Starting your skincare brand with a brand

Thinking of starting a skincare brand?

A lot of our skincare clients come to us with an idea of the costs of a product and their USP. But as we know, skincare is probably one of the most crowded and competitive markets to enter as a new brand.

So when clients ask us: how can we win? Our two key roles to help them? The first is to build its brand world, from strategy and identity to touch points and rituals. The second is to build a solid marketing strategy and execute it well.

At STRE, we don't believe in building good brands through shortcuts or cutting corners. We always do our due diligence when it comes to brand building: start with research-backed brand strategy.

Starting a business where ideas begin

In STRE's experience dealing with entrepreneurs who have pioneering and fresh ideas for a skincare brand, we truly understand that their mission is to create the best individual product as possible, as they believe that best product will give them the best chance to capitalise on the potential market share, and in a way the best product with the best volume sold means they've won and have created something genuinely valuable to the market and consumers.

The industry we're dealing with? Here's a clearer picture.

Thailand loves skincare, and the numbers show it. The Thai cosmetics market is worth about 260,000 million baht and still growing, and skincare is the biggest part of it, close to half, according to the Thai Cosmetic Manufacturers Association. That sounds like room for everyone, and in a way it is. But a growing market also draws a crowd. The big international names already sit at the top of the shelf, Thai brands have grown into household names, and new products arrive every week, online and in store.

But this all just means that the market is growing, so there is room to enter. However, with the market being this crowded, there is no room for another “generic-looking bottle”. Entering a saturated market like this, your focus shouldn't prioritise just “how to grow”, but “how do I make my brand distinctive amongst the others on the shelves?”

So what does “distinction” actually mean in skincare?

By this point, most founders have stopped asking how to make a good product. The many OEM factories already know how to make good products.

The challenge, actually, is: how do I get people to choose mine, and then come back for it? In other words, your business is only really successful when someone finishes their first bottle of yours, and decides to buy a second. This means that your “distinction” has made an impact on them, and now they are proactively choosing you above others.

How brand strategy will define your distinction

Distinction can happen when you actually understand the playing field and who you're building this for. This is where brand strategy comes in and helps define how you will show up. Who is this for? What do they believe about their skin that no brand is serving yet? What is the experience and value proposition they are after? How do they like being spoken to?

Our goal is to make sure that there's less guesswork. These questions need to have solid answers, and these answers are based on research.

“Distinction” is not just about the look and feel

By now most founders feel like they've done their branding, because they've got a logo and colour palette they like. Many OEM factories offer logo and packaging design as part of the package. What that usually gets you is a logo and a label, but neither one can tell you why the consumers should choose you over the bottle next to yours.

Our goal is to build brand worlds. Strategising and creating your brand world in a comprehensive and coherent way ensures that every decision and execution keeps the brand distinct and staying true to its DNA. Essentially, how do we make sure that your desired target audience will notice, remember, and repurchase you, when they probably scroll through hundreds of posts on different skincare bottles in a week?

Product differentiation strategy

As part of our brand strategy exercise, we will also need to define your strategy for your product differentiation to ensure its distinction, especially when you are entering a very crowded market. For example, will your brand differentiate by “importance”, “value for money”, “superiority”, or “preemptiveness”? As part of our brand building process and advice, this is something that needs to be decided by the founder or brand owner; the OEM factory is there to execute and bring the product formulation to life. Essentially, through in-depth research on the industry, the landscape, and consumer insights, we identify the winning lane your brand should take.

Can you start with marketing right away?

Starting with marketing first without a brand behind it may work for a short-term period. Marketing efforts without a distinctive brand to drive it will buy attention you can't keep: people may click, people may try once, and they'll most likely forget which bottle it was. Most likely, you'll end up chasing content trends, spending more on ads, and churning out heavy promotions, and you're not sure of what your direction is either.

How does brand strategy drive marketing? It will decide the message that you put out, the audience you need to speak to, and the customer experiences and touchpoints that you need to have to meet the audience where they are.

In our experience of rebranding and brand refreshes for skincare clients, we often come across brands heavily investing in marketing, but there is no clear target audience, no clear product differentiation, no brand storytelling, no clear identity, and ultimately, no reason that the customer should choose it over others on the shelf.

So let's get that branding solid first. Once we know who your brand is for, our marketing strategy will be developed based on that. We will identify whether your audience will need you on Meta, TikTok, Google searches, AI searches, or e-commerce platforms. We will also strategise and execute SEO management, KOL management, offline activations, events, and campaigns when your brand needs it most.

So you want to start a skincare brand? Let's get together and talk about your branding.

As you see, the difficult part of starting a skincare brand in Thailand isn't getting it made. The manufacturing, the formula, and the FDA filing are all things you can find and your OEM partner will most likely be able to support you with all of the production processes. But why your brand needs to exist, who you are creating solutions for, and how your brand will show up to them, this is where we'll help define and build for you.

Book a free consultation or see how we built the Mami brand world.

Sources

• Bangkok Biz News: Thai cosmetics market size, Thai Cosmetic Manufacturers Association
• Bangkok Biz News: skincare share of the market, Thai Cosmetic Manufacturers Association
• Thai PBS: number of cosmetics manufacturers in 2023, Office of Trade Policy and Strategy
• Office of Trade Policy and Strategy, Ministry of Commerce: report on Thai cosmetics, September 2024 (manufacturer counts 2019 to 2023, Office of SME Promotion data)