I talk about:

🔥How Fenty Beauty's Pro Filter Foundation launch marked a significant milestone in the beauty industry.

🔥Why the success of Fenty Beauty's launch highlighted the importance of recognizing market gaps and fulfilling consumer needs.

🔥Lessons learned from Fenty Beauty's success, emphasizing the significance of inclusivity, market research, and consumer-centric strategies for modern brands.

🔥Rihanna's personal experiences as a black woman and how this influenced the brand's human-centric approach to product development and inclusivity.

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Episode Transcript:

Fenty Beauty is a cosmetics brand by Rihanna that was launched on September 8th, 2017. Popular for its broad inclusivity across various skin tones, its Pro Filter Foundation became high demand upon first release. The original foundation launch included 40 shades, and has since expanded to 50 shades. I actually didn't know that part because I hadn't counted lately. I will be straight up honest.  

Hi, hello and welcome to Business Unfiltered™: The Podcast. I'm Kristen Kubik and I'm an Inclusive Marketing Consultant and Business Compliant Advisor dedicated to helping companies run ethically and make sure all voices are heard. Fenty Beauty created one of the most popular product launches since the iPhone, and it propelled Rihanna to a now billion dollar brand. 

No kidding, the brand itself is worth around 2.8 billion dollars at the end of 2023. Now, I will stop for a second and mention the no ethical billionaires comment. But, this also isn't an episode about the ethics of Fenty Beauty, which we can always dive into in another episode, because that is part of what I do as someone who dives into business compliance. 

Now, when I look at the Fenty Beauty launch of the Profilter Foundation, I'm looking at a couple of things. I'm looking at the market gap, the need, and the experience. 

So when we're looking at the market gap, we're looking at:

• Is there a place for this launch? 

• Is there a place for this product or service? 

• And is it going to fit? 

• Is that place oversaturated? 

• Is it going to Answer questions?

The next part is the need. So the need is:

• Are people needing this? 

• Are people actually needing this? 

• Are people wanting this? 

• Are people going to actually give a shit to buy it, right?

This is something that a lot of people ironically don't think about. It's because we like something and we want to put it out there. And then we don't understand why no one buys it. It's because we aren't looking at the needs and the market gap of other people. 

And when we actually do that, then we are actually looking at  what is considered, I consider, human first versus profit first. Because when you're looking at human first, you're putting the consumer, the buyer, at the center of why you're doing something, versus you and your business of why you're doing something.

You're keeping your entire product line, service line, the entire catalog of offers that you have based on your audience, not solely on what you like to do. 

Then, I'm looking at the experience. So, Rihanna is a black woman. She is from Barbados. She is a Caribbean lady. And, I guarantee she has had problems finding her skin range, her skin tone in foundation ranges, in concealer ranges, in honestly even contour ranges, especially probably contour ranges, which is a whole other thing I could get into that I will not on this episode at least, because  there are so many issues that black women, brown women, indigenous women, they experience so differently than people of my very, very, very Casper looking self.  

That being said,  it is so imperative to know either your experience of how your product, your service, things like that, is going to make an impact and, or, I will say both, honestly. The experience of the people you want to buy. And this is why I think inclusivity is so important, especially when we're talking about looking at the experience of the people buying from you, right?

Because when we're talking about the experience of people buying, we're also then  compounding. So we're then looking at the need, we're then looking at the market gap.  Because then you're able to go, the experience of these people is not being met in the need, in the market, because they're not even being considered, right?

So these are a lot of things that I feel like whenever I look at the Fenty Beauty Pro Filter Foundation launch and the fact that they've already expanded it to 50 shades. That is an insane amount and yet it seems like not enough at the same time because we have so many people that are so different  all across the world. 

They literally have brands that make things to mix into your foundation and they are just the primary colors to help you create that custom shade of foundation. There are also brands that will custom create foundations for you. So to have a brand that comes out with 50 shades just off the bat, or 40 shades off the bat and then expand it to 50, when maybe you have other brands that come out with 15 and then add 10 more, so that's 25, that's half of this, right? 

That's looking at the experience of other people. That's saying, “I've seen what it's like to not have something for you”, to not have your voice heard, to not be able to go into a store like Ulta Sephora and find something that works for you. And that fills the need for people to like, need foundation maybe that works for them, a product that works for them, a service that works for them, and then that fills the market gap. 

So you're just compounding all, all of these. So these are really easy things that you can look for in honestly any product, any service, even any offer that you have. Or, like, whether you have it currently, whether you are thinking about a new one. These are things that you easily could look for. And they all go together. 

Market research, in my opinion, because that's essentially what these are, it's market research. Market research is a very underrated thing. Especially in the online space, for some reason.  And this is honestly, it's something I show my clients how to do, but also what things to look for if needed in like my 45 minute consultations.

Because I love doing like single consultations. We do like around 45 minutes and it works perfectly.  And then they get to walk away with a few questions answered, and some of those questions might be, hey, how can I do market research to find the best thing, the best people, the best like experiences to maybe help with this product and guide this product, this service, this offer. 

That being said.  If you haven't already, be sure to follow the podcast. You can find video versions on YouTube, the audio obviously on Spotify, Google podcast, Apple podcast, anywhere you major you get your podcast. You can also find it on my website, Kristen Unfiltered, and I will see you next time on Business Unfiltered™: The Podcast. 

Thanks so much for listening. Bye.