Beauty Brand Strategy, Creative & Consulting

Key challenges facing beauty
brands today:

For years, an insatiable appetite for what’s new, what’s next has fueled the beauty industry. Exploding the category beyond the core: makeup, fragrance, skin, hair, sun & body care to now include wellness, longevity, personal care, spa, supplements & aesthetic treatments.

New brands are born every day. But fewer seem to stand the test of time. They fizzle almost as fast as they sizzle.

While opportunities remain, shifting demographics, market saturation, regional disruptions, inflation, political uncertainty, tariffs, AI adoption, retail pressures, supply chain issues, rising raw material costs, demand for product efficacy, the rise of dupes & new technologies are chilling the once-super hot beauty industry.

So, how do brands cut through the clutter, maintain momentum & succeed long-term despite the chaos & uncertainty?

Where’s the white space?

Product & packaging excellence – yes. Appropriate pricing & distribution. Yes, yes. Community building. Of course.

But as consumers grow more selective & the market grows more saturated, there’s no substitute for true differentiation, discipline, daring. & a strong POV.

The hallmarks of a Challenger Brand.

Whether your brand is a thing of beauty or needs a reboot, at Insurgents we reveal what makes it irresistible & irreplaceable ensuring competitive edge & long-term success.

We identify the One Word Anchoring Theme that crystallizes your company ideology & POV, creates a clearly differentiated position & defines your personality so your brand stands out against the competition & stands up against the test of time. Then we thread that WORD through every aspect of your brand to create a cohesive & inspiring narrative that resonates with your team & audience.

Core Services

We believe brands are best when their purpose & promise touch every touch point. So, we do brands from end to end. Need a formula? We work with the best formulators.  Website? No worries. Digital?  Logo or Package Design? Done! & done!  & we do it all without the outrageous agency bloat that bogs thinking – or budgets - down. Seriously who has time for that!

  • Your ONE WORD Brand Anchoring Theme is your most critical guiding concept. But too often it’s hiding in an accumulating mish-mash of competing ideas. We begin by blowing things up. We take your brand apart piece by piece to reveal the ONE WORD that defines your brand, delivers your promise, disrupts your industry & grows your business.

    • Brand Equity Analysis 

    • Stakeholder Interviews

    • Competitive Review

    • Market & Consumer Insights

    • Trend Analysis 

    • Whitespace Opportunities

    • Quan & Qual Testing (if required)

    • Findings Presentation

  • Now comes the fun part. Rebuilding. We help create a credible, compelling & consistent Brand World including architecture, narrative & culture with the power to burn its way into the hearts & minds of your teams, stakeholders, partners & customers so they believe what you believe & become diehard evangelists.

    • ONE WORD Anchoring Theme 

    • Brand Positioning & POV

    • Storytelling Strategy

    • Brand & Product Naming 

    • Core Messaging & Tone of Voice

    • Visual Identity & Art Direction

    • Portfolio Architecture

    • Brand Culture

  • We design a dynamic & distinctive identity system that is strategically & aesthetically aligned to your brand your including logo design, colors, fonts, photography style, iconography, and other brand elements. Then we show how they are applied across marketing, collateral, web design, PR & messaging. This framework ensures accuracy & consistency at all touchpoints.

    • Brand Guidelines & Aesthetics

    • Mood Boards

    • Asset Library

    • Logo Design or Redesign 

    • Visual Identity System

    • Typography

    • Color Design

    • Package Design 

  • Now it’s time to take your message to the world. We’ll help you create provocative creative, marketing & communications across all touchpoints The result: strategies that pull rather than pitch, experiences that increase mindshare & market share & communications filled with wit, emotion & humanity. 

    • Campaign Creative & Production

    • Marketing Strategy

    • Advertising

    • Website & Ecommerce Design

    • CRM 

    • Social & Content Strategy (Blogs, Articles & Posts)

    • Out-of-Home (OOH)

    • Video & Motion Graphics

    • Photography 

    • Social Mission & Impact Strategy

    • Brand Culture Developmen

  • In a world of rapid-fire change, brands must constantly find new ways to solve authentic problems & bring their stories to life without abandoning their core beliefs. We flood the zone with experiences that increase awareness & engagement, deepen emotional connections, deliver a powerful competitive advantage to move hearts & minds as much as they move businesses & the bottom line.

    • Business Development

    • Growth Strategy

    • Product Innovations

    • Promotions & Seasonal Campaigns

    • Brand Partnerships & Collaborations

    • Influencer Campaigns

    • Merchandising Strategy

    • Retail Experiences

  • Future-proofing is all about anticipating what’s next & developing the strategies that help you to succeed long-term. We have our finger on the marketplace right now & a Spidey sense for where it’s headed tomorrow. This vital intel will help you have the radical readiness to evolve & seize bold & game changing opportunities that will grow your business, disrupt your industry & keep your brand vibrant, alive & relevant.

