower those associates to silence that inner critic and coach guests to do the same all with a mission to inspire a national conversation to spread more joy.”
While the benefits of inspiring joy may not be immediately tangible, the new focus could have a positive impact on Ulta Beauty’s employees. A 2021 study by Retail Trust found that the pandemic had a negative effect on the mental health of 84% of polled retail workers, with 53% reporting that they felt cheerful rarely or none of the time. With mental health becoming a retail marketing issue, a campaign that exists solely to spread joy — not tie back into products or promotions — could help Ulta Beauty build loyalty with stressed workers and shoppers alike.
Discussion Questions
Do you expect The Joy Project to be a long-term project for Ulta Beauty? How can helping Ulta Beauty associates experience joy improve their jobs and ultimately make customers feel more welcome?
Poll
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Neil Saunders
Managing Director, GlobalData
Ken Morris
Managing Partner Cambridge Retail Advisors
An excellent initiative by Ulta which will help to make a difference in the lives of its associates and help them to serve customers better. Beauty is often about empowerment, so this training fits nicely with the category Ulta is involved in. Even if it only results in associates being more positive in their mood and conversation around customers, it can make a big difference. It is also good to see a retailer really try to focus on mental health and uplift employees.
This initiative aligns with other approaches previously discussed (and more yet to be discussed) to improve the emotional state of employees (the associates) and how, inevitably, positive attitude translates into a more pleasant experience for the consumer. It will be very interesting to learn the results, which will probably be evident in nine months. Thinking out of the box is the way the winners get to the finish line first.
Ulta Beauty realizes that negative self-talk can talk customers out of buying beauty products for themselves. So, this is a great initiative, but it isn’t as altruistic as it sounds. It’s actually a great example of a win-win situation in which both customers and retail store associates will benefit greatly. Meanwhile, the marketing and PR folks can spread the good word.
I will commend Ulta for reaching outside of its organization for expert help. Too often, retailers try to go into unknown territory by tapping inside talent only. As a consultant, full disclosure, this also isn’t just an altruistic thought. But it’s important to know what you don’t know, know where you need to go, and find good guides to get you there.
What could be bad? Joy is what we all want anyway
Joy to the world! Three Dog Night…
This appears to be a long-term project for Ulta Beauty because it is a project that can positively impact their associates as well as their customers. Walking into many stores nowadays can be dull and even lonely as you can walk into many stores and out without even talking to anyone. This can be a way to bring out a spark, build teamwork, and make their retail environment more engaging and energetic as their customers explore new beauty possibilities.
Ulta has a great initiative here to help train their associates to eliminate some of the contributing factors to negativity and ultimately give them the tools to help move their customers to a path of positive thinking. I don’t go to ULTA often but will be planning to drop by to see how this may play out over the next few months.