‘I highly recommend Bespoke Advantage to business owners across the beauty, spa and wellness industry. Janet has been a fantastic support to my business. Through her in-depth knowledge of the beauty industry she has provided me with strategies specifically tailored to my business needs, to help me to grow my business across the marketplace’.
Karen Hong, Founder and Director, Jinmee
SUCCESS HIGHLIGHTS
Worked 1-2-1 and through our coaching and mentoring programme, with Karen Hong, the founder of Jinmee, to develop this Korean skincare brand. The brand launched to market in November 2018, five months later.
We started with conducting market and competitor analysis. We then proceeded to develop their marketing strategy and plan, marketing campaigns, and supported them with the development of their branding, copy writing, product development and their pricing strategy. We worked with them to conduct market research to validate their idea pre-launch. We coached them on pitching to retailers, how to develop a winning brand presentation, how to approach retail buyers, journalists and influencers and on their launch to market strategy.
THE ISSUE
Karen Hong is a fashion designer with a successful fashion range ‘Yuki’ available through Topshop. At the time of approaching Bespoke Advantage Karen had already launched a Korean skincare platform, K-Beauty Bar, comprising of a collection of hand-picked Korean skincare brands available online and through TopShop. In addition to this she had also identified a great idea for developing her own Korean skincare brand.
Karen hadn’t developed a beauty brand before, she was challenged with a lack of time due to running two other companies, and was looking for a specialist beauty brand company to guide her in how to turn her ideas into a commercial reality.
THE APPROACH
1-2-1, COACHING AND MENTORING PROGRAMME As Karen had never developed a beauty brand before and was challenged by the amount of time she had available, we decided to work together 1-2-1 and through our coaching and mentoring programme, designed bespoke to Karen’s needs, this included
COMPETITOR AND MARKET ANALYSIS – Bespoke Advantage started by analysing competitors and trends across the Korean Skincare industry. We needed to understand the trends, key competitors and their strategies, before deciding how to proceed.
MARKETING STRATEGY AND MARKETING PLAN – We created a comprehensive marketing strategy which included defining goals and objectives, brand positioning, developing their marketing plan and marketing campaigns, advising on the development of their website, promotions and events including key beauty awards, PR and influencer marketing.
BRANDING, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, PRICING – We advised them on their design, copy, brand naming, regulations, product registration, and on their pricing strategy.
MARKET RESEARCH – It is imperative to conduct market research prior to launching a brand, once the branding had been developed, we set up an afternoon with consumers to conduct market research, which we then fed back into the development of the brand.
RETAIL STRATEGY – Key to the success of a brand is how to launch your brand to market. With contacts across the retail industry, we connected Jinmee to buyers, retailers and etailers, coached Jinmee on how to create a strong brand presentation, what retail buyers are looking for and how to approach their retail strategy.
PROJECT RESULTS
Delivered over 10 months
Pre-launch we coached Jinmee on their pitch to a key retailer.
Jinmee launched to market in November 2018, five month later.
They are available online through their website, through TopShop, through Wolf and Badger and through Harvey Nichols.
They are finalists in the Pure Beauty Awards taking place in Dubai in April 2019.
ABOUT JINMEE
Jinmee is a premium Korean skincare brand, built on the ethos that ‘less is more’. They aim to educate consumers on how to improve their skincare regime through using fewer products that can be personalised to meet their skincare needs. Founded by fashion designer Karen Hong, they launched to market with their first product – Hydrapuff – in November 2018.
Hydrapuff is an ultra-thin, multi-purpose skincare sheet. Unlike other conventional cotton pads on the marketplace that absorb your product, but are unable to release or redistribute it, once you add liquid to Hydrapuff it transforms to a soft, gel-like tissue that clings to your skin, aiding in the absorption of your product. Hydrapuff is vegan, cruelty free and biodegradable and enables you to customize your skincare regime, day and night, with minimum wastage of your toners, essences and serums.
Karen believes that having good skin is something that is achievable for everyone. She is looking to expand her business with the addition of complimentary products based on the ethos of ‘less is more’ and making this accessible to consumers globally.
Welcome! We hope our blog is a source of inspiration for you, providing you with insight, knowledge and a vision for creating your brand. Think big, plan carefully and follow your creative ideas.
We love partnering up with visionary entrepreneurs and organisations to develop new brands in this industry. Our team are passionate and insightful professionals with years of experience – in strategy, branding, product development, buying, category management, global marketing, contract manufacturing – to help you to create, develop and grow your business.
Straightforward, positive, creative pragmatic thinkers, we believe in telling things the way they are. We work with you to develop a comprehensive strategy for your business by looking at the ‘big picture’ and then delving down into the details to create order and structure, neatly packaged up to deliver you commercial results.
Our founder Janet Milner-Walker has worked with leading brands and companies across the beauty, retail, travel retail and luxury goods sectors in the UK, Dubai and South Africa. She founded Bespoke Advantage as a beauty brand management company…
‘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.’
‘Janet is one of the best people I have ever worked with in my career. She fully understands the whole process of product development, supply chain and marketing. Janet has in-depth experience of toiletries and international retailing. I would recommend her to any company or client.’
‘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.’
‘I highly recommend Bespoke Advantage to business owners across the beauty, spa and wellness industry. Janet has been a fantastic support to my business. Through her in-depth knowledge of the beauty industry she has provided me with strategies specifically tailored to my business needs, to help me to grow my business across the marketplace’.
‘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.’
‘We have been really pleased to work with Janet. Through her 6-Month online coaching program she showed us exactly what we needed to do each step of the way. Really look forward to having future opportunities to work together.’
‘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.’
‘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.’