How to create a cosmetics line?

Do you dream of creating your own cosmetics line from scratch? Do you want to know all the secrets to creating your own cosmetic brand?

At Studio Concept, we are a marketing agency specialising in the cosmetics industry, offering comprehensive services to enhance your brand. In addition to creating eye-catching packaging designs, we are experts in building websites for your e-commerce, ensuring a solid and professional online presence.

The cosmetics market is expanding. There are many emerging brands and those that have been established for decades. In order to stand out, you need a guide that reveals all the basic steps to succeed in your business.

Just like skin care, each step is valuable and useful for a specific purpose.
In this article, you will read all the information you need to realise your dream.

Choose the right name for your brand

The first step in creating a brand is to choose a catchy name that expresses its personality.
The name should be reminiscent of the type of products on sale and the target clientele to which it refers.

Choosing a name for your brand is not a step to be underestimated because it can determine its success or failure. By following a few simple marketing rules, you will be able to find the right name for your cosmetics brand.

We at Studio Concept also use communication plans, marketing strategies and market research to find the perfect name for our clients’ brand following these suitability requirements:

• Expressing the brand’s potential.
  The name must reflect the brand image, so that it can fit into any communication and promotion scenario.
• Be attractive in the marketplace.
  It must reflect everything the brand has to offer.
• It must be visible and unique.
  It must not blend in with the competition but at the same time be easy to memorise and search online.
• It must have a meaning.
  The name is like a mirror reflecting the personality of the cosmetic product line. It must therefore conceal a message that reflects it.
• It must be the result of market research.
  In order to avoid mistakes, one has to know the names of competitors in order to analyse them and at the same time make sure one does not run into copyright infringements.

The subject of European brand name registration is a big topic that we will develop in a future issue.

Identify your target market

To be successful, one must not wait for the customer to choose the brand, it is the brand that has to define the perfect type of customer.

Once this awareness is achieved, it will be crucial to modulate the message you want to convey in order to attract the right clientele.

A perfect marketing strategy aims at empathy and the latter would be difficult to achieve without identifying one’s target market.

Defining the target audience is never a simple analysis. We at Conceptsnc adopt specific marketing strategies in this regard. Our experience has taught us to identify it at an early stage through five basic steps.

1. Identification.
   In order to identify the target group, several aspects must be identified.
   Firstly, demographic data, such as: age, income, gender, occupation, etc.
   Secondly, psychographic data, such as: interests and hobbies.
2. Observation.
   It is necessary to observe and analyse the competitors’ target audience and the way they communicate the promotional message of their business in order to identify weaknesses and strengths. Analysing competitors is not to copy their work but to make the best of it and solve the worst.
3. Consultation.
   By consulting authoritative sources such as ISTAT, Confcommercio and Federconsumatori, it is possible to obtain free demographic, geographic and psychographic data on the target audience. In order to best define it.
4. Trend analysis.
   Every target market has its own trends. By intercepting new trends, you are always up-to-date and therefore more visible.
5. Social Media Analysis.
   Using in-depth tools and metrics that each social media outlet provides, followers can be identified and analysed to discover the content that manages to get the most interactions such as likes, comments and shares.

At Conceptsnc, we offer Social Media Marketing strategies among other services, because social media is an ever-growing sector. One has to exploit them intelligently and professionally to achieve amazing results.

Develop a distinctive product line

After choosing a name and target market, a distinctive product line must be developed.

In a fast-growing market, your brand’s product type must stand out from all others because it will sum up the brand’s values and the trust customers place in it.

Just as an iPhone is not just a smartphone, just as Air Jordans are not just shoes, your cosmetics are not just cosmetics but a unique commodity.

With this in mind, it becomes necessary to implement measures for successful branding.

Firstly, permits must be obtained, regulations must be complied with and, above all, the mark must be registered with the Ministry of Health.
In addition, it is necessary:

• obtain a formulation from expert laboratory chemists of cosmetic products;
• carry out a BIP and security assessment;
• create the logo;
• create graphics for packaging and labels;
• carefully choose the shape of the packaging and gift wrapping;
• analysing the trend in the relevant sector, in your case the cosmetics sector;
• create material to propose products also online and open an e-commerce site.

There are so many steps to be implemented in the process. For this reason, many brands decide to delegate all the work to professionals like us at Studio Concept, to guarantee flawless results.

Create eye-catching images for your brand

To stand out in the cosmetics market, you need to create eye-catching images for your brand.
It is not just a matter of taking beautiful advertising photos, but of creating winning graphics from the logo, product packaging and labels. You can see many examples of our work here.

1. Logo

Cosmetic products are synonymous with beauty and sophistication. These characteristics must be immediately apparent from your brand logo.

The creation of the logo requires:

• decide what you want to communicate with it;
• find easy-to-read fonts;
• choose icons that can reflect the personality of the brand;
• rely on graphic designers whenever possible.

2. Packaging Design of the cosmetic product

The packaging of the cosmetic product will be the first thing the customer will see and touch. For this reason it must be impeccable and reflect the personality of the brand.

A useful tip would be to create a moodboard of your brand. That is, group together images, advertising photos, colours and fonts that reflect the brand’s style so that you can be inspired by them.

In addition, it is important to analyse current trends. However, the packaging should be timelessly attractive so that its style can remain trendy for as long as possible.

3. Labels that will be applied to the product

To design labels that immediately catch the customer’s attention, fonts that are easy to read and reflect the personality of the brand must be chosen. In addition, it is important:

• choose attention-grabbing colours;
• create a simple and clear design;
• place photo and logo in a strategic position;
• organise the label according to a visual hierarchy.

Select suitable ingredients and formulas

After designing your brand, it becomes necessary to choose the right ingredients and formulas for cosmetic products. In reality, the process of building a cosmetic brand, for example a skin care brand, should always start with the product idea, the search for and proposal of something new, performing, on trend with market demands and able to say something new in the huge world of cosmetics. That’s quite a feat! Today, in fact, we have the feeling that dozens of cosmetic lines are launched that are practically all the same in terms of content and formulas. Of course, the design and the ‘narrative’ or style of the brand change a lot, but in the end there is a great product homologation. This is why it is very important to give yourself the right amount of time for research, through a comparison with formulators and/or producers and with the marketing and communication agency that will follow your project. We are at your disposal!

To stand out from the crowd and make products safe for both the environment and the customer’s health, sustainable ingredients and controlled formulas must be selected.
The selection of ingredients is crucial to achieve excellent performance and make the texture pleasing to the customer.

To avoid making fatal mistakes, it is essential to rely on specialised centres and to test the products several times.

Contact us if you want to build and launch your own line

The beauty marketing and communication agency Studio Concept is at your disposal. Contact us if you would like to have a discussion and involve us in your cosmetics project. Both for large companies and small start-ups that want to build something new.