Standing Out from Sameness
The shift to digital plays an important role for brands who want to achieve long term success. Brands must now also consider a website, a social media plan and a designated team of community builders before launching. But brands can only be so different from one another, especially online.
In 2019, skincare made up about 40% of the global cosmetic market across other categories and most of them have a website, on social media or both. Consumers now have access to endless choices of whatever brand they could ever want. A skincare line for men? A quick search on Instagram reveals 10 new brands. A woman-owned, clean beauty brand? They’re even more.
So how do brands stand out?
In fact, a better question is — can they?
To Stay or Leave
As more brands emerge competing for the same market, it’s easy for brands to get lost in the industry. To stay relevant, most brands get creative with their offerings — whether that’s a new product each week, a latest celebrity collaboration or a limited edition bundle.
For smaller businesses though, it’s getting even harder to keep up. They’d need a bigger overhead spend to run giveaways or launch new products. All while keeping up with the latest trends, their competitors and keeping they costumers happy and interested.
The race to the top is a long, messy road and will require a lot more money than one would think. But all too often, brands forget the reason they started in the first place. And that’s where it goes wrong.
Beyond the Brand
Before every successful business is this: the need to fill a void in the market. And all too often, business owners forget why they started in the first place. They’d get caught up in the numbers, the latest trends or what their competitors are doing that they forget what brought them here, what made them start. And that’s purpose.
Each business have strategies to gain competitive edge. But for most successful businesses, their purpose is what drives them forward. Every aspect of their organization all points to their why. From product development, branding, messaging and even day to day operations.
When businesses lead with purpose, they’re able to stay true to their identity and form a community within in their brand. They can understand their audience better, respond to their needs accordingly and provide support. In return, they are able to outperform their competitors and lead to a greater and long-term profit due to customer loyalty and employee engagement.