    • Innovation Strategy

    • Tomorrow Finding

    • Trend Watching

    • Competitive Tracking

Origins
Never stop discovering.

 “We’re not here to test the waters, we are here to make waves” Leonard Lauder told us. Origins didn’t just make waves it unleashed a strategic tsunami that revolutionized the entire beauty industry from product development to packaging or its barrier-free shopping experience.

Alpha-H
Why settle for beta beauty.

We reframed Alpha-H from a clinical, high-performance brand based on Alpha-Hydroxy Acids to one centered around Authenticity, Aspiration, Attitude, Ability, Action & Alphapreneurship. In other words, being an Alpha female.

Estée Lauder
Ask a woman.

If you want to get something done, Ask A Woman. That was the message of leadership, or shall we say Laudership, we wanted to send via our campaign celebrating the extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit, woman-to-woman approach & role modeling of Mrs. Estée Lauder. Sure enough, it resonated deeply across generations & cultures around the world.

Darphin
The art of formulation.

Pierre Darphin was a master skin scientist, passionate botanist, & highly skilled Kinesiotherapist. He was also a man who greatly admired women. Our 3-pronged strategy captured the brand’s passion for perfection, pleasurable performance & personalized attention to make a woman feel like the most beautiful woman alive.

Frederic Fekkai
Change is in the hair.

“Hair is a bit like life – it should always keep moving. Frédéric Fekkai. We couldn’t agree more which is why when it came to reintroducing his signature sexy style, we designed an audacious new campaign that was all about Turning Heads.

Klinger Advanced Aesthetics
How beautiful do you want to be?

Georgette Klinger, often called the “Dean of Skincare” launched the concept of customized skin care treatment. We gave the brand a complete makeover. Renamed the company & reimagined it as a full-service med-spa & “A Place of Possibilities.”

Private Practice
Take your skin to the next level.

After 27 years of practicing aesthetic medicine, we helped Dr. Michele Koo take her Private Practice to the next level bringing 14.8 Instagram followers (& counting) into her skincare Koomunity.

GeoGirl
Put the up in MakeUp.

Walmart wanted to reach the tech-savvy, socially conscious members of Gen Z with a new beauty brand. We helped geoGIRL™ became the first complete collection of fun, informative, interactive, integrative beauty products to engage this next generation of girls.

 Frequently Asked Questions

  • A Challenger Brand is not necessarily a David vs. a Goliath. Or an incumbent vs. an insurgent. It’s a mindset. A brand intent on defying conventional wisdom that limits creativity or one that abides by “this is how it’s done” in the xyz category. It’s more than challenging competitors. It’s about challenging ideas, behaviors and sometimes, even entire industries. Challenger Brands are built a bold belief that the status quo is simply not good enough. And a passion to forge an entirely new path. They may not be market leaders (yet). But they are definitely thought leaders. Brands of all sizes regardless of category, competition, heritage or resources can be a Challenger to drive ambitious growth and impact.

  • Our answer is always the same.  Yesterday. Your brand is your company’s most valuable asset. Branding is not some “nice-to-have” marketing tactic. It’s the first thing a company should do. And the last thing they should abandon. A clearly defined brand influences customer choice. Differentiates you from your competitors, builds loyalty, establishes your culture and ultimately drives to your company’s growth and success. It’s also your guiding light, your beacon that will help you make better decisions and avoid costly mistakes.

  • We don’t cut and paste, swap one brand look and feel for another. Meaning we don’t have an agency style. We take the time, view every project from a very personalized perspective. And because we’re small, we can roll up our sleeved and get in the mosh pit with you to mix things up. 

    Of course, Insurgents is not for everybody. Some clients prefer and need the structure of a more traditional agency approach with layers of support staff. But if you’re someone who likes to be challenged and move fast, is audacious and courageous, we’re your guys.  

  • We know that small shops like ours (and perhaps yours, too) must be thoughtful about time and monies. Our nimble business model means we have no overhead outrageous agency bloat that bogs thinking – and budgets - down. Seriously who has time for that! And we don’t markup up our fees or expenses. So we can achieve your goals at rates lower than traditional agencies. We are never wasteful with budgets.

  • Glad you asked! After years of stirring up some super successful product and kicking ideas around with the scientists and product developers at Estée Lauder labs in Melville, we know just what it takes to formulate a winner. In fact, last year, we helped create 11 new products for Canadian beauty company Fiéra. We know what works, what wins and what wows!

Get in Touch.

Whether you’re an Insurgent start up seeking to be scalable – or saleable – or a Resurgent – a mature brand in search of your lost mojo, Insurgents can help you create bold, game changing ideas, strategies that sizzle and experiences that surprise, engage, delight and inspire customers and move the marketplace

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