Branding and E-Commerce Strategy Optimization for a Small Skincare Company
Situation:
Like many other small business owners, our client was greatly impacted by COVID-19. Prior to the pandemic, she thrived on in-person events with face-to-face interaction with consumers inside of a number of boutique retailers. Our client had a narrow consumer base, mostly targeting female sailors (with a few male products). Our client has an incredible story, and we felt that if we could share her unique experiences as a woman in a male-dominated industry with her overall commitment to environmentally friendly practices and social justice initiatives, it would increase brand awareness and generate overall traffic on her sites. She also needed help with organization, so our strategy needed to be thoroughly accessible.
Challenge:
Our biggest challenges were working within very narrow margins, keeping our client organized, creating a more aesthetically pleasing and easier to navigate digital presence, and figuring out how to share her captivating story online as compellingly as she had in person. Additionally, because our client was a one-woman business, we needed to create a very detailed short-term and long-term timeline for her that gave her a step by step implementation guide. Our client was also averse to altering the brand, whether that meant tweaking packaging or her logo, and had recently removed her product from Amazon.
Approach:
After our client revealed her passion for story-telling combined with her background in teaching, our team conducted preliminary research on how companies have been able to harness their core values.
Blog roll out allowing for authentic conversations leading to a larger community
Adopt a brand ambassador program that targets Instagram influencers to market the brand who can tap into different consumer segments
Partner with other brands with similar core values on IG (IG Live, IG Giveaways)
Revamp her website to make it more easily accessible + make a more aesthetic IG presence (since the skincare industry grabbing more Gen-Zers and Millennials through Tik-Tok)
Increase her team size (add an intern)
After presenting these ideas to the client, our team decided that it would be best to primarily focus on the blog, and what it takes to make it successful. We chose this because our client’s forte was storytelling, and it would be easier for her to implement with her given skillset. We also found that many of her direct competitors have blogs and seem to have boosted business. Our team felt that since her story was so unique, she could carve out a space for herself in a crowded market. We also pushed her to launch a brand ambassador program as she had been considering it for a while and had started to research the idea. Our team felt that these two strategies could play off one another with the larger “community” aspect.
Impact:
By the end of our engagement, we provided the client with a detailed guide to launching her blog, a new brand and name for her blog including 10+ story ideas based off her experiences and passions, IG graphics to modernize her page, instructions on how to properly utilize SEO, information on email semiotics, a quick introduction into texting services, and a step by step guide to executing a successful brand ambassador program from start to finish including best practices for choosing ambassadors.
Rem and Company Team:
Team Lead: Heather Boehm
Senior Strategist: Malorie Lipstein
Strategist: Yash Srivastava
Brief description of the client:
Company: Sustainable Skin Care Products
Industry: Beauty/Wellness
Location: Harlem, NY
At Rem and Company, we're on a mission to keep doors open and dreams alive. Rem and Company started as a social impact initiative offering free consulting services to small businesses impacted by COVID-19. Rem and Company has become an information hub and digital community platform for small businesses in need. At Rem and Company, small businesses stay up to date on trends in their industries, learn new approaches from peers, build a network, and develop the capacity to adapt as the world around them changes. Our consulting teams provide small businesses with the opportunity to identify and prioritize issues facing their business, propose innovative strategies and facilitate execution. If you are a small business owner and want to learn more about how we can help, request a free consultation.