Aug 26, 2026 · 30 min · 8 segments
In this week's episode of Building Brand Advocacy, Samantha Critchell, VP of Corporate Communications at e.l.f Beauty, explores how e.l.f built a zero-distance community by blurring the line between…
Samantha CritchellGuest
Verity HurdHost
Is there an example where you've actually had to make a hard decision that you thought was brilliant, but the community were like, no, this isn't the thing.
We did have stores at one point in time and we, part of our accessibility model is actually that we are sold at the Targets and the Walmarts and on Amazon.
And so having our own stores actually siphoned off the accessibility of while you're grocery shopping or while you're, you know, at the mall with your family.
So something, I mean, we closed the stores and that was several years ago, but that was probably the hardest thing the company had to do.
So that's interesting because, I mean, there is a bit of a trend with sort of beauty and fashion to almost obsess about those hubs.
So how do you sort of see democratization? Is there anything that you guys do that's...
possibly a difficult call that most people would look at that's a bit unusual but that is so in tune to the way that you operate
we talk about selling in dollar general um which you know truly serves what we would call beauty deserts but there is a massive population in the us who doesn't have access to these other stores and not even access to a walmart But Dollar General, which is a key partner for us, and we show up for them, best of beauty.
Is there an example where you've actually had to make a hard decision that you thought was brilliant, but the community were like, no, this isn't the thing.
We did have stores at one point in time and we, part of our accessibility model is actually that we are sold at the Targets and the Walmarts and on Amazon.
And so having our own stores actually siphoned off the accessibility of while you're grocery shopping or while you're, you know, at the mall with your family.
So something, I mean, we closed the stores and that was several years ago, but that was probably the hardest thing the company had to do.
So that's interesting because, I mean, there is a bit of a trend with sort of beauty and fashion to almost obsess about those hubs.
So how do you sort of see democratization? Is there anything that you guys do that's...
possibly a difficult call that most people would look at that's a bit unusual but that is so in tune to the way that you operate
we talk about selling in dollar general um which you know truly serves what we would call beauty deserts but there is a massive population in the us who doesn't have access to these other stores and not even access to a walmart But Dollar General, which is a key partner for us, and we show up for them, best of beauty.
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