Do you want to create a stand-out beauty and cosmetics brand? Well, the secret ingredient you need is a strong niche. One of the biggest mistakes we see in the industry is a failure to niche, causing both short and long term problems for brands.
Your main goal in developing your brand should be to create a highly focused beauty brand that reflects the needs, values, and desires of your chosen niche. By doing so, you create a much stronger brand that is more likely to succeed in today’s competitive market.
At pH Factor, we are big believers in the power of innovation, and discovering your niche helps you do exactly that – innovate! To have a desirable cosmetics brand you should know your niche and who exactly your products are for.
What is a Niche?
In essence, a niche is your point of difference in the market. It is the key to standing out in a highly competitive and crowded market, by offering a specific type of product to a specific type of customer. For example, a vegan face mask is a niche market in the wider face mask market and is serving a specific type of customer: the vegan, health-conscious, and eco-friendly market.
Choosing a niche is essential for effective marketing and sales. As much as you may want to, you can’t target everyone effectively. As the age-old marketing saying goes, if you try to speak to everyone, you’ll end up resonating with no one in particular. So, while a vegan face mask may be suitable for everyone to use, it is inefficient to try and sell to everyone.
So how do you find your niche? One of the best ways to find your niche is to imagine yourself as a potential customer. Ask yourself why you started your own business and what was the inspiration behind this decision? Remember, a strong niche comes from your unique values and passions, as well as your customer profile.
Here is a list of questions you can ask yourself to help find your niche:
- What problem can I solve or what problems do I experience? For example, if you struggled to find a natural fake tan on the market then think about creating a natural fake tanning range.
- Which group of people experiences this problem the most?
- What are my top 3-5 values?
- What is your unique approach to problem-solving?
Alongside asking yourself these questions, you will also want to create a customer profile that narrows down your ideal customer by demographics, psychographics, and even down to specific beauty features, such as skin colour, skin type, etc.
By doing this, you’ll help gain a clearer picture of exactly who and what your niche is.
The Importance of Finding Your Niche
Finding your niche in the cosmetics industry will ensure your products stay relevant and in-demand in the eyes of your consumers.
Discovering your niche allows you to narrow down and discover exactly who your ideal customers are. This will allow you to direct all of your marketing and promotions toward your specific audience, rather than failing to really connect with just anyone and everyone.
When you have a niche beauty brand that caters to a specific target market, such as vegan customers, these customers will see that you appreciate the same values as they do – this will in turn make them want to buy from you again over your competitors.
Having a niche beauty brand expresses a sense of authenticity and uniqueness which are highly favourable traits among today’s modern beauty shoppers.
The Consequences of Having No Niche
Without a niche, your brand’s product range won’t be highly focused, and therefore, won’t stand out.
When you first start out creating your beauty brand, you may be tempted to ‘do it all’ and create products suited for everyone. This is not recommended. You will only end up making a product that only partially makes a statement of appeal to each group, which will, in turn, never fully appeal to anyone.
While you can expand your product range in the future to accommodate a range of ages and skin types, it is a better idea to start off targeting one group very well. This will express credibility and allow you to be seen as an expert within that particular product line.
Also, not finding your niche can make more room for product error and product wastage. In most cases, when beauty brands don’t have a clear niche they produce a wide variance of products using bulk production.
As these products are not highly targeted, they are usually unsuccessful resulting in a loss of profit. Launching with a smaller run allows you to test product packaging with your niche and helps you refine your products in alignment with your customers’ feedback.
When developing your beauty brand, make sure to carefully craft your niche so that you can create a highly appealing brand. Not only will this contribute to creating an authentic brand image, but it will also allow you to create a brand that your customers can’t help but be loyal to.
