Olaplex creates faux product to address dupes on TikTok - an interesting take on price and value.

Why Olaplex created a faux product to address dupe culture on TikTok - an interesting take on price, value and solving your customer’s problems.

It’s no secret that women ( especially moms ) are always on the lookout for ways to save and keep more of our pennies ( or coins ) in our piggy banks when it comes to shopping -- especially for beauty products / services.

My $300+ receipt days at Sephora are long long gone -- and have been for quite some time now, as my priorities shifted when I had my daughter. As lovely as it would be to be able to go out and buy the latest and greatest of new products, I have to be responsible and ensure my beauty budget still meets my needs, while also not going overkill like when I had the freedom to do in my single and childfree days.

So when I first began my New Mommy Life Tik Tok account, I wasn’t that surprised to see a bunch of “dupe” content ( or now what’s called: “dupe culture” ) as I was very familiar with dupes and dupe tutorials from the OG YouTube days ( New Mommy Life YouTube channel )

I actually would wear wigs or hair clip-ins from time to time, in order to help me cover up and not focus on the postpartum hair shedding I was experiencing.

Oscar Wilde ( one of my all time favorites actors ) once said: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

It’s also been phrased as: “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.”

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the term “dupe” is a term short for duplicates meant to offer a less expensive product alternative. This has created a space for marketers to really flex their “creativity muscles” with doubling down on their value prop for fear of losing out on sales.

Hair loss for moms ( as postpartum hair loss is a very real thing that many moms face ) I always have my ears and eyes wide open whenever I hear a company make any form of a claim about helping fix this major problem that many moms deal with on a daily basis. I was first introduced to the brand Olaplex a few months ago by another mom who was telling me about how “hair bonding” had greatly improved her hair hydration, strength and lessened the hair loss.

I soon came to find out that Olaplex is one of TikTok’s most duped hair care brands. A bottle of one of my favorite products is their Olaplex Hair Perfector, N0.3, designed to repair and strengthen all hair types.

For some background, Olaplex is a premium hair care brand — with its No. 3 product priced at $30 and is available both online and in stores like Sephora and Ulta.

In August 2023, the independent brand announced its second quarter earnings, reporting that net sales were down 48%, led by a drop in sales for its professional channel of 61%.

In the company’s announcement around the earnings, CEO and president JuE Wong said that the brand is attempting to stabilize demand trends in the second half of the year while increasing and optimizing its marketing investment.

JuE Wong, OLAPLEX’s President and Chief Executive Officer, stated: "Our second quarter performance was below our expectations as our Professional and Specialty Retail channels experienced slower demand and some customers right sized their inventory positions in response to current trends. As such, we have updated our assumptions for the remainder of the year and reduced our fiscal 2023 outlook. We are intently focused on stabilizing demand trends in the second half of 2023, while increasing and optimizing the mix of our marketing investments in support of this objective. As an industry-leading brand backed by science and technology, we remain confident in our long-term opportunities."

You can access the full PDF presentation deck here (if you're a journalist/researcher like myself who loves this kinda thing).

On Sept. 25, 2023 Olaplex with the help of over 100 earned and paid influencers launched an unboxing campaign around a new fictitious product, Oladupé.

The product, which was actually a repackaged bottle of the brand’s Olaplex No. 3, is meant to tease how often Olaplex is duped on TikTok with the hashtag #Olaplexdupe having over 30 million views alone while also educating their Tik Tok audience about the quality of its products.

Just days after launching, the hashtag tied to the campaign, #Oladupe, had already gained over 5.5 million views!

“Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and I think what we wanted to do is really use this imitation, this discussion around dupes to really have fun with the fact that you can imitate us, but you can’t replicate us,” said Olaplex CMO Charlotte Watson.

For those of you who are curious about the handpicked influencers for this unboxing campaign, the list included Lelani Green, Yesly Dimate, Shae Alexis and Audrey Boos, among others.

To further "ink this dupe concept in stone" so-to-speak, the brand also enlisted “duper” Taylor Madison, a creator who many say shares a strong resemblance to Kylie Jenner ( so you know they were really pulling out the "influencer big guns" here.)

Unveiled through an unboxing, creator videos promoting the faux "Oladupé" revealed the product as the best alternative to the real thing. Packaging looks nearly identical to Olaplex’s actual product, though its label instead reads Oladupé No. 160 — a number selected in a nod to the company’s 160 patents ( who knew? ).

Audience members were then directed to a "microsite" where the first 160 visitors could secure a free bottle of Oladupé, which was actually a bottle of Olaplex No. 3, after which they were sent to an explanation of the "social media stunt".

The final results?

The Oladupé campaign was over by the end of day on Wednesday, Oct. 4. It had received 20.1 million impressions and 24 million views of the hashtag #Oladupe.

Consumers had a wide range of responses, Watson said, and every free Oladupé bottle was claimed within two hours - which is pretty darn impressive if you ask me.

All in all, this is by far one of the most creative twists on "transmuting a negative into a positive" in the form of a creative marketing strategy.

How do you feel about dupes, mamas? I've definitely purchased products from competitors who offered similar results and product claims in order to save a few dollars.

What are some of your moolah saving tips when it comes to beauty products?

I would love it, if you would be so kind as to share one or two with me in the comments below.

Mahalo!