Introduction
Some brands that first soared on Instagram are now facing a curious situation. Fast forward five years or so, and Millennials dominate their customer base. Then when these brands extended their reach to TikTok, they attracted a notably younger, Gen Z crowd.

Their challenge – How to cater to two distinct demographics while maintaining brand cohesion?

Even as messages are tailored for different platforms and audiences, a consistent, overarching brand message must resonate with the entire customer base. This is a piece of cake when a brand has a clear brand positioning and understanding of its core values. But without this, brands that didn't define what they stood for at their inception are experiencing an identity crisis right about now. They show up differently on Instagram, TikTok, and even on their own website.

Emerging demographics present incredible opportunities for growth when capitalized on correctly.

Knowing Your Customer Base
You’re likely sitting on a treasure trove of customer insights, but can't find the time and space to piece this all together. Refreshing existing Customer Personas, or creating them for the very first time, will be crucial to unlock your distinct customers' needs, preferences, behaviors. Most importantly, you’ll get certainty on what truly draws people to your brand.

Here are a few places to start:

• Google Analytics: To analyze demographics and the quantitative aspects of customer behavior.
• Customer Reviews: To identify themes around what customers like, dislike, and value around the experience of your products and brand.
• Social Listening Tools: To monitor online conversations about your brand, products, and industry, analyzing trends, sentiments, and topics of discussion.
• Online Survey Tools and Discussion Groups: To gather direct feedback on customers' needs, preferences, and pain points.

Creating a Blueprint
The information collected will serve as a blueprint for your strategic steps forward. When you know what attracts customers to your brand, you’ll be able to establish an overarching value proposition that resonates equally with all groups. With a sharper proposition under your belt, you can tighten your messaging, storytelling and presence across your channels, to build a richer connection with your customer groups. Brands that do this work also have the upper hand when it comes to paid media campaigns. Their air-tight copy, tailored to distinct audiences, hits the spot and supercharges customer acquisition campaigns.

Adapting to Change
If you’re sitting on data that holds the key, the price of inaction can be damaging when you add it all up. It’s the opportunity cost of missed connections with new prospects that ‘don’t quite get you’, and deeper connections with your existing customer base that will cost you over time.

In a world where beauty industry trends change rapidly, and the digital landscape evolves, it is imperative for brands to adapt. Maintaining brand cohesion while catering to different demographics is a delicate balancing act. But it's necessary to ensure that brands can stand the test of time.

Loved this article? Sign up to our mailing list for more

Introduction
A great brand story is more than just the tale of a founder, or why the products are so exceptional. It encapsulates what your brand stands for and how it aims to transform the world of its customers, and so much more.

The catch is, a brand story is one of the simplest things to our in place early on in your brand’s journey.

Brands without a well-defined story tend to focus their social content heavily on their products, because there's no framework in place to help their team create content about anything else. And here’s the thing – this means they’re missing out on the leveraging their most powerful asset when it comes to truly building an engaged and loyal customer base of raving evangelists.

Your Brand's Story Made Simple
With new brands launching every other day, how does one brand differentiate itself from the rest? The answer lies not just in the quality of its products, but in the resonance of its story. The best brands understand that every person who engages with their product is on a personal journey. And they offer not just a product, but an experience, a belief, a transformation.

In the heart of every brand is a story waiting to be told. What's yours?

Let's break down the elements that make your brand's narrative captivating and unique:

1. Identify Your Why: Every brand should know its purpose beyond profit. This 'why' becomes the core of your brand's narrative.
   
2. Know Your Customers: Immerse yourself in the environment of your customers. Why is your brand a beacon in their daily lives?
   
3. What's Your Promise?: Go beyond just listing what your products do. What makes them special? Why are they better than others?
   
4. Prove It: Words are just words unless you show they're true. What makes people believe in your brand? Show them why they can trust you.
   
5. The Difference You Make: It's not the product; it's the experience. How do you redefine your customer's world? It's not just about utility but the emotion you evoke.
   

The Way Forward
In an age where customers have a plethora of options, those brands that establish genuine emotional connections are the ones that thrive. A compelling brand story, infused with authenticity, has the power to move beyond just transactional relationships and foster lifelong loyalty.

This industry, by nature, is deeply personal. It's intertwined with self-expression and individuality. By crafting a compelling narrative, brands don't just sell products; they create movements, inspire change, and become integral parts of their customers' lives.

