Brand positioning & communication

A major beauty company was looking to extend a US-based beauty brand to South Korea and Japan. They sought to understand how the brand purpose, imagery, founder story and product would resonate within the South Korean and Japanese cultural contexts.

We conducted consumer focus group interviews, a home product placement test and had respondents complete creative homework. Together, this revealed some surprising differences between consumers in the two markets that helped the client fine-tune their brand positioning and launch strategy.

(Future) consumer understanding

A major beauty player was looking to understand the similarities and differences of young beauty consumers in China, South Korea and Japan in terms of aspirations, beauty ideals and sources and flows of beauty influence in order to position themselves for the future.

We conducted online individual interviews, curation, expert and influencer interviews and more over many months and through the Covid crisis.

Our work was revelatory for the client, especially in terms of understanding how history and cultural context plays into very different Gen Y beauty consumers in each of these markets.

Brand positioning & communication

A Japanese beauty brand was looking to better understand its U.S. skincare consumer in order to optimize the positioning and communication of its new technology and associated benefits.

We conducted individual consumer interviews to dig deep into the perceptions and motivations for U.S. consumers.

Our cross-cultural understanding allowed us to explain the insights in relation to Japanese skincare consumers, helping the client to quickly ascertain the necessary positioning and communication modifications that would optimize the U.S. relaunch.