Natural cosmetics are becoming more and more popular among those consumers who want to take care of their skin thoroughly, carefully and effectively.
It is logical because natural cosmetic products are made from ingredients of natural origin: plant extracts, beeswax and essential oils.
Natural cosmetics have a number of advantages over conventional synthetic products:
Skin-friendly ingredients. This means a low chance of irritation and other skin problems.
More pleasant and milder scent, gentle texture.
Eco-friendliness. Natural ingredients are biodegradable, so they have less impact on the environment when disposed of.
And if you’re an experienced beautician, chemist, or just obsessed with cosmetics and always on top of the latest trends and innovations, why not dedicate yourself to this passion by creating your own brand of cosmetics?
This article will walk you through the key steps of the project and the steps you’ll need to take to successfully launch your business.
Market research
The first step is to conduct market research to confirm that there is a business opportunity. To do this, you will need to:
- Understand customer segments and buying behavior.
- Know about major market trends.
- Assess the level of competition.
To do this, you will need to gather data from existing databases such as statistics, studies, websites, articles, as well as handing out questionnaires, conducting surveys, and so on.
Natural cosmetics are a niche market.
Eco-friendly products help attract new consumers who want to change their approach to their health and are eager to get rid of chemical cosmetics.
Target audience
- Women of 25-45 years old with average income. They combine taking care of the family with work.
- Elderly people taking care of their well-being.
- Allergic people with skin problems.
- People who strive for responsible consumption.
Thus, natural cosmetics are increasingly becoming part of the new buying behavior.
Selection of the concept
After studying the market and defining the target audience, the next step in creating a cosmetics brand is to clearly and accurately define your commercial positioning.
For this, you need to have an idea of your concept and the type of target customers:
- What types of products will you offer: shampoo, cream, scrub, lotion, etc.?
- For men, women, children or all groups?
- In what price range?
- What are you buying for: pleasure, care, cosmetic problem solving?
By analyzing the answers you receive, it will be easier for you to decide on the key points of the business idea:
- Production process. Would you take charge of product development or would you want to entrust the development to a competent team to broaden your variety?
- Target marketing channels: Specialty store selling exclusively your brand; cosmetics departments in malls; drugstores; commercial website?
All this work will help in defining your brand identity.
And then you have to sell that identity through a story that will appeal to potential customers and generate trust in your products.
Searching for distribution channels
The main types of distribution of cosmetic products are: physical store and/or distance selling.
Both have strengths and limitations, but the most important remains the alignment between the distribution channel and brand identity. Organic and relatively expensive products are easier to sell in an exclusive store with only one brand than in a supermarket between two distributor brands.
Before you start opening a store, you can also try a “pop-up store” format. The temporary store should be located in the city center, in a high-traffic shopping area. You can also rent an island in the mall, a department in a SPA or cosmetics boutique.
Main expenses
The next step in creating a cosmetics brand is to estimate the material and human resources needed for the launch. This is useful for developing a financial projection of the cosmetics brand and implementing a business plan.
The master list will include:
- Research and product development costs.
- The costs of manufacturing and certifying the product.
- Costs related to logistics: storage, packaging, product delivery to points of sale.
- Investments in marketing: design and creation of the brand, creation of the site, various advertising elements.
- Costs associated with the creation of the company: registration, certificates, permits, etc.
If you decide to distribute your cosmetic products through one or more stores, you will also have to take into account in your financial projection the rent and decoration of premises, utilities, etc.
If e-commerce is chosen, don’t forget to consider the costs associated with building, maintaining and promoting a website.
Marketing Plan
To successfully launch a cosmetic brand, it is recommended that you develop a marketing plan that will allow you to attract and retain customers. The strategy adopted will depend on your budget and ambitions.
But here are some ideas to explore:
- Internet. A good way to make yourself known and connect with customers, even if your brand doesn’t sell its products online.
- Use your website as a showcase for your brand: focus on presenting your products, their composition and all the elements that set you apart from the competition and make your brand unique.
- Post original content, such as photos or beauty tips, on your website and social media accounts.
- Focus on SEO optimization.
- Develop relationships with beauty or fashion bloggers, such as sending them samples so they can try your products and tell their community about them.
- Distribute your products on marketplaces.
- Traditional stores. You can try contacting malls, perfumers, or selective perfume stores to suggest that they sell your products. You can also contact beauty salon owners and beauticians.
- Media: Press, local TV or radio station.
- Street marketing: handing out flyers or samples; light boxes, etc.
Attractive promotions during launch or sales and creating a loyalty program are also great ways to attract and retain your customers.
A cosmetic brand business plan
The next step is to develop a business plan, which allows you to test the financial viability of your project and serves as a roadmap for the first few months of operation.
In a simplified form, a cosmetics brand business plan consists of two parts.
The first is a financial plan outlining the financial needs of your project and its potential profitability.
The second is a written part presenting the project, the market, your commercial strategy; striving to highlight strengths and anticipate risks associated with launching your brand.
Sales terms and conditions.
For a point of sale of natural cosmetics you need a room of 15 to 30 sq.m. After renting, you can proceed to investing in equipment: shelves, showcases, decoration, cash register, packaging elements, signage and so on.
A cosmetics store must be completely transparent about the origin and composition of the products it sells. Therefore, it is necessary to have staff who are fluent in the range of cosmetic products and able to answer customers’ questions. For a small store two employees are enough.
Equipment and materials
Depending on the type of business and cosmetics brand you want to launch, two solutions are available to you: create products in your own laboratory or choose to outsource production.
The list of necessary laboratory equipment includes:
- Dissolver for mixing, chopping and dissolving ingredients.
- A mixer for even mixing of ingredients.
- Autoclave for sterilizing raw materials.
- Vacuum containers.
- Laboratory scales and utensils.
In addition to equipment, you also need a variety of auxiliary and consumables: alcohol, ph paper, personal protective equipment and others.
Each project is unique, so the amount of investment will also be different. On average, launching a cosmetics brand requires at least $1000.
This budget does not include the cash you will need to cover various daily business expenses.
Product Creation
Firstly, your entire cosmetic project should be systematized in a document called a spec sheet that clearly defines your goals and the results you want to achieve. This tool allows you to plan and manage the progress of your cosmetic product development operations.
The design of your cosmetic products begins with the ingredient sourcing phase, which consists of finding the raw materials you need.
Once this is done, you can move on to prototyping in the lab.
The goal is to find the right formula that provides safety, efficacy and aesthetics. To evaluate the quality of the formula, each cosmetic product is subjected to a series of laboratory tests.
When you are satisfied with your product formulations, the creation of the packaging begins. This is a key step because product packaging plays an important role in their marketing – it makes your beauty products stand out and conveys your brand image.
Finally, the final step and the culmination of your cosmetic branding project is to launch the production of products to sell in the market.
The 4 core values that a natural cosmetics brand should carry:
- Natural origin of ingredients.
- Perfect quality.
- Reasonable prices.
- Affordability to customers.
To do this, remember to keep an eye on your market and potential competitors to find out which products are the best-selling and most popular on social media.
For one thing, you can draw inspiration from these ranges to offer them on your online sales site or at the point of sale, for example, or you can analyze product formulations to best adapt them to your brand.
You can also take specialized training to learn more about natural ingredients, as well as learn the mandatory rules for creating cosmetic products.
