The skincare industry is booming and is here to stay as we become obsessed with improving our skin and looking better. Sharing your skincare routine turns into a trend, whether you see beauty influencers or celebrities following it. This boosts consumer demand for skin care products, and it would be exciting for you to launch your own skincare line. Nevertheless, it would be challenging for new skincare brands to compete in the market. However, with the power of skincare branding, you can make your product stand out from others and take control of your success.
Effective branding is the only difference between a symbolic and an average skincare brand. Whether you are a skincare business startup executive or brand strategist looking to improve your skincare branding game, we have you covered.
This guide will explore the crucial steps for successful branding and provide the best skin care branding examples from the real world to help you gain a deeper understanding.
How do you do branding for skincare?

1. Determine your target audience.
Demographics
Not all skincare brands have the same target demographics. Every brand’s target is different. Your skincare products are not for everyone. For instance, if you sell petroleum jelly and body lotion, your audience would be those suffering from sensitive and dry skin instead of those with oily skin. The branding would be different for acne-prone and oily skin. Therefore, it’s essential to do in-depth research to learn about your audience demographic. It mainly covers target group age, sex, location, education level, income, relationship status, work, and education level.
Psychographic
Take a step further and research their psychographics as well. Find out your target audience’s beliefs, pain points, shopping preferences, interests, dreams, and communication channels they mostly use. Product price also plays a role in targeting consumers.
If your brand offers premium skincare products, you must do branding that appeals to this specific group of people who can spend more on their looks. If your brand offers affordable products, you must target those looking for effective skin problem solutions at a reasonable price. Therefore, it is vital to identify the right audience before creating a logo, attributes, and price to sell your skincare products.
2. Research your competitor’s skincare brand.
Next, your brand needs a complete analysis of your skincare business competitors to come up with a unique positioning for your brand. Your brand positioning makes you distinct from your competitors. You need to know everything about your competitors’ brands: how they sell, their communication (brand voice and tone), visuals, values, and positioning in the industry. However, it’s crucial to find the right competitor.
As we see in the example of the Glow recipe, their competitors have synthetic skincare products. However, they position the brand products as having fruit ingredients and cruelty-free products for glowing skin.
They share the process of showing exactly how they formulated their watermelon glowy serum, or Watermelon Glow Dew Balm SPF 45. This strategy attracts their target audience, who crave to buy sun protection. The cherry on top is that they get all-day skin hydration and a glow with protection.
Now, consider your brand’s unique aspects to appeal to the target group. Your products may be eco-friendly or sustainable, provide instant results, or use natural ingredients. Therefore, you must research your competitors well to find out your brand’s unique position to sell.
3. Define the Essence of Your Skincare Brand
Knowing who you are as a company is essential to positioning your brand in the market. Brand attributes are the soul of a brand’s identity. Being clear about your brand attributes helps build credibility, relevance, consistency, and proper positioning for your brand.
Your brand values, mission, voice, and personality reflect the brand attributes. When you define your brand essence effectively, your consumers will learn more about your company traits before looking at a product that creates your brand perspective in their minds. Find out what sets your brand apart from others.
- Are your products innovative or sustainable?
- Do you have cruelty-free skincare products?
- Is your brand lively? Luxury? Or sympathetic? Or is it sophisticated?
Define your unique selling point with emotions to set your brand apart.
4. Channel Your Brand Story
Share your inspiration for why you built the skincare brand with your target audience so your consumers can relate, as they like real stories behind the curtain. Meanwhile, incorporate your brand story with your brand narrative to build authenticity around your brand and an emotional connection with the audience.
5. Create an inspiring visual identity.
Build an impressive visual identity that represents your brand personality. Your brand visual identity covers your brand’s logo, typography, color palette, web design, photography, and overall aesthetic image. A clear and compelling logo makes your brand instantly recognizable, while the color of your products and design provokes a feeling in customers that connects them to the brand.
Keep in mind that consistency will make all the difference in your skincare branding. Whether it’s your website design, product packaging, social media posts, or advertising ads, you must adapt a consistent tone to reflect your brand personality everywhere.
6. Market your skincare brand.
When you complete brand strategies and visual identity, move into social media to market and advertise your brand. It helps you make your brand recognizable and increases your sales. When your potential customer looks at your profile a few times, your effective skincare branding will leave a mark on their mind.
It creates brand awareness, and potential customers recognize your brand before you provoke them to make a purchase. Be more active on the social media platforms that your target audience most often uses. Make a medical blend of skin care products, refine and test it before introducing it to social media marketing.
The best skincare branding examples
These aspects make a significant difference for successful skincare brands, from visual brand identity to product packaging and brand attributes to voice and tone. Here, we will delve into the best skincare branding examples of iconic brands that are thriving in the industry and building loyal customers over time for you to get inspiration.
1-Glow Recipe
Emerging brands like Glow Recipe have quickly gained a significant position in the industry. Since 2017, its cult following has grown due to its iconic brand image, which appeals to skincare enthusiasts. Their logo gives off the vibe of a clean, natural, and modern look. The pink color in their visuals adds a touch of femininity that delivers a smooth, passionate, and lovely tone.
The brand creates aesthetic product images by spotlighting its core ingredient—fruits that create a sense of nostalgia. It sparks a fresh and natural vibe with a pop of color that makes its product distinct. Brand personality empowers women to treat their skin with natural and eco-friendly ingredients for its ever-changing needs.
Additionally, they relate their watermelon product to the founders’ grandmother’s usage to resonate with the target audience and give the brand product a personal touch.
The brand voice revolves around self-acceptance, ditching unrealistic beauty standards, and gaining real results for actual skin.
Their brand message of accepting real skin as beautiful creates a buzz in the industry and appeals to women who are insecure about their skin issues. This realistic branding approach with quality products quickly makes them loyal customers.
2-Ordinary
“Simplicity is the ultimate beauty.” This perfectly reflects the Ordinary skincare brand that prompted a shift in the industry. Since 2016, they have positioned their brand as simple, authentic, transparent, and entirely resonates with customers who need straightforward skincare solutions.
Their logo, minimalist sans-serif font, brand name, and neutral color represent their honesty and simplicity. The minimalist packaging is simple but still appealing to the audience. It has a brief description of the ingredients at the front.
Ordinary is authentic about its product by educating customers first and then treating their skin according to their needs. This branding strategy builds a customer’s trust, and word of mouth boosts sales.
They build their brand image by showing care and transparency to consumers through reasonably priced clinical treatments that are accessible to all.
Takeaway
Skincare branding requires consistent upfront work to be successful. However, the good news is that it’s achievable. You can do skincare branding by identifying your target audience and competitors, defining your brand attributes and visual identity, and marketing your clinically proven and beneficial skincare product. Be consistent at all touchpoints and build your dream skincare brand.
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