Strategy Brief

After looking closely at Charlotte Tilbury and the recent online backlash regarding dupes, it is clear that the company’s values and its consumers’ values are diverging. To protect the business moving forward and mend their relationship with the audience, they need to stop fighting the wrong battle and remove their focus from the dupe market. Instead, focus on the parts of the brand they can control, such as their craftsmanship, expertise and emotional connection, and the parts of the brand that cannot be copied.

They need to test their assumptions. Being clear on their customers’ expectations and their offering, and whether a gap exists, is essential. Listening to the audience and their feedback is a first step in nurturing the relationship and is a hidden insight your audience is giving you on your plate. When a founder’s face is the brand’s landmark, vulnerability comes with that. Considering building on a broader purpose, such as a shared belief, purpose or cause, will help preserve or protect the brand. Ultimately, if Charlotte Tilbury wants to survive this changing market, it is essential for the brand to remain culturally relevant.

When Luxury, Prestige and Dupes intertwine

Before exploring the tension between Charlotte Tilbury and its audience, it is useful to distinguish between luxury, prestige and dupes. This helps explain why the discussion around dupes has not been well received and what lessons brand owners can take from it.

The concept of luxury is subjective and constantly evolving. Its definition cannot be captured by a single meaning. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, luxury is not simply something expensive, but something that is not necessary.

Prestige is when someone or something is given respect and admiration because of their social influence, reputation or success. Prestige is associated with respect and high status. While luxury and prestige overlap, they are not identical. Luxury is often associated with exclusivity, scarcity and exceptional experiences, while prestige is more broadly associated with success, status, reputation and perceived quality.

‘Dupe’ is short for duplicate. In the beauty world, a dupe is often understood as a more affordable product that looks, feels, or functions similarly to high-end or expensive items. A dupe is when other brands take inspiration from a premium brand by imitating its style, trend, or aesthetic, offering consumers a glimpse of the original product without having to buy the actual product.

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How can a brand become a victim of its own popularity?

People who cannot afford or might not want to pay the original price may still want a piece of the meaning, aesthetic, or cultural association attached to it.

Charlotte Tilbury has been under the spotlight for its comments about dupes in a 2026 BBC News interview. In the interview, Charlotte mentioned:

‘When you dupe, you dupe the consumer. That’s not the quality and formula you’re going to get these amazing performance that empowers people to look and feel that way.’

The problem begins when a brand’s definition of value differs from its customers’ perception of value.

The luxury market is undergoing a period of change

According to Bain & Company, the personal luxury goods market declined to €363 billion in 2024, representing a 2% decline from 2023 at current exchange rates, while remaining flat at constant exchange rates. Based on Bain & Company’s figures, this decline may indicate a shift in consumer mindset and in how consumers perceive luxury. This may signal that consumers are increasingly prioritising personal value over luxury goods.

For premium and prestige brands, this creates a more challenging environment. With ongoing disruption, rising prices, macroeconomic uncertainty and shifting consumer preferences, luxury consumers, particularly Gen Z, are becoming more selective about discretionary spending and how they spend. Consumers are not weighing Charlotte Tilbury’s price in isolation; rather, they are evaluating it within their current economic reality.

Beauty consumers are rewriting prestige value

The beauty market is being shaped by consumers; this market is increasingly dynamic. Consumers are more conscious about how they spend and evaluate products. Cost-conscious spending is influencing the rise of dupes, and make-up is no longer one aspect in the beauty category but rather is becoming an integrated part of the wider beauty routine.

Where Charlotte Tilbury sits in the beauty market

Charlotte Tilbury is a leading beauty brand within the premium beauty segment. Since 2020, Charlotte Tilbury has been part of the Puig Group portfolio. The group reported that growth was led by fragrance and make-up, with make-up maintaining its excellent performance, led by Charlotte Tilbury.

Charlotte Tilbury’s competitors are Bobbi Brown, Pat McGrath, Huda Beauty and Glossier; the list is non-exhaustive. On a more affordable level, names like Makeup Revolution and e.l.f. Cosmetics are the brand’s competitors.

What does Charlotte Tilbury promise?

• The brand’s human voice: The brand’s personality is bold, expressive, enthusiastic, passionate, romantic, glamorous, charismatic, magnetic, approachable, affectionate and friendly, calling its audience ‘darlings’ in a distinctive British way.

• Beauty for everyone: The brand purpose is to bring professional make-up artistry and Hollywood beauty secrets to everyone, everywhere. It aims to help people feel empowered, glamorous and embrace the best version of themselves so they can unlock their confidence.

