Coty pivots CoverGirl back to Gen X as beauty brands weigh Gen Z strategies

Coty is repositioning its CoverGirl brand to target Gen X consumers, shifting away from its previous efforts of appealing to Gen Z. The move is part of the company’s wider turnaround plan for its Consumer Beauty division, which has seen slowing momentum in the past few years. 

During Coty’s Q3 2026 fiscal earnings call, CEO Markus Strobel said the company had been trying to position CoverGirl as a Gen Z brand, but learned that it was not credible with consumers.

The new shift in positioning is reflected in Coty’s Color the Future strategy. The framework prioritizes millennials and Gen X consumers as the core audience for its mass cosmetics brands. 

According to the company, the two groups account for around 70% of sales in the mass makeup category, and the demographic is believed to be underserved despite having significant purchasing power.

“I think, at one point in time, we tried to turn CoverGirl into the ultimate Gen Z brand. That didn’t really work, because this was not credible for the consumer,” said Strobel in the call.

According to Strobel, retailers in the US and Europe express significant demand for products targeting Gen X consumers. He describes what he hears from retailers: “‘Can anybody do something for Gen X? Because Gen X women have money ready to spend, but nobody talks to them.’”

CoverGirl is shifting its focus from Gen Z to Gen X consumers. The move forms part of Coty’s Consumer Beauty turnaround.Coty says it is in the process of making CoverGirl “the ultimate Gen X brand.” According to Strobel, retailers have shown their support for the move.

Chasing results

As part of the Color the Future strategy, Coty is investing more consistently in its established hero products, rather than launching new collections more frequently. 

“Building on our objective to focus our efforts on fewer but more impactful initiatives, we have already significantly reduced the number of SKUs in our Spring 2026 innovation bundles, while in parallel boosting our productivity per SKU,” Strobel said in the earnings call.

“We are also on track to launch 15% fewer innovation SKUs in the Fall 2026 bundles.”

The company highlights its CoverGirl’s Lash Blast mascara and Simply Ageless ranges as examples of core franchises it is pouring renewed marketing support into. 

Strobel said the approach is already showing early signs of progress. 

“The US has been our lead market in implementing our Color the Future playbook, and this is where we have seen the most positive reversal in trends.”

“CoverGirl’s sell-out has improved significantly from an 8% decline in the past year to just a slight decline in the last 3 months, significantly reducing the gap to market. Of course, we are not done yet, as our aim is to return CoverGirl to sales and sell-out growth, particularly in the now healthier growing mass cosmetics market.”

Coty believes Gen X consumers have significant and untapped spending power.Strobel noted that CoverGirl is now outperforming the US mass cosmetics category in unit terms, “which is an important measure, given the significant pricing some peers have taken in the last six months.”

Tough crowd?

In the past few years, the beauty industry has appeared to be attempting to capture Gen Z consumers. Many brands have honed in on catering their offerings to the demographic, hoping to tap the consumer base. 

Unilever, for example, has opted for shaving off its entire Food business in favor of its more profitable Beauty segment. It is now operating its SASSY strategy, which aims to capture Gen Z consumers through product amplifications. One move under the framework saw the giant’s heritage Vaseline brand launch lip glosses designed specifically to look good on TikTok videos.

However, other launches aimed at the same audience have yielded mixed results.

Shiseido’s Drunk Elephant skin care line struggled to retain its original millennial and Gen X audience when the portfolio grew in popularity with Gen Z and Gen Alpha. It soon faced online backlash due to the safety concerns of children using products formulated for adults, and the discourse, coupled with lost engagement from older generations, ultimately resulted in a 65% drop in sales for the brand in Q1 last year. 

“Drunk Elephant… got identified as ‘trendy’ and ‘cool’ by an audience of young Gen Z and tween/teen Gen Alpha users. However, this alienated the ‘serious’ skin-expert audience,” Innova Market Insights’ project lead for Beauty Personal Care previously told Personal Care Insights.

Coty’s repositioning signals a growing recognition that sustained beauty growth may depend as much on serving established consumer segments as on attracting younger generations.

While not completely turning its back on the demographic, it announced in its earnings call that its Fragrance mists are resonating with the younger audience.

“The mists we’ve launched under several of our Prestige fragrance brands are bringing new, younger consumers, particularly Gen Z, into our brands. In fact, Calvin Klein mists ranked number four in Europe on a year-to-date basis as of March, which gives us confidence in the relevance of the format and the way we’re activating it.”

“In the US, we are encouraged to see that total CK Female is growing... Importantly, the launch is attracting Gen Z & Millennial consumers to the brand,” Strobel said.