If you love cosmetics, lotions, makeup, and more and have watched the success of Kylie Jenner’s billion-dollar business with envy, you might be dreaming about starting your own beauty brand. Of course, going down this path isn’t an easy way to go, and success certainly isn’t guaranteed. Plus, there’s a tremendous amount of competition to go up against.
However, it has also never been more feasible to start a beauty brand from scratch with lower barriers of entry. Such products tend to sell well even during economic downturns, too. To set yourself up for the best chances of success, here are some tips for launching your new brand.
Research
Before you begin planning too much of your own business, spend plenty of time researching. Learn about the target market you want to sell to so you can determine who these people are, what they want, what puts them off, how and when they shop, and so on. The clearer you are on your potential clients, the easier it will be to see how to move forward with your beauty brand effectively.
Plus, investigate your competition. Look not just at other beauty brands in your area, state, or the nation, but those worldwide that sell online or through distributors and retailers to the customers you want to go after. Learn what products other ventures sell, their packaging, branding choices, customer service levels, price points, how and where they sell their wares, and more.
Work Out Your Specific Niche and Point of Difference
Understanding the above information will help you work out the specific niche you want to target with your new brand. There’s no point trying to make products that suit everyone, as they’ll end up serving no one. Instead, decide on a specific part of the market to focus on, whether that’s women over the age of 60, busy professionals in their 30s and 40s, sustainability and nature-focused buyers, or a totally different client type.
Think about exactly what your point of difference can be, too. With so much competition in the beauty arena, you must find a way to stand out from the crowd. This might be in the type of product you create, your branding, the target market you focus on, your price point, sales or marketing strategies, packaging, etc. Find this unique selling proposition (USP) before you get too far down the road of launching your brand if you want to give yourself the best chance of success.
Test and Then Test Some More
Another tip for making your brand stand above the rest is testing all your products thoroughly. You should try them on yourself and as many friends, family members, colleagues, etc., as you can before starting to the public. Ask for honest feedback and direct people with critiques by asking them where you think you could improve, what their favorite and least favorite parts of your products and branding are, what they might do differently if they were you, questions you still need to answer for users, and more.
Once you’ve done this part of the process, start testing your products and marketing choices on people you don’t know. Start small, though, such as by selling at some local markets, trialing a small pop-up store, getting one retailer to stock your items, or testing a single product on a marketplace such as Amazon or Etsy.
Get as much feedback as you can, revise your goods and other elements of your business, and then test again. This work will help you avoid investing too much money into items that won’t land well with your target market, and it will assist you in refining your pricing and marketing and sales strategies, among other things.
Sell Online
While a crucial part of your branding plan may be to get your beauty products stocked in national and international retailers, these days, most entrepreneurs find that they also, or only, want to sell online. Ecommerce continues to grow, and people are more comfortable buying beauty items online, so this is an affordable way to start your business and begin to build a following.
Ensure you have a quality website with clear product descriptions and photos, plus videos where possible. Make your cart and checkout process user-friendly and consider offering free or low-cost shipping and returns. Plus, provide excellent customer service and answer people’s questions ASAP.
Take care with your packaging and shipping, too, so that products arrive safely to purchasers. Depending on your products, you may want to invest in a quality temperature indicator for the logistics process so that goods don’t get too hot or cold in transit and melt or work ineffectively for buyers.
Some other tips for launching your own beauty brand include getting yourself one or more mentors, developing a solid business model and manufacturing strategy that’s scalable for growth, keeping a close watch over cash flow, and learning about relevant legal and insurance matters.
Building a new business in this arena takes time and strategic thinking, but following all these tips will help.