• A beauty world built around glamour: Charlotte Tilbury’s aesthetic is influenced by boudoir style and Old Hollywood vanity stations, a style that extends from stores, across social media, tutorials, live events and e-commerce platforms, creating a recognisable experience across multiple touchpoints.

Who is the brand really speaking to?

Charlotte Tilbury’s community is at the heart of how the brand is experienced and discussed beyond the brand’s own communications. The brand’s core audience has historically encompassed Millennials, while Gen Z is becoming an increasingly important audience.

Millennials and Gen Z are digitally engaged audiences. The community encompasses influencers, beauty creators and consumers turned storytellers, all of whom contribute through product comparisons, reviews and recommendations. This audience is interested in beauty trends, self-care, aspirational lifestyles and luxury beauty, with Instagram, TikTok and YouTube playing an important role in discovery, recommendation and product evaluation.

When your audience becomes your brand’s storyteller

From its early development, one of Charlotte Tilbury’s strengths has been its focus on community. The brand understands the power of creators and consumers turning into creators in shaping how products are experienced and discussed online. Without positioning itself exclusively around one generation, its collaborations with creators across generations help the brand maintain its cultural relevance. Customers, influencers, micro-influencers and everyday users become important storytellers and are the brand’s most active ambassadors.

Selling more than the product

Thanks to its social media appeal, Charlotte Tilbury resonates with Millennials and Gen Z. The brand operates within the premium and prestige beauty market, implementing elements associated with luxury — such as aspiration, exclusivity and elevated experience — to create desirability. Charlotte Tilbury brings professional make-up artistry and technical expertise to consumers. The brand is doing it through products designed to be easy to choose and use. With empowerment and confidence at the centre of the brand experience, its positioning combines aspiration, glamour and accessibility.

What makes Charlotte Tilbury distinctive

• The founder is part of the brand: The founder’s personality brings the brand alive and consumers can relate to it.

• The brand extends beyond the store: Beyond the physical store and digital environments, Charlotte Tilbury connects its brand ecosystem through its e-commerce, social media platforms, tutorials and live events.

• The brand’s ecosystem: It seamlessly moves between its physical and digital environments. Its multichannel presence makes the direct-to-consumer experience frictionless.

Where the value gap appears

When consumers express their dissatisfaction, it is an opportunity for the brand to pause and listen. A reaction from your audience often reveals what they are experiencing and what their expectations are. It might also indicate that the brand promise is no longer aligned with their expectations.

As a brand, one needs to understand which fight to pick. Should a premium brand fight, ignore, or strengthen the parts of its brand that are being copied?

When assessing competition, it is important to understand how a brand operates within its market. While two products may look similar, the customer buying from a brand such as Ralph Lauren might not be the same customer buying from J.Crew. In the same manner, a customer buying a dupe is not necessarily a lost Charlotte Tilbury customer.

Brands need to recognise that consumers make conscious decisions based on their own needs, circumstances, and perceived value. Telling consumers what to buy or how to spend risks damaging the relationship between the brand and its audience. When an audience chooses lower-priced alternatives, it may signal that there is a demand the brand is not currently serving. Whether those consumers are existing ones or people who aspire to the brand, this may demonstrate an unmet need in the market.

From the business perspective, dupes may be perceived as lower quality and a threat to the value of the original product. Having similar alternatives may make it seem like your brand reputation is affected by competition. However, going after the competition, or your audience, is not the solution. The brand’s and its audience’s perspectives can coexist.

Consumers’ comments and feedback can reveal a misalignment between the brand and how its audience perceives it. From the consumer’s perspective, a dupe may be a purse-friendly alternative that meets their needs. Viewing the situation through the lens of their audience could open an opportunity for Charlotte Tilbury to consider different routes to market.

What should Charlotte Tilbury do next?

1 - Don’t fight the wrong battle: Often a brand that is culturally relevant will be coveted and copied. The question is not about wondering how to eliminate alternatives but rather which part of your brand cannot be easily copied: the experience, community, craftsmanship, expertise, emotional connection and meaning attached to the brand.

Calling out dupes and the buyer’s decision can create tension. If your brand’s philosophy is centred on consumer empowerment, dismissing the purchasing choices of price-conscious consumers risks creating a gap between the brand’s intended message and how that message is experienced by your audience.

Moving forward, monitoring the brand’s relevance as well as its audience’s perception and reevaluating what the brand is, what it stands for and whether its actions remain culturally resonant with its audience is an important step for brands to consider implementing.

For Charlotte Tilbury, this means staying true to the foundations of its brand promise: creativity, craftsmanship, quality, aspiration and the emotional experience of beauty.

