PERFORMANCE BEAUTY WINS.

In collaboration with Hint Creative, a boutique design agency that Brandthropologie enthusiastically recommends and adores working with.

How do you revamp a brand, make a ton of money, and get the customer something they ALL want and need? Here's the Babe Lash-to-Babe Original brand evolution story. Settle in.

This brand started out as "Babe Lash," a brand banking on the new-ish category of product, natural lash growth. This is a market typically dominated by false lashes or extensions, so the rebrand began in a tricky place. How do you educate a market on natural lash growth when they already have more familiar products and services that solve that problem? But there was a market. Numbers don't lie. Babe Lash was making ~90% of its income on one hero product—their lash growing serum. Except they couldn't legally say "lash growing," even though we know that is exactly what it does. There is enough science and user proof to fill a skyscraper (and it uses the exact same active ingredient as prescription lash growth serums—prostaglandin), but those kinds of claims aren't allowed in the beauty industry. So instead, Babe Lash could legally claim: we sell a serum that makes your lashes feel and appear thicker, fuller, and longer looking. Woof. Not great copy to work with, but we were up for the challenge.

Here are four things we did to improve Babe Lash's impact and accessibility to the average consumer:

1. BOLD DIFFERENTIATION IS KING

"So, how do you approach a product that you know works, but very few people know about it or how to use it? And you're competing for shelf space with a familiar product— false lashes—across all beauty retailers?"

Branding legend Marty Neurmeier always said, "when everyone else zigs, you zag." So instead of perfectly coiffed, softly lit, airbrushed beauty shots, we decided to show smile lines, pores, and natural, human expressions. We put a face on every box [get the packaging photo from Hint]. The goal was to catch attention.

We conducted brand identity and color competitive mapping exercises to find a distinct color palette that stands out on a Target shelf, still feels like a beauty product, and appeals to most women. It's the same brilliant concoction, but completely new packaging from start to finish! This palette became the background for our models, allowing us to build a consistent photographic style that will become known as “our” style as we stay consistent.

BEFORE

AFTER

2. TARGET EVERY BUYER

We needed to make the Babe Lash product more accessible in many ways: price, familiarity, relatability, etc. We also needed it to catch every buyer's eye on Target shelves, which are home to lots of "cute packaging." We leveraged human hardwiring that is nearly fail proof in terms of capturing attention: we put a face on EVERYTHING. A real, natural expressive face, because buyers can tell the difference—it's hardwired into our biology.

[before and after photo of packaging]

3. STACK THE PLACEBO EFFECT

“Think of it like social inertia: any interaction WILL have a biochemical impact, however micro, whether positive or negative. It's just the way humans have evolved. We should strive for beneficial over harmful encounters—even in the digital world.”

Many times, when people think of the placebo effect, they think of sugar pills or cures that "aren't real." In reality, placebos are your body's reaction to an environment or social interaction. The human body has thousands of systems to help it adapt to any environment; the placebo effect is triggered when a person associates something with meaning—a doctor's white coat, for example. My (not so) secret sauce: stacking the placebo effect. We can turn switches on and off that capture attention, drive conversion, build brand equity, etc. Bigger, more prominently featured UGC (user generated content) is one of these switches. It signals social proof, reputation, and relatability. So, we let the fans speak for themselves. Oh, and also.....

4. EVIDENCE-BASED EVERYTHING: BRANDING WITH EVIDENCE

We found solid ground with the work we had completed, but we wanted to rebrand for growth, not just for current circumstances. We conducted a deep dive into industry stats, competitive messaging, products, identity, differentiators, ethnographic product research on-site, and point of sale.

In the end it took some persuading of the top decision makers, but the team convinced them to change their name and brand architecture from Babe Lash to Babe Original. This gave them the freedom to grow new hero products like Babe Brow, Babe Glow, and 2023's "Babe Mane." Since the rebrand launch, which included a new price point, stand-out retail packaging, and Target distribution, Babe Original has seen 3x growth and received praise in earned media for their new approach to real, original beauty.

CONCLUSION

This is the era of brand positioning and rebrands. The oldest digital brands are now in their 20's. When we think about people in their 20's, they are often experiencing an early life crisis of post college/new job, having become semi-adults who are trying to figure out how much of who they used to be remains, and who they want to become in the future. Most digital brands are smack dab in the middle of a similar early life crisis. We've never had digital brands this old. Think about it. This is the longest any blogger, influencer, streamer, etc. has been around. We don't now how they're supposed to age. Brandthropologie does more rebrand work than brand genesis work because so many 20-year-old digital brands are growing, molting, and regrowing their skin.

When an agency brands a company, it can be like playing architect—except the architect doesn't have control over the final build once they have completed the blueprints. During the creative phase, a company may have big ideas and broad buy-in. When it's time to execute, however, it is rare for a company to be as bold, as simple, and as consistent as they need to be to start creating wakes in the market. Babe Original is an example of a brand that did everything right.