Cowgirl Gets a Makeover

Niche line is looking for a broader, more sophisticated audience.

By Janet Herlihy, Editor

The Cowgirl Company had three goals in mind when it set out to redesign its Cowgirl Skincare line: reach out to a wider, more sophisticated market; communicate the brand’s serious skin care attributes; and maintain a link to its established image. All three objectives were achieved, according to company executives..

“We set out to design packaging that appeals to a wider audience while enhancing our brand,” said Alexis Mayne, president of The Cowgirl Company, based in Boulder, CO. Mayne is the daughter of Cowgirl founder Donna Baase.

The redesign included updating the line’s containers with easier-to-use treatment pumps, adding larger sizes for Cowgirl Cream and Extreme Cream, new bottles and new labels.

“The Cowgirl name has appeal and lets the customer know the products are serious for active, outdoor-type consumers,” said Baase. “The challenge was to communicate the brand and its serious therapeutic features.”

The new labels provide a more serious, consistent look across the entire line. In basic blue and white with pale yellow accents, the labels are simple, featuring small logos—a mountain, cowboy hat, sun, cactus and a cowgirl on horseback—that appeared on the original labels.

“The new label design fits the profile desired in better skincare stores and reflects what is in our bottles—seriously good ingredients,” noted Mayne.

Baase added, “The vinyl labels, by American Tape & Label in Denver, hold up very well and the pump dispensers provide a controlled release and protect the ingredients.”

The packaging consists of glass stock bottles from ABA Packaging, Holtsville, NY, and matte silver pumps supplied by Han Hean, Edison, NJ.

Changing the company’s traditional labels, which featured colorful images related to the Cowgirl theme, was complicated. Strong research with focus groups and an eye to market trends put the new ideas in motion. “As a small company, we have to go at our own pace,” explained Mayne. “We saw too many companies look great at shows and then disappear from the market. We know that our Cowgirl name and the image it represents have tremendous market appeal.”

Lara Designs, Boulder, CO, scaled back the original four-color artwork and created simplified labels that have room for needed copy. New taglines and copy describe the hard working products.

Baase reported that “Customers love the pump bottles, although they are sometimes nostalgic for the old look.”

Cowgirl Skincare is sold through a variety of channels—spas, natural products stores, pharmacies, boutiques and guest ranches. It also does a significant online business through its website, www.cowgirlskincare.com. “Lots of consumers find our products on vacation and then reorder online. Web sales make up 15% to 18% of our business,” said Baase.

Mayne noted, “With the updated, more stylish packaging, the company is aiming for some big name stores and catalogs where discriminating customers are hungry for skin care with pure plant ingredients.”

The line of botanically-based skin care products was launched in 1994 by Donna Baase, a licensed Esthetician, writer and teacher in the natural body care industry.

Baase combined early exposure to natural beauty ritualswith eight years experience working with Miami Plastic Surgeon, Harold G. Norman, M.D., followed by time spent with a private skin care practice in Colorado, to build knowledge and experience with all skin types and skin problems as well as an understanding of the benefits of natural ingredients.

Baase began making her own skin care mixtures, which evolved into the Cowgirl skin care line. The line now has a niche position all over the U.S. and Europe and works with a large distributor in Korea.