2 - Always test your assumptions: Brands need to constantly test their assumptions and clarify why customers buy from them. A brand may believe its offering is unique, while the customer may be asking a very different question: Will this product deliver the result I expect? Understanding this gap between your offering and your customers’ expectations can reveal when the perceived value of a brand is no longer aligned with the customer’s reality.

3 - Listen to constructive feedback: One needs to note that consumer criticism can be uncomfortable. However, nurturing ongoing conversation with your audience is essential, as it might reveal where expectations and brand reality are beginning to diverge. Listening to and addressing feedback rather than blaming gives your brand a chance to gain insight into what your audience is actually experiencing.

4 - Protect the brand beyond the founder: Charlotte’s charismatic and approachable personality brings the founder, brand and community together. Her presence as founder, expert and make-up artist gives the brand a recognisable human face, helping to build an emotional connection with its audience.

But what happens when the founder’s voice becomes inseparable from the brand’s voice? A founder-led brand can be powerful, but the brand can also become vulnerable when the founder’s identity becomes closely enmeshed. Building a community around a broader purpose, cause or shared belief can help create a relationship that extends beyond the individual founder.

Lessons beyond Charlotte Tilbury

The controversy around dupes is not simply about whether dupes are good or bad. It reveals a gap between how the brand understands value and how parts of its audience perceive value. A brand can shape its message, experience and promise, but it does not own the meaning. Ultimately, your audience determines the perceived value.

Research Note: The company information and market figures reflect the sources available at the time of writing. As new information becomes available, this information may change.

Source & Further Reading

Brand

Superstars - Hero Image

Charlotte Tilbury - Official brand | Charlotte Story

Puig - Company/financial information

Primary discussion/source

BBC - The interview/discussion

Market

Bain & Company - Luxury market context

Grand View Research - Beauty market context

Definitions

Cambridge Dictionary - Luxury | Prestige | Dupe

Community

Mad//fest — Charlotte Tilbury Community/social impact figures Charlotte Tilbury

Supporting Literature

Uche Okonkwo - Luxury fashion branding, tactics, trends,techniques, 2007

Legal Context

Kilburn & Strode - Dupes and counterfeits

What shapes brand perception?

In my previous article on brand image and brand personality, I explored the difference between what organisations intentionally build and what customers ultimately perceive. I explained that brand identity is the expression of an organisation’s internal activities. Brand image is the reflection of that identity in action through the way customers experience and perceive the brand. That led me to another question: how is brand perception actually formed?

Perception is how we view the world around us. It is how we process, organise, and interpret information from our senses into a coherent picture of the world.

Human perception is an individual process shaped by one’s values, needs, expectations and personal experiences.

Brand perception is a set of associations, beliefs, thoughts and feelings that customers develop about an organisation. It is the customer’s unfiltered reality of how they experience the brand.

Perception is subjective and unique to every individual group of people. This is why two people can come across the same brand and have completely different impressions.

Regardless of how intentional a brand has been built, perception ultimately shapes its image. Organisations cannot dictate or build perception. It belongs to the customer; it is their interpretation of what your brand is. Therefore, understanding how perception works is essential.

Brand identity, brand image and brand perception

Brand personality is one component of brand identity. Brand identity is intentionally expressed through a brand’s purpose, values, personality, communication and visual identity. Brand image is how customers perceive those expressions. From those interactions, perception is formed.

Brand identity, brand image and brand perception are all connected. Together, they form a continuous exchange between the organisation and its customers. The organisation carefully crafts its brand identity through its purpose, values, personality, visual identity and communication. Customers interpret those signals, creating the brand image. It is through the interactions between brand identity and brand image that perception is formed.

Can organisations influence perception?

A perceptual map allows organisations to identify the gap between their presumed positioning and how they are really perceived in the market. It allows organisations to

understand how consumers perceive the brand and how they evaluate the brand relative to its competitors. This will help organisations pinpoint where perception differs from intention and help them understand why campaigns fail despite significant investment.

Perception is not something an organisation can control. However, there are some elements that are manageable and that can support them in how their brand is perceived within the marketplace among their competitors. A perceptual map enables organisations to understand how customers position their brand relative to competitors and identify opportunities for repositioning.

Why does perception matter?

In a world that is constantly competing for our attention, perception is as natural as breathing. From their very first interaction with the brand, customers begin forming conscious or unconscious perceptions. From that moment, customers will either engage with your message or disregard it.

