The Beauty Launch Pod Show shares insights, know-how and advice from industry experts on how to develop a successful beauty business.
Janet interviews beauty brands, retailers and experts across the beauty industry. She delves into the details of how changing trends have influenced the way in which people shop and discusses what it takes to make an impact in this sector.
In this podcast we cover marketing, product development and retail as well as how mindset, positive psychology and your health and fitness are critically important to building a successful business. We aim to educate, inspire, and showcase people who are doing incredible things across the industry.
Through sharing experiences and stories of how people go about launching their beauty brands and how retailers are adapting to accommodate the changes in the marketplace, we can help those on a similar path make things happen.
The purpose of developing a brand is to create something that your customers need and want. This week Janet lifts the curtain behind the scenes to share more about how retailers work, she speaks with Karien Boolsen from the beautiful city of Cape Town. Karien is the Merchandise Executive for Private Label for Clicks in South Africa and for Sorbet.
The Clicks Group is a leading retail group with a portfolio of brands that includes The Body Shop and Clicks. Clicks is South Africa’s leading pharmacy, health and beauty retailer with over 646 stores and 500 in-store pharmacies. The Clicks ClubCard loyalty programme is one of the largest in South Africa with over 7.5 million active members. Their product range includes mass and premium beauty, toiletries, baby, men’s, home and pharmacy.
Clicks have developed a range of beauty products for South African salon brand Sorbet, which are sold through Clicks stores and through Sorbet salons. Sorbet has over 92 shades of foundation, that took Karien and her team over two years to bring to market due to their extensive research. Karien shares how Clicks selects brands for their portfolio and how they went about developing Sorbet Cosmetics for such a diverse range of skin tones.
Listen in as Karien shares
* How Clicks are South Africa’s leading pharmacy group with a very strong health and beauty offering, catering to a diverse portfolio of customers, with over 11 official languages of which English is spoken by 10% as their first language.
* How Clicks relies heavily upon their customer database to ensure that they are developing and launching products to meet their customers’ needs.
* How she and her team developed Sorbet Cosmetics, a range of over 600 beauty products, of which 170 are cosmetics and 30 professional make-up tools.
* How they created over 92 different shades of foundations, and the depth of market research they conducted to ensure that these matched their customers skin tones.
* The importance of brand positioning, pricing, promotional campaigns and competitors when presenting your brand to Clicks, who are looking for innovation at value prices.
We love partnering up with visionary entrepreneurs, beauty brands, companies, retailers, spas and salons like you to develop and launch new brands or to reposition your existing business.
As a brand management company we draw upon strategic insights, creative thinking, commerciality and years of experience in branding, product development, retail and travel retail to help you to develop and grow your business.
We build marketing strategies, conceptualise brand identities and visual elements, create products, develop marketing, social media and PR to help you to engage with your ideal customers – whether you are selling direct-to-consumer or through bricks- and-mortar.
We work with you to develop a comprehensive strategy for your business by understanding your vision (and the marketplace) and then delving into the details to create order and structure, neatly packaged up to deliver you commercial results.
Over the years we have worked with a diverse portfolio of businesses – here’s a snapshot. If you would like to discuss your ideas with us, get in touch, we would love to hear from you.
‘Thrilled to be working with Bespoke Advantage. They have already done some great things for Hollywood Browzer Beauty in the very short time we’ve been working together. Looking forward to the future!’
‘Unless someone comes from a background in this industry, you wouldn’t know what is required. Not only do I have the support of an experienced team to help me to make things happen and to grow my brand, but I also have a great personal relationship with Janet and her team, working in this way means I have someone to turn to, to share the journey of running a business.’
‘Through Janet’s management skills, expertise and proven track record on the job she successfully managed the purchasing of our retail operations and ensured the integrity of our brands in-stores. Her enthusiasm and total dedication, delivered results in any project she was involved in.’
‘Bespoke Advantage helped us to bring our brand to life creatively and strategically. We have a clear strategy in place, with a distinctive brand message that enables us to articulate our brand to retailers and to journalists.’
‘Janet has excellent beauty market knowledge. Level headed with clear vision, direction and the ability to drive business forward, Janet led the teams through a complete product design change advising on what the key marketing messages should be, incorporating her technical knowledge and beauty expertise.’
‘Janet has a wealth of experience across retail, buying and marketing. She conducted a full strategic review of our cross functional business and the travel retail market to develop a comprehensive buying and quality control strategy that was signed off at board level. I highly recommend her as an asset to any business.’
‘Janet is extremely professional, knowledgeable and thorough, an expert of her field. This shone through from our first conversation, which instinctively led me to want to work with Bespoke Advantage. As a new skincare brand the expertise of Bespoke Advantage has been invaluable.’
‘Janet, absolutely fantastic to meet you today. Thoroughly enjoyed The Beauty Workshop. You definitely excel in your area and beyond.’
‘Many thanks again for all the help, support and words of encouragement, as I said before, best and most sensible thing I’ve done in developing my beauty ideas is to engage with you!’
‘It’s been inspirational working with Janet. We are in the process of launching a skincare brand however have received conflicting opinions from so many people we were really confused. I am so impressed by Janet’s knowledge and experience in product development, marketing and retail and the way she explains everything so clearly. She is very motivating and positive, and so much fun to work with. I have much more clarity and confidence in how to move things forward.’