In conclusion, while the initial appeal might be in an impressive founder story or product efficacy, what makes a customer return, advocate, and even evangelize a brand is its authentic and deeply resonating story that galvanizes a community. As a brand, it’s your responsibility to not only find that story but to tell it with passion and purpose. And in doing so, you will not only enhance your brand’s value but make an indelible mark in the hearts of your customers.

Loved this article? Sign up to our mailing list for more

A thought-provoking quote recently caught my attention it said - "In a smaller business, you don’t have the budgets, so you’ve got to find ways to do things differently. You’ve got to trust the 21-year-old to bring your brand to life on platforms you aren’t familiar with."

If this strikes a chord with you as a brand founder, then this article’s for you.

So how can brands truly do things differently and set their Social Media Lead up for success?

Firstly, Expand Your Horizons

If your content strategy revolves around these pillars; 'Entertain', 'Inspire', 'Educate', and 'Promote', it might be a good time to take a step back and reassess. It's essential to question if this strategy effectively encapsulates your unique brand story in the ultra-competitive 2023 beauty marketplace.

If asked, could your customers describe what your brand represents beyond high-quality products? Would their perceptions of your brand distinctively set you apart from your competition? Therein lies the importance of evolving your content pillars to delve deeper into your brand's unique narrative, creating a stronger and more meaningful connection with your audience.

That's why the content that only spotlights product features, benefits, memes, or your team packing orders behind-the-scenes isn't enough. Your social feed should be a colorful tapestry that weaves together different elements to communicate the unique essence of your brand, rather than just echoing what everyone else is doing.

Secondly, Provide Support with Strategic Brand Frameworks

So with all this in mind, how do we set the stage for your Social Media Lead to do their thing?

Well, the strategic brand frameworks critical for their success can include;

1. A comprehensive brand positioning strategy that defines your brand's visual identity, brand values, brand tone and brand story.
   You'll need to ensure the everything you intuitively know about the essence of your brand is downloaded from your head, and captured for your new recruit. This information shouldn't be a guessing game for your Social Lead, and when documented can ensure their content is consistent and differentiated from competitors.
   
   
2. Brand content pillars that are beyond the basics and delve deeper into your brand's core.
   You've probably sensed it at times with other brands, but couldn't quite put your thumb on it. Some brands on social media can come across as a little hollow. By having more meaningful content pillars uniquely shaped around your brand's essence, your team can create content that is more engaging and resonant with your audience.
   
   
3. An annual game plan (planned out well in advance) that balances product promotion with strategic storytelling and maps out your quarterly brand-building content campaigns that stem from your brand strategy.
   In theory, we all know that planning in advance allows for more savvy resource allocation and takes away the stress of last-minute execution. But in reality, as a Founder of a lean, yet growing brand - your plate is full. So forward planning sounds more like, "What are we doing for marketing next week". Carving out the time to create a top line brand marketing game plan can do wonders for your brand. And your team can become incredibly focused and intentional about brand building, by perfectly balancing product promotion with storytelling over the year.
   

By providing your Social Lead with these frameworks and the systems to accurately interpret and translate the vision you have for your brand, your Social Media Lead can create content that tells your brand story in the most captivating way. With these essentials in place, you can truly give them more leeway to showcase their tactical expertise to bring your brand to life and they can truly be the catalyst that propels your brand to newer heights.

If you’re thinking to yourself, you don’t have some of these frameworks in place, don't worry - it's a common occurrence for many growing brands. The good news is, it's never too late to get these essentials in place.

At Beautiful Sparks, we help brands put these fundamentals in place to support the success of their team. You’re welcome to reach out for a free brand assessment to explore which tools could be the best for your team, to help them to create stronger and more meaningful connections with your community on social media.

>>CLICK HERE TO CONTACT US<<

In the fast-moving world of beauty, staying in step, or even ahead of the market, is key to truly thriving. As strategic consultants, we often identify classic signs that signal a beauty brand may need a little fine tuning to the brand's positioning, messaging, or visual identity—while maintaining what the founder and customers know and love about the brand.

