Expert in a Bottle

What’s in a name? Plenty, when that name belongs to a leading doctor or salon pro—but a brand can’t live by name alone.

By Jonathan Ford, Pearlfisher

Looking at the lineup on today’s beauty shelves, it would seem that behind every new and successful beauty brand is a named expert. We no longer seem happy to buy into beauty brands that simply offer us a little bit of hope in a bottle. We understand more and expect more. We want hard facts and not just a maybe. We look for a recommendation and proof of results from what we believe to be trusted sources: the media, the Internet and one another. However, we seem to be placing the most trust in these new experts who are piling the shelves high with their own brands. But are these new “experts in bottles” really the best? Or is it a case of “seen one beauty expert, seen them all”?
  

Start-up brand Balance Me is an impressive addition to the beauty shelf expert range.

Expert brands first came to our attention at the end of the ’90s with a slew of designer stylists in the hair care sector—John Frieda, Nicky Clarke, Daniel Galvin—taking their expertise to the masses by introducing their own line of premium products to the high street retailers. Putting an expert brand into general circulation was a successful sales formula in this sector and one that is still much copied by, for example, Paul Labrecque, Ted Gibson and Frédéric Fekkai, to name just a few of the stylists who have more recently brought own-name brands to market. And formula is very much the operative word here. These newer brands have also opted to use the same design formula as their predecessors: sharp graphics and/or a base color, which forms some sort of backdrop, but does not detract from the signature which becomes—visually at least—the only real point of differentiation.

The Doctors Are In

In the skin care sector, Dr. Hauschka kick-started the phenomenal trend for the doctor brands and Brandt, Sebagh and Perricone—aka the Frieda, Clarke, and Galvin of the skin care sector—have bottled the medical and cosmetic treatments they are famed for in their consulting rooms and planted them in the beauty brand arena with their names as guarantor. The rate at which these brands are being brought to our attention, hitting and subsequently flying off our shelves firmly underlines the belief we have in these experts in bottles. Recent arrivals in the European marketplace include

Dr. Nick Lowe has a clinical look.

Australia’s Dr. LeWinn’s and Iceland’s Dr. Bragi, to further bolster the premium corner of the market, whilst Britain’s Dr. Nick Lowe and Dr. Harnik, from the Hungarian dermatologist of the same name, are hitting the middle ground price point, which means potentially taking this expertise to an even wider audience. But, just like the traveling charlatans of old, a new generation of chemist brands has jumped on the expert bandwagon and it is only a matter of time before nurses start to break rank and join the expert coterie.

The Great Divide

It might, therefore, seem fair to say that traditional brands are in danger of being overshadowed by the “instant” experts or indeed should invent an expert viewpoint so as not to be left behind. The opposite is true. By default, the expertise is already being devalued as the market is crowded out by the plethora of real and so-called experts. It is getting harder to differentiate. But, the traditional brands—the Niveas and Doves of this world—with inherent skin expertise, a proven track record and a global following are standing out on shelf simply because they are trying harder to attract and keep the consumer than just by using a name. A quick glance at the shelves shows how great the divide between the explicit and the implicit approaches has become.
  
Perhaps it is a given that many of the doctor brands rely heavily on the name as a selling point, but the shelves look very uniform (no pun intended). The bottles truly personify the “men in white coats,” portraying their expertise through visual cues from a more clinical bygone era rather than through the more colorful and friendly approach now adopted by medical establishments the world over. One could quite easily become snow blind when facing such a sea of white, which, yes, is clinical and, yes, reflects the fact that they are functional brands, but does make them somewhat one-dimensional. The packaging for Dr. Harnik uses a quite old-fashioned image of a woman’s face, which acts as a foil to the name and bland packaging and Dr. Nick Lowe uses different bands of color to categorize the products in the range and break up the starkness of the white box and black lettering, but the look is prescriptive and makes for a very “samey” looking shelf of doctor brands. Dr. Bragi—not a skin doctor at all, but a scientist who has dedicated his studies to the research of marine enzymes—does at least reflect the composition of his products with a contemporary wave motif, but the packaging is still flat and possibly too sterile. In contrast, many of the traditional brands are pushing the creative boundaries and using a whole host of different design cues to get their message across and successfully combine functionality with flair.

The Prognosis: Be Original

Start-up brand Balance Me is an impressive addition to the beauty shelf, using illustration, motifs and a cornucopia of bright colors to present a feminine and contemporary aromatherapy range. Balance Me does have experts behind it—in this case, the Hopkins sisters—who have not only worked in the marketing side of the beauty business and understand it, but are also qualified in aromatherapy and passionate about it. Similarly, Kathy Phillips, known to many as having her finger on the global beauty pulse, is the woman behind—not fronting and putting her name to—the This Works brand. This Works uses design messaging in the most direct and simple way—clean lines, bold typography and an injection of color—and is not afraid to put its money where its mouth is to sell its efficacy message without relying on using Kathy Phillips’ name. Nude also has an impressive behind-the-scenes-team and many vociferous celebrity devotees, but does not plaster its packaging and advertising with famous names and faces.
  
Although Real Hair uses the tag line “effortless hair achieved by experts,” it does not promote the celebrity-frequented salon from where the brand hails. Like This Works, Real Hair uses design and naming to convey the key message that the expertise behind this brand can help real women with real hair problems. The simple, yet premium-looking packaging is a far cry from the usual designer stylist offering and will hopefully pave the way for a new generation of expert hair care brands that are less “identikit” than what has gone before. The list of original thinking and beautiful presentation goes on and on…
  
These forward-thinking brands may appreciate that whilst people do indeed buy people, we could as easily fall out of love with our experts as we do with each other; especially if they are a bit of a one-trick pony and think that their name alone is enough to keep our interest. These brands provide far more than just a gateway to an expert cosmetic solution. They offer an entrée into style, glamour, fun and endless possibility in a more implicit and creative way. In my expert opinion, capturing hope in a bottle suddenly doesn’t seem so passé after all.

About the Author
Jonathan Ford is an award-winning designer and creative partner for Pearlfisher, a London and New York design consultancy. Pearlfisher’s award-winning work in the luxury, food and drink markets includes clients such as LVMH, Absolut Vodka and Unilever. More info: [email protected]