Something remarkable happened when customers started flooding e.l.f.'s social media demanding affordable bronzing drops. Rather than adding it to a quarterly planning meeting, CMO Kory Marchisotto walked straight to the CEO's office with an unusual request would he join her on TikTok to hear directly from their community? Within minutes of going live, thousands of comments poured in asking for the product. The CEO's response wasn't to commission a study or form a committee. He walked directly to the product team and made it happen.
This story, shared by Marchisotto on the Uncensored CMO podcast, perfectly captures the principles that have driven e.l.f. from selling £1 lipsticks to becoming a £20 billion business. Their success offers a powerful framework for any brand looking to grow in today's market:
1. Eliminate the distance
Most companies talk about being customer-centric. E.l.f. rebuilt their entire organisation around it. Their leadership team spends hours each week reading raw customer comments and joining social media conversations. They've stripped away the layers that typically separate executives from customers, enabling decisions at unprecedented speed.
HOW TO APPLY THIS:
- Share unfiltered customer feedback with leadership weekly
- Enable direct interaction between executives and community
- Measure and reduce time between insight and action
2. Build a community of owners
E.l.f. approaches ownership differently at every level. They've granted equity to every employee since going public in 2016, creating what their CEO calls their "true secret sauce" a team that thinks and acts like owners. This ownership mentality extends to their community, where customers help shape everything from product development to marketing.
HOW TO APPLY THIS:
- Create meaningful stakes for employees at all levels
- Give your community genuine influence over decisions
- Build feedback loops into product development
3. Break category rules strategically
E.l.f. doesn't break rules for the sake of it they do it to better serve their community. When they noticed half of Super Bowl viewers were women but beauty brands weren't showing up, they became the first to advertise there. When they saw their community overlapped with gaming culture, they pioneered beauty's presence on Twitch and Roblox.
HOW TO APPLY THIS:
- Identify where category conventions don't serve customers
- Look for untapped channels where your audience gathers
- Create partnerships that challenge industry norms
THE FRAMEWORK IN ACTION
When we examine e.l.f.'s most successful initiatives, we see how these principles work together to create breakthrough results:
The Super Bowl gambit
While other beauty brands worried about ROI calculations, e.l.f. saw an opportunity: half the Super Bowl audience was female, yet beauty brands were nowhere to be seen. They seized the moment with Jennifer Coolidge showcasing their viral Power Grip Primer, proving beauty belonged even in sport's biggest event. A year later, beauty brands flooded the game.
Liquid Death collaboration
Most beauty brands stick to safe partnerships within their category. E.l.f. instead teamed up with heavy metal-inspired water brand Liquid Death to create "Corpse Paint" makeup. The unlikely collaboration sold out in minutes, drawing coverage from both beauty and music media while delighting both brands' communities.
Embracing gaming culture
Rather than dismissing gaming as irrelevant to beauty, e.l.f. recognised their community's passion for gaming platforms. They became beauty's first major presence on Twitch, where their CMO and CFO co-hosted streams about marketing campaigns. Their Roblox experience has drawn over 13 million visits.
Speed to market
When customers began requesting bronzing drops, e.l.f. didn't just take note they acted. Their flat organisational structure and community-first mindset enabled them to go from TikTok comments to product launch in record time, beating larger competitors to market with an affordable alternative.
The power of this approach shows in the numbers. By quadrupling their marketing investment and doubling down on their community-first strategy, e.l.f. grew revenue from £250 million to £1 billion in just five years. But perhaps more tellingly, they receive hundreds of wedding invitations each week from customers who consider e.l.f. part of their life journey not just another beauty brand.
While many will try to copy e.l.f.'s tactics, their real innovation lies deeper in creating an organisation that can move at the speed of its community. It's a reminder that in today's market, the advantage goes not to the biggest brands, but to the ones closest to their customers.
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