Behind the striking demeanour of the ‘Beauty Advisors’

Walk into a major retail chain store, and there you can find a ‘Beauty Advisor’, pretty, tall and attractive, with a heavy make up always on, looking fresh, vibrant and warm!!

Many envy her for the free make-overs she might be entitled to, after-all she is the brand ambassador in her particular one – stop – store. Her job is to entice the shoppers into buying her brands. They are meant to solve every beauty quandary—from adding lift to limp locks to finding the perfect shade of blush.

Standing in the A/C showroom and luring the customers towards her might seem easy and straightforward, except for the one disturbing fact that she has to wear a 3 inch long heel shoes 12*7. Yes it is a part of her ‘grooming’ on which she will be evaluated. If she fails to adhere to the grooming rules – which include the way she has to tie up her hair, apply her make up etc., she might have to give up her job. What is generally an act of pleasure becomes one of a compulsion for her.

She learns the product lines, understands the 50 different SKUs (stock keeping units) or 50 different products which seem to contain similar ingredients yet deliver different results and solve varying problems. Not just that, by the look of the sight, she has to interpret the skin type of the customer and suggest betterment advises. And she has to deliver all this better than a skin specialist because she is in a competitive environment.

The Olay Beauty Advisor, The Ponds B.A, The Neutrogena B.A, The Nivea B.A and many others, stand next to one another and compete for the wallet share of the consumer. Surprisingly on one of their competitor’s absence, they do look after the absentee’s counter and cover up for her. They have grown up in the same shop together as sisters and hence instead of just barging in to capture the share in someone’s non-appearance, they let all of them grow and hence together ripe. A high sense of helping tendency!

In a kind of work where attrition can be very high, where the pay is not attractive, they stick on to the brand which taught them the business for long. A Sunday afternoon when most of them will want to relax, they have to put their maxim efforts in their uniforms.

They will be amongst the first to become aware of the launch of a product, but might even fail to be able to be among the last to purchase the product.

Apart from being responsible for counter sales, attracting new customers, education them, they play an important role in merchandising the stock, decorating the counter and placing new purchase orders of stocks.

The most important of all, they have to remain fresh , smiling and friendly throughout the day, even if the store managers/ floor managers/ consumers demean them!!

Behind the extremely gorgeous and soothing exterior, lies a lot of tussle and scuffle. Behind the charming smiles and giggles, lies hell a lot of worries, agonies and confusion. These are the companies’ most glamorous and attractive sales force for you!