Here are some of the most common signs;

1. Your Customer Base Has Evolved Since You Began but Your Message Hasn't

As your beauty brand gains momentum, you will naturally appeal to new demographics as your customer base broadens. What's important to understand is that these new customer segments will likely have unique needs and aspirations. And to truly resonate with your audiences, you will need to begin crafting brand messages, content, and campaigns that encompass your entire customer base. Delaying your brand revamp means you miss the opportunity to develop stronger brand messages that hit the spot and resonate with your entire audience and help extend your appeal to more of these new audiences. Your true growth potential is stagnated.

2. You’re Finding it Challenging to Stand Out to Investors and New Retail Partners

Partnerships with new retailers and investors are crucial for driving your next phase of growth. However, securing these deals can be challenging if your brand's positioning, message, and overall presence fail to effectively communicate your unique value and compelling differentiation. Retailers and investors gravitate towards brands that bring their branding a-game, possess a unique and captivating narrative, and foster a community of passionate enthusiasts who resonate with the brand's story. A well-executed brand refresh encompasses all of these essential elements, showcasing your dedication to remaining relevant and meeting the evolving needs of consumers. This investment can position your brand to attract the support of retailers and investors, enabling you to forge valuable partnerships and secure necessary investments to move your brand forward.

3. Your Brand Looks Like Where It Started Rather Than Where It's Going

You have big dreams for where your brand could go, but when you look at your visual branding, you know there's a disconnect. What cut it at Day 1, doesn't quite do the trick a few years down the line. Your brand's visual presence feels a little dated and doesn't truly match the caliber of your products, what you've grown to become, or align with your future aspirations. Not taking action to resolve this holds great risk, it's likely prospective customers feel a disconnect with your brand's vibe too.

4. Brand Inconsistencies are Commonplace

You may have loosely defined brand positioning and brand guidelines from when you first got started, that are also loosely followed. Or, you may have no real positioning guidelines at all. Either way, this is where things can get unstuck as you begin to grow. You may commonly find that your team gets confused, and your external agencies and production partners can become unsure about what the brand stands for. When not addressed, this can result in a "patchwork quilt" brand experience for your customers over time, as a result of your stakeholders bringing their own interpretations to the table about how to express your brand. This brings with it the pain of re-works and re-dos that can frustrate teams and founders and become a costly exercise in the long run.


By addressing brand inconsistencies, adapting to evolving customer needs, and creating a more relevant narrative and differentiation for yourself in the market, your brand can exude a renewed sense of purpose and authenticity that can help unlock new growth opportunities.

Whilst there’s no magic bullet to charting your brand’s course to icon status, there are a few fundamentals that some beauty brands just getting started tend to overlook. But scaling beauty brands can master the art of brand building with a few foundational strategies.

Here are some thought starters to help put the foundations in place;

Read more

The rise of video marketing has led to an ever-growing demand for video content, with Tiktok, Instagram Reels and YouTube now becoming the go-to channels for engaging with beauty and fashion brands. As a result, brands are now caught in a never-ending cycle of content creation to keep up with this increasing demand. More time, budget, and resources are being allocated to create standout video content, making a well-defined strategy crucial to avoid potential brand dilution overtime.

Read more

Imitation might be a form of flattery, but when it comes to copycats ripping off product ideas, visual identity, packaging, and brand campaign shoots, flattery takes a backseat. So, how are brands fighting back in 2023?

1. Strengthen B2C & B2B Community Bonds

The most successful brands focus not just on building strong B2C customer relationships but on building strong relationships with their entire ecosystem of stakeholders to solidify their market position. By nurturing a rich network of relationships, brands accumulate trust indicators over time that encourage well-informed customers to choose them over copycat competitors.

Read more

Sephora is the ultimate destination for beauty brands looking to reach the next level and attract new customers. To help make that dream a reality, this article will explore essential considerations such as understanding market trends and consumer demand, fostering an irresistible brand image, and developing a strong network in the beauty industry that can help you get closer to this goal.

PREPARATION IS KEY ...

Read more

Brands that craft content around authentic stories that showcase their unique brand values, missions, and Founder journey have the upper hand when it comes to cutting through and connecting with customers on a deeper level.

Here we discuss what we can learn from 3 disruptor brands who are making a name for themselves when it comes to stories that connect with and build community. These brands have successfully defined and amplified the soul of their brand, have an authentic story, and create unique brand-aligned social content that doesn't look and sound like everyone else.

Read more