With Pringle of Scotland the brand’s primary customers were aged from forty onwards and wanted to attract a younger audience. After conducting a focus group with the age range they were targeting, it came to light that most of them were seeing the brand as old. Many associated the brand with their grandparents’ generation. As a result, the brand no longer felt relevant to the audience it wanted to attract.

The audience Pringle of Scotland wanted to attract perceived the brand as old and outdated. Although this perception might not be entirely negative, as the brand has over 200 years of heritage, heritage should not be confused with being outdated. In order to change the perception of their audience the brand had to review and update the outlook of their clothes and collaborate with brands such as H&M to reposition themselves.

Organisations need to continually monitor their relationships with their customers to understand their customers’ needs and wants so that when the advertisement or so that when advertisements or brand communications are released, customers are more receptive rather than subconsciously blocking them out. An individual reacts based on their perception rather than an objective reality.

How can organisations respond?

Organisations control the narrative, but they do not control perception. By understanding who their customers are, what they need and the challenges they face,organisations can tailor communication that genuinely resonates with their audience.

Perception is something organisations must continually observe, understand and influence. As a result, this is not something organisations should leave to chance. Only organisations that truly understand their customers are likely to close the gap and build stronger brand perception over time.

If perception is subjective, then how much control do organisations really have?

Perception belongs to consumers. Organisations cannot control perception, but they can influence it through clarity, consistency, and most importantly, a deep understanding of their audience.

A brand is a living entity. Like a human, it thrives, it fails, and if neglected, it deteriorates and fades.

Sources & Further Reading

• Schiffman, L. G., Kanuk, L. L., & Hansen, H. (2007). Consumer Behaviour: A European Outlook.

• Difference Between. Difference Between Absolute Threshold and Difference Threshold

• Brand perception

Many businesses focus on logos, visuals, social media, marketing, or how to go viral, but struggle to articulate who they are and how they want their brand and business to be perceived. It is important to highlight that when we talk about brand identity, it goes without mentioning that we are also talking about the brand’s image.

Brand identity is the internal foundation of your brand, encompassing your values and operational controls. In contrast, brand image is the external reflection of how those efforts are viewed by your audience.

What is a brand?

Let’s define what a brand is. A brand is a combination of various elements such as the name, logo, values, motto, ethos, products, services, and the environment in which the business operates. Together, these elements differentiate the business and help make the brand memorable in a crowded marketplace.

Brand identity vs brand image

Brand identity defines the brand’s strategic foundation. It is the tangible and intangible part of your brand. It is something customers can see, feel, touch. It is unique and comes with a set of associations for what your brand stands for and promises to your customers. It is about who your brand is, which includes its purpose, vision, brand values, positioning, promise, visual identity, and tone of voice. This part is intentional, as it is how you want your brand to be perceived. A luxury brand may define itself as exclusive, timeless, sophisticated, and rooted in heritage and craftsmanship. That is identity.

With brand identity, you are in charge of how you want your brand to engage with the external world. It reflects how you want your target audience to view and perceive your brand. When the identity is correctly applied, it establishes the emotional connection between your brand and your audience.

Your brand identity will usually encompass your logo, your products and services, your promotion, retail environment, as well as your social media presence. All of these elements of your brand identity are what will make your audience connect with your brand. When your organisation controls the brand identity, this process will in return activate the brand, creating the external expression known as the brand image.

Just like a mirror, brand image is your brand’s identity reflection; it is all the elements of the brand’s identity coming to life. It is from your customer’s perspective, and how they view and perceive your brand.

Ensuring your brand identity and brand image are aligned is essential, as any gap between the two can create a distorted image and affect how customers perceive your brand.

What is brand personality?

Brand personality is about how the brand behaves. It is the human character people associate with the brand. Brand personality translates that foundation into a relatable human character. If the brand were a person, what characteristics, personality, or traits would it have? How would it speak, behave? What values would it have?

Brand personality encompasses behaviour. It humanises the brand. Customers attribute human characteristics or traits to the brand, and that is where brand personality begins to form. It helps customers make sense of the marketplace pool of brands.

During the customer experience with the brand, the human personality will come to life. Your organisation’s internal processes shape a unique set of traits, characteristics, and values that define its personality. This strategy relies on brand personification, where customers attribute human traits, emotions, and behaviours to non-human entities.

Brands whose personalities are closely aligned with their identity are more likely to build emotional connections with their customers. Equally, brands that align with a consumer’s self-concept are more likely to be chosen. When a brand’s identity and personality are coherent, and that personality resonates with how the customer sees themselves, the brand image becomes clearer and more recognisable. It is no longer left open to interpretation, but becomes a reflection the customer can identify with and emotionally connect to.

