Benefit Cosmetics

50

Countries

145%

YoY increase in monthly visits

69%

Estimated saving

Industry

Cosmetics Retail

Location

Global

Global beauty brand Benefit Cosmetics have been magically transforming brows since 1976. As worldwide leaders in all things eyebrows, and with upwards of 30 brow-based products plus a range of counter services, Benefit keep standards high by educating those working with their products and services. 

Since starting to use Elucidat in 2017, Benefit has achieved a trackable, global learning presence; an increase in engagement throughout their learner base; and greater in-house knowledge and control of their content. All while realising an estimated 69% saving on the costs of an LMS.

 

“The platform has allowed us to fully customize the program for each country and grow participation”

Cortney Freshwater, Senior Manager - Global Education at Benefit

STEPPING INTO GLOBAL DIGITAL LEARNING

The Global Education team devised the Benefit Brow Program in 2016, for those working with and for Benefit. They produced a comprehensive training presentation, covering eyebrow trends through the years, creating the perfect brow and how to use their products. 

The challenge then became how to get this content in front of learners.

Benefit has a presence in 50 countries and counting. Their learners can be in dedicated stores, on counters or third-party staff working in concessions. Many are on shop floors wowing their customers with the latest brow trends and tips, so need to be able to access any learning content quickly via tablets or mobile devices. 

Initially, training presentations were sent to Benefit’s learner-base via email. However, this presented a secondary challenge: monitoring uptake and engagement was difficult without the ability to track who had done what, where and when. 

 

 

THINKING OUTSIDE THE LMS

With such a dispersed, varied and mobile learner base, Benefit needed a trackable, engaging and adaptive solution. 

The traditional LMS approach was neither cost-effective, nor manageable, for the relatively small Global Learning team. This is because many of their learners are third-party staff members, and enrolling them into an LMS would be at cost to Benefit; plus the potential number who would need access is in the thousands. 

Benefit needed an online option that was as easy as a presentation to distribute and access, but which also provided data insights they could track and share with global, and sometimes external, teams.

Elucidat was a perfect fit. The platform’s direct link sharing and in-built analytics have meant that Benefit’s learning content is now accessed with just one click, no matter where the learner is or the device they use; and the Benefit Global Learning team are able to monitor who makes progress and where. 

Using the platform’s Your Data feature means the team can access not only pass/fail rates, but identify specific learners who have entered into the course, their retail location and everything they have attempted. Then, via a simple export, the team are able to provide local markets with their specific data.

For Benefit, this has resulted in confidence that their audience have been educated; provided insights into any areas that need more attention and delivered definitive knowledge of which team members from which stores have participated.

Overall, the ability to directly share links to learning content and use Elucidat’s powerful analytics saved an estimated 69% (around $75,000) in LMS costs across the length of their contract to date.

 

 

FROM TRAINING TO ENGAGING

Benefit wanted to ensure they got off to a flying start, so coupled their subscription with some Elucidat sparkle via our Professional Services.

Using the Concept Creator service, they worked with our expert consultants to build out a series of templates. These fully adaptive schemas captured not only the Benefit brand voice, but their unique look and feel. The wider program was then built out using an external developer. This first series was true to the comprehensive slides they had previously produced, though with an interactive edge. 

But as new features have come to Elucidat, Benefit has kept pace. 

After using the platform for a few months, the Global Learning team’s confidence had grown. Through their use of Elucidat’s analytics, Benefit had useable insight into where learner’s engagement with the Brow Program would drop and could make data-backed decisions about how to address these areas. 

So, later in their first year, Benefit put those insights to use by creating a second iteration of the Brow Program. With assistance from the Elucidat Professional Services team, they reimagined their elearning; embracing new features and exploring more of the platform’s capabilities. 

This new version really shone! It helped the learner better identify between theory and quizzes by using areas to store each type of learning, then awarded badges upon completion of sections of learning.

Now on their third iteration, the Global Learning team are delivering engaging, game-inspired content to their audience. They set learners a fun challenge: collect brow products for your make-up bag by discovering facts and answering quiz questions correctly.

And learner visits have increased as a result of this investment in engagement. Monthly visit numbers from 2018 to 2019 have over doubled; meaning more people are undertaking this valuable, brand-centric training – and as a result delivering even better customer service.

 

 

TAKING A BROW

One of the biggest successes of Benefit’s story has been the Global Learning team’s growth in confidence. From creating training presentations, to planning, building and implementing elearning has been an internal learning journey as much as an external one.

The team initially relied on external input to help finish the courses; yet now – on their most complex iteration yet – the team have undertaken completing the course themselves. 

The Brow Program success has helped Benefit to branch their use of Elucidat into additional global learning initiatives. In total, they now have 117 live projects.