2. Executive Summary, Market Opportunity & Proposition
The Beauty industry could be classified into 4 main categories: Skin care, Make-up, Men and
Body products. The fastest growing one is the Men’s category. The steadiest are skin care and
make-up, but they are also the most threatened, with traditional and constantly emerging new
brands developing products.
We will focus on the make-up industry by providing a solution to a typical problem.
Among the make-up products available to consumers, the one that drives more loyalty to a brand
is a Foundation. This is a product typically applied on the face over a moisturizer and under a
make-up powder.
Women are constantly looking for the “perfect” foundation, the perfect match. There are 4 main
areas to look at before purchasing this product:
• Skin type (Normal/Combination, Dry & Oily)
• Coverage (from natural, where you can still see skin imperfections, to full)
• Finish (Satin, natural and matte)
• Shade & undertone (Golden/Olive to Pink/rosy)
Every woman’s preference (except for the skin type) and culture is different. If we just consider
the shade/colour, for instance, Asian cultures prefer their skin appearance looking whiter, while
Western clultures opt for shades that will help the skin look darker, “sun kissed”.
Women will try different foundations launched in the market, however, once they find one they
like they will stick to it for a while.
3. Currently, there are not many digital options in the quest to finding the perfect foundation. There
are some companies that offer virtual make-overs or shade finding options, but they are not totally
tailor made or based on every individual’s particular skin.
The majority of consumers will still make their way to a department store to try the product before
they buy it, mainly to test the texture and colour. This is why shopping for this particular product
online has not been a success to date, unless you are buying one that you already know.
The idea is to provide a solution to this issue and offer to consumers globally (we will run a trial
phase in the strategic UK market first) a mobile phone application that they can download to help
them find their ideal foundation. This App will prompt the consumer to scan their skin (in the lower
part of the jaw) to determine skin type, and undertone. Once that is established, the consumer will
choose the type of Coverage, Finish and Shade they prefer.
The App will then come up with a range of products to choose that will include many different
brands and price points. There will be an option to click on a Map to identify the closest point of sale
for the chosen product or if the preference is online, it will link the consumer to this website.
4. There will also be an option for “Receive a sample” or “Try before you buy”, where different brands
will participate offering sachet samples or deluxe trial sizes to be either posted to their address or to
be collected from a retailer.
There will be a strong awareness campaign mixing both traditional channels like Print and outdoor
campaigns and digital channels like Social media with a primary focus on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest
and Bloggers.
The beauty industry is still very much in the hands of beauty editor’s opinions and bloggers
comments and reviews. We will pay particular attention to this section making sure we communicate
our product to all the right influential channels and the movers and shakers of the UK market.
5. Competitive environment
Modiface
+ Over 28 Million downloads
+ Award winning technology powers over 100 web and mobile apps
- Not a niche product
Pretty In My Pocket
+ Community/sharing spirit
+ Leverages readership of online beauty bloggers
- Small market share
Daily Makeover
+ Very established and licence product to big industry names
+ 30 Million monthly “try ons”.
- They don’t target the foundation makeup niche or dermatological issues
Brand Specific Apps such as L'Oréal, Lancome, Max Factor
+ Leverage off their reputation
+ Improves customer loyalty
- Licensed solutions
6. Customer Segmentation
Picky Youth
Knowledge
Seekers
Thoughtful
Mummy
Acne Social
Brand
focused
Loyal
Lawyers
Miss
Novelty Nova Independent
Profile (Who):
Demographic 18-25
22-35
30-45
18-25
Students, just
Actively social,
figuring out
tweet and
their
share most
Moms,
preferences,
Value focused, ideas and
Conservative, Social,
read reviews, information,
may
Digitally savvy,
like being
opinionated
occasionally
trend
different and and highly
gather
followers, take
are highly
informed.
information
credit in
Industry
from others,
sharing new
Psychographi selective in
cs
their choices. experts.
