Benefit Graciously Attributes Its Success to San Francisco. Aww...

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San Francisco's Benefit Cosmetics celebrated 25 years of boutiques in the city this week, and next year the company expects to join the league of billion dollar brands. Not bad for a business that's known as much for its products as its cheeky sense of humor. But at Benefit, humor is also a product— just look at the company's tagline, "Laughter is the best cosmetic." It's also an effective tool for selling makeup, according to SFGate. "They're Real! mascara is currently the No. 1 selling mascara in the U.S. and Benefit is the No. 1 prestige brand in the United Kingdom (unseating Clinique)… Benefit's new They're Real! Push-Up Liner, which took five years to develop, is positioned to achieve similar results," the site reports.

Benefit's social media strategy has played a critical role in helping the company, and execs tell SFGate that the brand's SF home base gives them an advantage. "We're in San Francisco — the center of the digital tech world," Nicole Frusci, Benefit's vice president of brand marketing, says. "We have the luxury of physically going to Twitter and Facebook and meeting with them to get best practices."

If Twitter-proximity is responsible for Benefit's spot-on Sharknado 2 coverage, then more beauty brands should consider a move to SF.

· Benefit Cosmetics traces its success to being born in S.F. [SFGate]
· Six Beauty Products To Help You Survive a Sharknado [Racked]