Beauty is something the world cannot get enough of, and there’s always room for more. But anybody undertaking the creation of their own brand in fragrance, cosmetics or styling products has their work cut out for them. Initially, they must find their target customers and understand those customers’ needs. Equally, they must develop content for social media and consider what steps they will take to grow their business once they establish it. The panelists for the Mastermind Session “Creating Products for The Beauty Industry” will give you their best advice on how to create a beauty product and launch your own brand!
10 Tips on How To Create a Beauty Product
Find a white space
Finding your place in the beauty industry is incredibly important. “Make sure you’re relevant, make sure you’re filling a need,” said Caroline Frabrigas. She is the co-founder of Scent Invent Technology and the CEO of Scent Marketing Inc. The latter is a family business she inherited from her late husband. “My family business is a love story; it’s legacy, it’s passion,” Caroline said. She started her career in beauty at Estée Lauder and Chanel, where she learned a lot about the industry.
It is essential to understand the unique DNA and the characteristics of the brand you are working on in order to define its backstory: “You really need to dig deeper and understand what’s missing and plug into that within the competitive landscape.” You can do that by assessing brands you admire, looking at their products, their packaging and pricing, among other things. Then you can set a perception map and do research to discover where that open space in the landscape is. According to Caroline this exercise is crucial, and every brand should practice it.
Research consumers’ needs and interests
Award-winning beauty entrepreneur Abby Wallach is the co-founder and CEO of Scentinvent Technologies, a fragrance and beauty innovation company reengineering how consumers use and wear perfumes. “We had a mission and a vision for the creation of new forms, new functions. Our fantasy when we started was to offer the consumer new ways of experiencing fragrances, new textures, new formats; new delivery systems without alcohol, without oil. And now that vision has become a reality, which is very exciting,” said Abby. She explained that their product was not easy to create; it took a long time to understand the consumer’s ideas and interests.
Figure out what products you want to put on the market
Professional makeup artist, hairstylist, beauty expert and product developer Marc Harvey has worked in the beauty industry for more than 13 years, partnering with top brands such as L’Oréal and Bobbi Brown. He decided that everyday women should have access to and an understanding of airbrush makeup applications. “That was my thing: introducing beauty innovation because that is what airbrushing is.”
Marc wanted to create something that everyone could benefit from, himself and his mother included. This is what led him to create MHB (Marc Harvey Beauty) Cosmetics. For Marc, the most important thing to him are the ingredients he puts into his creations. “I wanted to create something where everyone felt like ‘Oh wow!’” The focus, according to Marc, should be more about the product you are applying to your skin rather than the method you use to apply it.
Find something different
Mary Santorella, who has over 25 years of experience in the fashion and beauty industries, worked as a press/media correspondent for Christian Dior, Estée Lauder, and others. For her, you have to focus on the 3 Bs, which are “brand, branding, and branding identity.” Succinctly put, the 3 Bs are about how the market perceives your brand. In other words, “Branding is consistency and flexibility and what you’re doing to differentiate your brand from the pack,” said Mary.
Protect your brand
Attorney Shirin Mohaved specializes in helping fashion and beauty brands legally launch their brand and said that legal documents are vital to protect yourself and your brand and avoid disaster. “A legal disaster can end up bringing down a very great business for simple mistakes that were not addressed in the foundation,” Shirin said. Consult an attorney right from the beginning of your business idea so that you’re protecting your brand and avoiding costly mistakes.
YOU are the brand
Marc Harvey explained that you have to create the brand by yourself and with your energy. “Making sure everything still has that energy and that it’s from you because YOU are the brand,” he said.
Have an interesting story
Brands use social media such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to promote their products in today’s world. For Iain McLean, an experienced DP, Director, Advertising Creative Director and producer, this is a great marketing strategy, especially for starter brands. Iain has worked for big brands like L’Oréal, Maybelline and Covergirl, and also the all-natural makeup line Shy Girl Los Angeles. In his words, “We took it, and we elevated it, and we turned it into an all-natural vegan brand that was in the nude ranges, primarily targeting African Americans and Latinos.”
Iain has worked with Marc Harvey on his brand and said that it took a couple of years to build it. In addition, your brand needs to have an interesting backstory. This is imperative, according to Iain. “The biggest problem I see is cutting through the volume that’s out there,” he said.
Find the right influencers
Dee Riviera, CEO of DCG Public Relations, explained that you need to reach out to other people working in the beauty industry. Makeup artists and influencers, for example, will tell their community about your brand on social media. “You’d be surprised how effective that is because they have real people following them.”
Be different
When first entering the beauty industry, you have to be different: “Interestingly, many corporations are looking for innovative, interactive, experiential events,” said Sue Philips, an internationally renowned fragrance expert who has worked for over 30 years in the fragrance industry. She launched her career by establishing her global consultancy Scenterprises Inc. in 1990. More than ten decades ago, Sue created the first Custom Fragrance Studio, The Scentarium. “I thought, ‘Why not customization for fragrance?’ and I started to develop fragrances and custom fragrance initiatives,” Sue said. She recently changed her brand name to Sue Phillips Fragrance.
Be educated
Vera Moore is the CEO and President of a successful family-owned business, Vera Moore Cosmetics. For her, the key to creating beauty products is education, because you need to figure out what the skin’s needs are. As she expressed it: “Skincare is the foundation. makeup is an accessory.” Vera was one of the first black actresses on national television, performing on NBC’s “Another World” where for ten years she portrayed “Linda Metcalf”. She saw that there was a massive void in the market for quality products for women of color. “I knew who I was, and that’s my foundation. This is why I did it. It was all about self-esteem, it wasn’t about lipstick. It was about breaking barriers, leveling the playing fields” which led to the birth of Vera Moore Cosmetics.
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