Are you considering launching a beauty brand? There are five crucial lessons to learn before you launch.
1. Choose your niche: clean or scientifically proven ingredients?
These two new categories of beauty products are a great place to start when choosing your niche. Using ‘clean’ and ‘natural’ ingredients sets you apart from regular cosmetic brands and can be a great starting point to create your brand’s personality.
Alternatively, there is a new crop of beauty products arriving in the market which are labelled as ‘scientifically proven’. These products have usually undergone clinical trials and focus on science, requiring focused messaging.
Whichever category you decide to choose it’s important to remain transparent and ensure your messaging aligns with your ingredients, manufacturing, selling and organisational management.
2. Know the rules
Different countries have different regulations around the ingredients you can use and import for beauty products. Additionally, different countries may have different labelling requirements around how to list ingredients, how claims are classified (eg. ‘organic’) and other country specific requirements. Looking into this before you order your labels will save you time, energy and money.
3. Make sure you test
It sounds obvious, but always test your products before placing a bulk order! You should test every product on all different body types. For example, if you’re making a rich moisturiser make sure you have it tested on dry, regular, oily and sensitive skin. That way you’ll know what type of skin it will suit best and can direct that group of people to your product. Or if you are not happy with the outcome you can refine the formula.
Also, make sure you test packaging and labelling. You’ll want to make sure your lip balm comes out of the twist dispenser, that your spray bottles don’t leak and that your moisturise pumps easily. Please don’t skip this step. Even if you think your product will suit your packaging, you’d be surprised what issues can come up and what incredible improvements you can make. Testing will allow you to make a better product overall and always pays off in the long run.
4. Nail your logo and branding
Your logo and branding is the face of your business personality. It sets the tone for how your packaging, website and socials will appear. It’s also super important to make sure the brand name you choose isn’t already taken or trademarked!
Being consistent with your branding makes your products look professional and clean. You can set yourself apart from your competition by nailing your brand colours, shapes and overall feel at every opportunity.
People love showing off their new goodies on social media so ensure that when people glance at your product they can tell what the brand is without having to zoom in. Focusing on this now will also make it easier down the track if you decide to incorporate influencers into your marketing plan. Influencers might post on social media to a large and engaged following so making sure you get your branding clear in their photos or videos is super important.
5. Create a foolproof marketing plan
Consider how people find out about your brand. You might consider having PR as well as a social strategy to get people interested in your brand before you even launch. The competition around new beauty brands is very high so your marketing strategy is key to your success.
Launching into the beauty industry is highly competitive but with these five lessons on the top of your mind you’re ready to move forward and build the brand of your dreams.
