Why Your Beauty Brand Needs a Hero Product
In the fast-paced beauty world, where brands compete on time to market, efficacy can sometimes feel like an afterthought. Launch barriers for beauty brands have never been lower, with everything from stock formulations to turnkey product development.
One thing all the successful beauty brands have in common is successful product innovation. Many successful brands have built their businesses on the backs of hero SKUs. Think of products like Summer Friday’s Jet Lag Mask, or the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation. Innovation and delivering on a promise will ensure you'll stay on the shelves.
Creating breakthrough beauty products
To create breakthrough beauty products, you need a blend of left-brained analytical, methodical, and right-brained creative thinking.
Nars had the idea of naming blushes after feelings. In 1999, Orgasm was the first blush to feature pinky peach with shimmer.
Popular products like Orgasm are crucial for marketing and boosting sales. As of 2023, Nars has 62 SKUs, and Orgasm accounted for 23% of sales in the U.S. and 7% in the rest of the world.
A hero product's success depends on quality, marketing, and sometimes luck.
However, there are nuances that affect the ability of a hero product to scale. For instance, skincare best sellers are often the result of strong formulas and loyal customers. Hero cosmetics are products like eye, face, or complexion items that customers buy often because they like them. But this market is crowded.
Cosmetics must keep up with cultural trends like the "clean girl aesthetic" and latte makeup. They need to stay current with what's popular. However, for any product to become a best seller, it must deliver on its promise and change the way customers feel.
Becoming cult-worthy
Cult beauty brands don't need to worry about limited funds because their hero products generate plenty of excitement on its own. Getting the top influencer or spending tons in marketing right off the bat isn't always the best route to go. Product innovation and efficacy can win over consumers.
Brands that create popular products will attract influencers and their followers, no matter what changes happen in the future. This helps them stay relevant and successful in the market.
A hero product allows you to focus content on capturing niches. Providing too many products across too many categories can lead to your business strategy becoming too dispersed. If you carefully select your top SKU, you’ll get organic traffic based on search intent that aligns with your product. Redesigning the rest of your catalog to match your hero product also helps you retain and convert much more traffic.
Having multiple categories of products isn’t a bad thing. But it’s also a good idea to focus on your best offering. Choosing a hero product will drive your content and sales. Generating posts around this product will make the traffic on your site more organic and highly targeted.
Conclusion
Choosing the right hero product can be easy if you use the right resources. Categories, customer trends, and even your own sales records will tell you all about good-performing SKUs.
Once you’ve chosen your hero product, all you must do is give it the exposure it deserves. Put it in your product showcase, make sure it’s a top spot, and add as much extra content as possible.