What would you tell the CEO of one of your favorite beauty companies if you had a few minutes of his time? e.l.f.Beauty and Tarang Amin is inviting people to answer exactly that, with a specific request: tell the company which causes you care about and where you would like it to do more.
Through their new “Dial 0 for Zero Distance” campaign, callers can hear from Chairman and CEO Tarang Amin and leave him a voicemail. On November 13, callers even have a chance to speak with him live. To keep the momentum going, the company is opening its Impact Town Hall to the public on November 19, streaming live on LinkedIn.
I love this approach. Asking people about the causes they care about gives them room to share aspects of their lives that a beauty company might otherwise never hear. It also puts the person leading the business directly in the conversation, giving him a chance to ask questions and understand why an issue deserves attention.
Burger King proved earlier this year just how much interest this kind of open-door invitation can generate. In February, the brand's U.S. and Canada president, Tom Curtis, shared a phone number and invited customers to text or call him about their experiences. By July, reports said more than 86,000 people had responded.
The Burger King campaign was impressive because the company was prepared to do something useful with their feedback. Curtis took as many calls as possible while a dedicated team organized the feedback and routed issues to the relevant leaders. Customers discussed product quality, inconsistent hospitality, and individual restaurant experiences, and many just called to share praise and nostalgia.
Crucially, Burger King explicitly linked this feedback to two major initiatives: Your Way Champions (a restaurant leadership role focused on resolving guest problems) and the Whopper Guarantee (which offered a replacement and a future free Whopper when an eligible order fell short). Customers who had asked for better service could clearly see how the company was responding. That visible connection between asking for feedback and making tangible decisions is what makes customer engagement successful.
With e.l.f., the conversation goes a step further by focusing on the social causes people want the company to support. That makes the invitation even more interesting. A customer can explain where they see a need, what they have experienced, and why they believe the brand can help. The company gets a chance to understand the human reasoning behind a request.
A fascinating consumer-research perspective is at play here, too. In a 2011 Journal of Consumer Research paper, Wendy Liu and David Gal found that asking consumers for advice actively increases their sense of closeness to an organization and their willingness to engage with it. The very act of asking for input changes how people experience their relationship with the brand.
I see that exact potential in e.l.f.’s approach. Being asked where a company should direct its resources gives consumers a proactive role in the conversation, rather than just reacting to a corporate press release. Their lived experience becomes something the business explicitly wants to learn from.
The CEO’s direct involvement gives the invitation serious weight. When someone leaves a message for a senior decision-maker, they expect their concern to be seriously considered. That creates a responsibility for e.l.f. to explain what happens to this input once the phone lines close. This is where the brand needs to be highly specific: What themes came through? Which issues were unfamiliar to the team? Where did the company see an opportunity to step up?
Consumers understand that a business has financial and operational limits. But explaining exactly how priorities were chosen gives them a basis for judging whether the invitation to call was meaningful, or just a marketing stunt. The upcoming public town hall is the perfect venue to begin that discussion. I will be listening closely to hear how these phone calls informed their strategy, and watching for updates as those decisions develop.
From a research perspective, it will also be vital to look at who participates. People willing to call a CEO often have strong opinions or a pre-existing emotional connection to the brand. Their stories can highlight questions worth investigating with a much wider group of customers, including those less likely to pick up the phone but directly affected by the causes discussed.
Burger King offers one final, practical lesson here: preparation is everything. Entrepreneur reported that BK assembled its response team months before sharing Curtis’s number. Managing the feedback was built into the campaign's DNA from day one.
I applaud e.l.f. for giving its community this opportunity. It puts a senior leader in a position to hear priorities in people’s own words, including concerns the company may never have thought to ask about. Now, the follow-up will determine its true success. If e.l.f. can show callers exactly where their contributions went, they will have built something substantial to anchor their next big conversation around.
Dania Khalife
