International Influencers vs Irish Influencers

ace_irl

I wanted to start this thread to discuss products being released by influencers, youtubers etc.

I know there's a fair amount of discussion on products relased by the Irish social media elite, but I wanted to see what the opinion on products and brands from a more worldwide scale.

From my own experience, there seams to be a major quality difference in what is bring brought to the Irish market compared to influencers American counter parts.

For example, awhile ago I purchased the Jaclyn Hill and Morphe collab pallet. While I have my issues with it (packaging etc) the quality is far superior to what has been released by influencers in Ireland.

What do other people think? Do yous find the Irish products better or worse than the products of international influencers?

GingerLily

It's not really fair to compare someone as big as Jacklyn Hill to an Irish blogger - the US market is so much bigger and they don't have the same viewership.


There are plenty of US youtubers/ influences who have released bad quality products e.g. Jacklyn did release a pallete with Becca that was not good quality - she had to issue an apology over it.

ace_irl

I actually have that pallet, the eye shadow one that caused the scandal! I was one of the lucky ones who got a good one so no issue with mine. I have a few of the other bits from the Becca collab and had no issues with mine so far.

I get your point about the viewership, but I think it should be compared in the sense that releasing a product is still releasing a product regardless of how big your viewership is.

IMO a lot of the products coming to the Irish market are simply not good enough for long-term success or international appeal and growth. As a result, I can see a lot of the current offerings fizzling out and being removed from the market eventually.

How many of us have made a repeat purchase of any of the products that are on the market now?

GingerLily

IMO 90% of products released by influences are not up to scratch.

The Irish bloggers are just copying what's been done elsewhere - sure half of SoSueMe's products are identical to that Geordie Shore girls product line.

ace_irl

I actually recall that they even had the same launch day in Dublin? I haven't compared the products myself though.

There seams to be a lot of over saturation that I think it damaging the market. I know when SoSueMe's contour pallet came out I had zero interest in it purely because I had 10 other ones already.

meeeeh

ace_irl wrote: »

I actually recall that they even had the same launch day in Dublin? I haven't compared the products myself though.

There seams to be a lot of over saturation that I think it damaging the market. I know when SoSueMe's contour pallet came out I had zero interest in it purely because I had 10 other ones already.

Well there is your answer. Nobody needs ten contour pallets (imo you don't need any but that is besides the point) so what they are offering are highly disposable products. People quickly move to whatever else is new on the market. So you need something with reasonably attractive packaging, small set up and production cost and quick turn over. After that you need to put out something new. Chances are people who bought pallet or whatever will still have it a year later because they also bought other pallets and trends also change.

Frankly unless they are co-labs with strong producers (Fenty) I don't know why would you expect great quality. A 25 years old admin assistant (teacher or whatever) who likes to blog has 0 experience in product development, quality control, product testing or business connections and so on to compete with established brands. People don't buy blogger products because they are good they buy them because they have connection with the person selling them. Selling complete that will probably backfire but beyond that I think they are ok.

ace_irl

No one needs the majority of consumer goods, if the market was to operate on needs only then there would be very little scope for innovation and business.

Consumers will expect quality that equates to similar products at similar price points. Products we've seen in the Irish market are simply not achieving this. Yet these issues are not addressed in the next product that's released.

I think there is a massive lack of market research and there is too much generic crap coming onto the market that damages the opinion of the product in the first place.

meeeeh

ace_irl wrote: »

No one needs the majority of consumer goods, if the market was to operate on needs only then there would be very little scope for innovation and business.

Consumers will expect quality that equates to similar products at similar price points. Products we've seen in the Irish market are simply not achieving this. Yet these issues are not addressed in the next product that's released.

I think there is a massive lack of market research and there is too much generic crap coming onto the market that damages the opinion of the product in the first place.

Well if you are looking for market research and less generic crap than don't buy from one woman/man operations (excluding those who make their own produce and sell it on craft fairs). You can't realistically expect them to compete with for example Lancome.

Therapy are international bloggers who have strong enough pull for established brands to approach them, sink money into research and marketing and produce something decent. None of the Irish bloggers have any attraction past Irish market which is small. So Ali Express stufc it is.

ace_irl

Oh my, no where did I say I was expecting anyone to compete with the likes of Lancome. To even insinuate that is laughable. .

None of them are one woman/man operations. They are all employing a team of people either directly or via outsourcing.

I think you're wrong though, they have pretty much all been attempting to enter the UK market as well so it's not just the "small" Irish market. I can't honestly believe any of them are that short sighted to only want to be in the one market.

It is interesting you mention Ali Express though, when I started this thread I was thinking along the lines of products that (per the influencer) where developed by them and not white label.

Unless the quality of the products produced by Irish influencers and the spinning around them improves, they wont successfully compete long term.

Lougarden

In my eyes, Irish bloggers and influencers are taking the mick. I have yet to be shown authenticity (bland candles, denim on denim and the likes). Shamrocks are being shown beside snide smiley faces on one of the most expensive influencers right now in passive manners and known for fact...Not Irish! sucks and we should give a sh**te!

ace_irl

I get that impression sometimes myself. It's more about putting any product that is reasonably on trend out there just to make money quick rather then putting a good quality product out there that benefits the consumers.