Acquiring indie beauty brands has become quite ordinary for big cosmetics and personal care corporations looking to bring innovative products, loyal consumers, and new markets into their businesses.
The recent Kline report, Beauty's Most Buyable Brands: Analysis of Booming Independent Brands in the United States, “analyzes the dynamics of independent brands and their success factors and discusses mergers and acquisitions. The report includes profiles of over 20 of the fastest growing indies and provides a five-year outlook on the market,” according to the firm.
Second-wave indie
“A new wave of indie brands are coming to the forefront,” according to a press release the firm is circulating to promote the report. Kline points to brands like IT Cosmetics and Too Faced as first-wave indies that grew in to smart acquisitions.
Now the market researcher sees fast-growing brands like Kylie Cosmetics and Huda Beauty as prospective second-wave winners.
New ideas and new channels
New brand concepts and social reach are helping indies connect with younger consumers. “Millennials and Generation Z are a crucial marketing demographic for the indies," explains Naira Aslanian, project manager for the Kline report.
“These innovators resonate with experimental consumers who are searching for the next best product or ingredient to bring out their individualism and uniqueness. With so many choices out there, the tech-savvy generations look for tutorials, tips, and reviews to help them make decisions about trends, brands, and even ingredients. Indies' digital prowess, combined with the fine-tuned focus from beauty products that cater to consumers' personalized needs, results in some of them growing three to five times the rate of the market.”
Analytic advantage
The Beauty's Most Buyable Brands report is intended to help readers determine which indie beauty brands are likely to be acquired, what’s smart about how those brands are operating, and better understand the indie beauty market share.
As the firm’s own promotional materials for the report explains, “Often called beauty’s disruptors, these independent problem-solvers continue to break rules in product innovation and design, digital-savvy marketing, and the ability to resonate with today’s increasingly demanding consumers. Our service identifies and profiles these high target brands and assesses what makes them relevant in today’s marketplace. We…provide sales figures and growth rates, core competencies, and marketing and distribution strengths.”