Looking at it from a human anatomy lens, brand personality is the essence of what your brand is and how it behaves. Without the personality aspect, the brand lacks essence and becomes sterile. Brand personality is what translates the identity foundation into a relatable character.

Final Thoughts

The brand’s identity is like the skeleton: it provides structure. Brand personality is the character: it brings that structure to life. Without brand identity and personality, brands blindly follow the latest trend bandwagon in an attempt to capture customer interest and emulate their market competitors. When brand identity and personality are aligned, customers respond with emotional connection and deeper engagement.

Identity gives direction. Without it, brand personality becomes random. Decisions become inconsistent, positioning becomes unclear, and the brand sends mixed messages because it does not know what it stands for. Without both, the brand becomes misaligned.

Personality creates emotional connection. Without it, brands become sterile. The brand feels generic and becomes difficult to remember or relate to. Customers purchase on an emotional basis before it is justified rationally. Some brands have brand identity without personality, while others have personality without identity. The memorable and strongest brands have both. A strong brand personality sets you apart from other brands in a crowded industry.

When managing a brand, one must ask: What does your brand stand for? How should your brand behave? Are brand identity and brand personality aligned? Those are the early questions that shape how a brand functions, behaves, and is ultimately perceived.

A brand is a living entity. Like a human, it thrives, it fails, and if neglected, it deteriorates and dies.

Sources & Further Reading

• Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team - Alina Wheeler and Debbie Millman

• Strategic Brand Management - Kevin Lane Keller

• “Brand Identity and Brand Image” - research paper

• “Self-image, Self-concept and Self-identity Revisited” - Joseph A. Bailey II

In today’s world, brands constantly emulate human characteristics. Jennifer Aaker’s model has long been the North Star that companies use to instil a sense of humanness and bring a brand to life. Jennifer Aaker introduced five core brand personality dimensions, each supported by a set of associated personality traits used to measure how consumers perceive brands:

• Sincerity: down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful

• Excitement: daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date

• Competence: reliable, intelligent, successful

• Sophistication: upper class, charming

• Ruggedness: outdoorsy, tough

For decades, these dimensions have helped organisations scale, measure how their brands are perceived, understand which personalities consumers attribute to them, humanise their brands, and create emotional connections with consumers.

However, after attending a masterclass on uncovering my own archetype and triad, it made me reflect on the fact that human personality is defined by more than a single trait; we are a complex blend of archetypes that define who we are at the core and how we show up in the world. While the Aaker Personality Scale remains highly influential, it raises the question of whether five broad categories and 15 underlying facets are sufficient to capture the complexity of modern brands.

This experience led me to question what truly makes a brand feel alive: how well the audience relates to it, which stems directly from the personality the brand emulates. If brands emulate human characteristics, it needs to happen on a much deeper level.

This raises the question of whether five broad personality dimensions alone are sufficient. Human beings are rarely defined by a single dominant characteristic. We are shaped by multiple personality traits, lived experiences, motivations, and contradictions. Just as there is an infinite variety of personalities, brands should also possess a more nuanced, individualistic personality. If brands seek to emulate human behaviour, shouldn’t they reflect that same complexity?

While the Aaker Personality Scale helps organisations understand and measure how consumers perceive a brand, it may not fully address how brands intentionally build a rich and distinctive personality in the first place.

Consumers naturally personify brands by attributing human characteristics to them. If brands seek to emulate the richness of human personality,a gap between intended brand personality and perceived brand image will leave room for the audience to define the brand themselves.

An under-defined brand personality influences how consumers interpret the brand.

If a brand personality lacks depth and definition, does it leave consumers to fill the gaps themselves and, in doing so, create their own interpretation of what the brand really is?

Ultimately, this points to the idea that the more refined and detailed a brand’s personality is, the deeper and stronger the relationships it can create.

I find the Aaker Personality Scale to be an essential framework for helping organisations understand how consumers perceive their brands. However, measuring personality is only one part of building it. Reducing room for interpretation gives organisations greater control over their brand narrative. The more clearly a brand defines its personality before it reaches the consumer, the less room there is for interpretation and distortion. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, that clarity may become one of a brand’s strongest differentiators.

If brands aspire to behave more like humans, then defining their personality with greater depth before measuring it may become an increasingly important part of brand strategy.

“A brand is a living entity. Like a human, it thrives, it fails, and if neglected, it deteriorates and fades.”

Sources & Further Reading

• Aaker, J. (1997). Dimensions of Brand Personality

• Strategic Brand Management Kevin Lane Keller