Pure Beauty Australia is a new beauty business focussed on Australian natural and organic skincare. Blessed by Nature – the company’s first brand – was created to target budget conscious consumers who want natural skincare products for themselves and their families. The line is currently available in Priceline and selected pharmacies.
While the company’s values may not radically differ from many other natural skincare brands’, it’s the professional background of the founders that will pique the industry’s interest. We certainly wanted to find out more…
Without further ado, here is what happens when an ex-L'Oréal managing director and a former David Jones Cosmetics general manager get together to form a beauty company and natural skincare brand.
When did Pure Beauty Australia first launch?
The idea to start Pure Beauty was first hatched at the end of 2015. After reviewing and analysing all the product categories and segments that exist in the beauty market, we concluded that the opportunity for Pure Beauty lay in skincare and we began working on it seriously in April 2016.
What was the catalyst for starting Pure Beauty?
Neale Joseph and Mark Tucker met when Neale was running the beauty category at David Jones and Mark was CEO at L'Oréal in Australia. They always got on well, both loved the beauty business and had talked about doing something together in the beauty category. In this case it really was a matter of the timing being right for them and seeing the gaps in the market that they believed they could successfully capture. And so they made the commitment to start up Pure Beauty.
Tell us about how Blessed by Nature and Handsome fit into Pure Beauty
Pure Beauty has four brands, all in the mass skincare market.
- Blessed by Nature is a natural, affordable (sub $20) range
- Handsome is a stylish but affordable men’s range
- Elixia is an anti-ageing organic brand launching in Feb 2018
And the fourth brand is still a secret but it has a great track record that we think we can improve on.
How will you ensure the brand stands out in the Australian skincare marketplace?
The needs and expectations of consumers in the beauty category are constantly evolving and they are always looking for new products that work better than the ones they are currently using. So the ability for a brand to engage with consumers is based on being new, better and sometimes different. Blessed by Nature captures these elements in that it has unique textures, fragrance and performance on the skin all at very accessible price points. With the marketing support we are confident Blessed by Nature will capture the hearts and minds of skincare users.
What type of consumer suits the range?
Blessed by Nature will have a very broad consumer appeal because of two core reasons. Firstly the range is made with natural ingredients and secondly it is very affordable. The natural segment is the fastest growing beauty segment and with such accessible price points the barriers to entry for a consumer to try or purchase Blessed by Nature are very low.
Please can you share some of the positive feedback you've received so far?
We did research to confirm consumer response to the products and the results are amazing. We tested three key products with 5,000 skincare consumers and in summary 81% loved or liked the products, 79% said they would recommend the product to friends and 71% said they will purchase the products when they are available.
How many products are currently in the Pure Beauty range?
Blessed by Nature has 21 products, Handsome has 10 products and Elixia has 13 products.
What plans do you have to support your brands in pharmacies?
We have created a strong commercial package for our pharmacy customers with complete packages that include attractive margins, incentives for pharmacy owners, staff education and staff sales incentives.
We have three initial marketing focusses being in store merchandising, sampling and social media. Brand visibility in store, creating some theatre and clear consumer communication are a basic building blocks which are often overlooked. We have stand out merchandising units for the brands to ensure consumers see them and engage with them.
Sampling is an effective recruitment tool if done well. The idea simply is ‘if you have great products get consumers to try them and they will come back and buy’.
And our social media package which is already gaining significant momentum will be tailored to support local area marketing meaning we will direct consumers into our stockists. Where a retailer has their own social media we will work with them to create local area marketing campaigns. We will also seek out local sponsorships which can help build awareness, create sampling opportunities and recruit consumers to the brands and retailers.
To find out more information and download hi-res images, visit the Blessed by Nature brand listing.
Produced in partnership with Blessed by Nature.