Sophie Maxwell, Futures Director, Pearlfisher02.26.14
Beauty is now expected to fulfil so many lifestyle requirements while still delivering optimum efficacy.
We previously talked about the new need to create and design for the individual, but on a mass level, and also beauty needing to create new definitions and spaces. These two needs are now starting to pull together and be realized as we see a new generation of brands finding new ways to marry product with experience and forge a new level of customer connection.
We are looking to brands to suggest a perfect balance of inspiration, individuality and emulation, products and experiences, starting from a prescriptive but original viewpoint that then allows us to interpret and fit around our own lifestyles.
Martin Margiela’s ‘Replica’, the follow up to his challenger scent ‘Untitled’, captures this exactly with a beautiful range of scents unlocking the essence of familiar scents, locations and moments in time, and including Beach Walk, Jazz Club (for men) and Lazy Sunday Morning (unisex).
We have seen brands targeting a younger tween audience and devising complementary packaging and naming strategies to reflect a life lived through social media.
The trend for more industrial and urban packaging design also really took hold but has maybe had its shelf life? Ultimately, brands need to look at developing a yet more specific – but flexible – long-term strategy for their different (global) audiences.
Mama Skin is a range of bathroom products that can be found at Mama Shelter hotels and, while a specifically tailored range, one that is rising to this new challenge with a design that both reflects the master identity and promotes a sense of occasion.
A simple, elegant, all white cylinder with a velvety touch. A series of cheeky sayings/naming devices communicates both the organic quality and the multi-use of the contents, with phrases like “mama loves you from top to bottom” (multiple messages also mean that regular guests are treated to a different message every time they check-in and that the bottles become highly collectible).
The Cowshed brand is revered around the world for offering luxurious, relaxing and naturally indulgent spa experiences. Positioned as Cowshed’s “naughty little sister,” Cheeky, designed by Pearlfisher, is about the next iteration of the brand. (See a photo here.)
Taking its premise from spa to salon, Cheeky is a total beauty brand that brings products and experiences together to complement the lifestyle of a new generation of young and urban social butterflies.
Cheeky’s specific proposition is to create a world of playful indulgence that projects attitude and spark, and helps women to create their own unique, captivating beauty. Conversational names such as “Pimp my plume” and an eclectic mix of paint tubes, paint pots and rolls creates a sense of retail theater and a unique consumer experience.
Above all, it’s about focusing on new and ever more empathetic ways to connect one-to-one.
Today’s beauty consumers want to become – and are increasingly becoming - curators of their own stories and experiences are looking for ways to engage with brands to explore and create their own worlds of experience at home that embraces, but goes way beyond, the brand.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sophie Maxwell is Futures Director at Pearlfisher. Contact her at sophie@pearlfisher.com / www.pearlfisher.com