They say life is like a tree of bearing fruit. Err, I mean… practice makes perfect.
And with years of design, copywriting, marketing, packaging design, and even brand management under my belt, I want to regularly practice creating brands using elements from each of these disciplines.
I am starting a new series here called If I Had A… where I explore possible, fictional business ideas and build brand identities, advertisements, product mockups, emails, websites, and more that transforms a business idea into an actual brand. Learn more about my feels on that here.
First up: Honeydew Skincare.
Read part 2 of this installment here.
Honeydew Skincare
Honeydew Skincare – a clean, plant-powered skincare line that promises to simplify perfect skin and help skin lovers feel confident in the skin they’re in.
The name was actually inspired by a beautiful song by Lion Babe by the same name.
“Everybody wants a piece / honey dew… I’m working with time / Watching, I’m wide open to the blessings I find / Everybody hoping that the lesson behind them will garden / Workin on it”
It’s melodic, soft, and smooth — the perfect soundtrack for admiring some sexy, prepped, primed, good, clean skin. At least for me 😂.
Let’s jump in. We’ll talk the brand foundations in this post – focusing heavily on the audience and messaging. In part 2, we will focus on identity, product packaging, and advertisement. A LOT to cover. So let’s get started.
Mission & Mood:
As mentioned, Honeydew Skincare is a plant-powered skincare line that promises to simplify perfect skin in a natural way.
Honeydew’s mission is to bring the world back to nature in style, within the comfort of modernity. Honeydew asks the question – what can we really do with Mother Earth’s fruit? How can we change our lives working with fresh picked nature?
Honeydew believes skincare shouldn’t be over-processed or overcomplicated. It should be as natural as nature itself. Honeydew believes nature, the simplicity and imperfect perfection of it is sexy – and wants natural sexy to rule the world.
Soft colors, cozy textures, minimal line art, and the flower child aesthetic really led this brand’s mood board.
We will come back to the mood board more in part two, but I typically use a moodboard for inspiration in both design and strategy.
Honeydew asks the question – what can we really do with Mother Earth’s fruit? How can we change our lives working with fresh picked nature?
The Honeydew lady is natural, simple, while still being effortlessly sexy. Skin care shouldn’t be complicated or overprocessed to be beautiful. I really liked the body outline art because it was so minimal and muted, yet still felt sexy and had a natural movement.
Audience:
The Honeydew lady is natural, simple, and effortlessly sexy.
She is a trendsetter, always encouraging her friends to try something new and healthy. Her friends and family already see her as straddling the line of a hippie, because of the things she experiments with. & honestly, these social constructs about living naturally make her feel self conscious. She is waiting for permission to introduce “juices & berries” into her beauty routine without feeling like a hippie.
She lies to herself about how healthy she truly is. She consumes a lot of products unconsciously – from her shampoo to her toothpaste to her deodorant that are unhealthy. She’s slowly becoming conscious of this. She gravitates towards other minimal beauty brands like Glossier, and Milk, but she is turned off by the ingredients in some of their skincare products. She wants to truly be healthy in more aspects of her life, and she is focused on being more mindful of the things she puts on and in her body.
The Honeydew lady wants to go back to nature in a modern way. She is waiting for permission to introduce “juices & berries” into her beauty routine without feeling like a hippie.
Yeah, she’s made homemade masks a few times and some body scrubs, but that’s way too involved. She is not much of a DIYer at all — too much work with half-assed results. She’s more into Instagram than Pinterest.
She wants to believe natural remedies, but is that natural products won’t give her the results she can expect with chemical products. Though she really doesn’t feel comfortable putting chemicals on her skin, the other options aren’t working for her. She needs something available that works, simple ingredients, without feeling/low quality.
She loves açaí bowls, fruit smoothies, and sunlight. She frequents local music festivals and is always the first to spot the healthy food truck. She is passively active, but doesn’t make yoga or gym the center her life – working out is the baseline for a healthy life to her.
Brand Voice & Messaging:
We have a lot of messaging opportunities for the Honeydew Lady. Because she doesn’t want to be an overt hippie – she can be an undercover hippie with Honeydew with fresh picked skincare ingredients from Mother Earth she didn’t have to pick herself. Because she doesn’t really trust natural products, we can reassure her on how powerful these plants are in resurfacing, cleaning, brightening the skin by educating and promising honey smooth and dewy skin.
The voice and tone of the brand is encouraging, loving, & inviting. Messages will be dotted with words of endearment and is intended to make her feel confident in her naturalness. Tone should feel as smooth and soft as freshly exfoliated skin.
Key messaging activities:
- Simple, cheeky ads to build familiarity and comfort
- Confidence boosting to build familiarity and comfort
- Educational pieces that aren’t overly techy or salesy. Just focused on how plants work for skin to build trust and consumer education
- Health-focused for the health-conscious to build familiarity and trust
Key phrases include:
Plant-based quality
- “Plant power meets skin.”
- “Underprocessed overachiever”
- “Fresh picked skincare.”
- “Um? (DIY) to Yum.(Honeydew)”
- Plant powered active ingredients. (Instead of plant derived)
- Juices, and berries, and honey, and dew. Fresh picked for you.”
- “Fresh picked skin care.” / “we did all of the heavy lifting for you (basket of fruit)”
Confident, health
- “Dew right by your your skin, honey.”
- “Take off your mask and dew you.”
- “Fresh picked Skincare.”
- “Dewy, sexy, you.”
- “Treat yourself to healthy skin.”
- “Dew you”
- “Honey”/”Like Honey”
Product Line:
The line would launch with 6 plant-based facial skin care products that promote soft, dewy, and even skin. The 6 products will be broken in 3 different series:
Freshen & Even (yellow):
- Clarifying Cleanser (with soap bark, yellow tomato, dandelion, & green tea)
- Sweet Mango Vitamin C Serum (with mango, molasses, papaya, and pineapple )
Illuminate & Tone (coral):
- Rose Gold Toner (with roses, goji berries, aloe,
- Honeydew Night Oil (red raspberry, rosehips, prickly pear, and licorice root)
Hydrate & Soothe/Soften (teal):
- Day & Night Moisturizer (walnut, coconut, hemp seed, and cupuacu)
- Dewy Moisture Masque (with amaranth seed, olive, sea algae, and avocado)
The Importance of Solid Brand Foundation
First of all, wasn’t that fun 😅 starting with the basics and getting the basics down is the most important part of building a solid brand.
On the pure branding/marketing side, understanding the audience and how to properly speak to them is just as important as developing the visual side (which you can see the visuals in part 2). I have a very in-depth framework for this that I use with clients, but you can explore even the basics of just needs & pain points to have a solid look into the audience.
On the brand management side, you should have a close relationship and open communication with your R&D team. Stay in alignment so they are formulating products that align with the brand’s position, and you are creating product lines and names that make sense with the ingredients as well as the brand.
Overall, this exercise is a super accelerated version of my process I do with and for clients. All of this was done in about an hour or so. Typically, this process takes longer with clients – researching, brainstorming, interviewing, testing, and uncovering the best scenarios for the brand.
Need help developing your brand? Contact me and let’s take a deeper dive into transforming your brand.
Okay. You ready for the pretty side of the brand? Yep – I’m talking visual identity, product packaging, and advertisements 😩. I know I am. Read part two here.