price focused, “cool things”
Age specific
Value
products,
products,
wrapped up in
Socially
supermarket
a more
promoted,
branded
Smart
innovative
What is bought, where, when
Product
and how
Examples packaging
group offers
products
products
Larger quantity
products that
will offer better
value for
Featuring a
money by
unique
Chemical free Most recently lasting longer problem
Product
time.
features
(fair trade)
launched
solving quality
Broad –
Discounters/S
Online and
Outlet
Online
Beauty Stores upermarkets Broad Market
Purchase
frequency High
Medium/High Low
Low
24-45
Look at brand
reputation and
seek out key
brands, not
loyal to a
particular
brand but may
prefer one to
other.
Decisions can
be influenced.
Celebrity ads
promoted
30-45
25-35
Buy the same Like to be the
brand products first to try
across all
something, not
cosmetics,
very price
hardly ever try focused, have
something
tried majority
different, and of the niche
follow a routine and popular
process.
brands.
Trusted / direct
New products
selling
within the
channels
market, high
(referenced,
niche
through
products.
catalogues)
26-45
Career minded
working
women,
believe
confidence
stems from
appearance.
Need based
products,
focused on
styling quality
High quality
and good
brand.
Price influence Core features
Specialist –
Spas and
Alternate/Direc
Salons.
t Sales
Exclusives
Specialist
retailers/Spas
and salons
Online
High
High
High
Medium
7. Customer Segmentation
THE TARGET MARKET
High Information Requirement
Industry Experts
Commoners
Seeking perfection
Special Skin
Requirements
TailoredService
StandardService
One-time Users
Loyals
Minimalist
Low Information Requirement
8. Routes to Market
• Immaculate website | Newsletters | SMS Campaigns
• Celebrity endorsements
• Blog within website
• Immaculate App
• Facebook and Twitter pages
• YouTube channel with videos
• LinkedIn profile
• Specialist industry advertising
• Print media advertisements (beauty magazines)
• Outdoor campaign (billboards)
• PR Management including relationships with influential bloggers
9. Customer Relationships Activities & Resources
• Language of the brand in print / online
• Interaction with sales people in-store
• Quality of samples / trials and distribution
• User experience of website / app / social channels / blog
• Affiliate company communications
• External agency tendering and management
10. Revenue Streams
We will be adopting an affiliate scheme with manufactures / merchants to generate revenue
from the sale of skin products (after our recommendations have been made), such as
foundations (primarily), moisturisers and cleansers
We propose making 8% commission or margin from each sale with an average spend of £20 =
£1.60 of revenue per purchase
The specific affiliate model we would like to adopt, related to our app and website, is described
below
Co-branding: As the affiliate we would maintain our web-site / app identity after a customer links
to the merchant web-site. The merchant web-site will handle all the sales, and will host the page,
but will configure the page so that it appears as though it's still part of our affiliate web-site / app
(by including our web-site's logo, for example).
Please see below for our revenue projection based on some of the assumptions sited above
12. Cost Structure
Staff costs
£90,000
Website development
£15,000
App development
£35,000
Market/product research
£15,000
Overheads
£30,000
Digital advertising
£80,000
Marketing agency
£27,000
Print and magazine advertising
£95,000
Specialist industry online advertising (Glam)
£40,000
Celebrity endorsement
£25,000
TOTAL
£452,000
13. Summary
• We have identified an opportunity to create innovative disruption in the coloured skin beauty
product market, principally foundations.
• There is a sizeable market of which a new dynamic of on-line purchasing could harness a
significant source of revenue through affiliate purchasing schemes.
• On-line purchasing of foundation and coloured skin products will only work effectively if
accurate skin assessment of skin colour and undertone are made and appropriate product
choices presented.
• The Immaculate™ skin app provide exactly this capability and service.
• We believe there is a sizeable opportunity in the UK market alone where we forecast to
turnover c£400k in year 1.
• Beyond the UK the concept has global reach and potential.
