Urban Fresh Cosmetics : Adapting urban farming to expand into a cosmetic business

by Sameer Joshi or 30-Jun-2016

Credibility is everything in the "natural" personal care space, as consumers become more cynical about the widespread use of such claims, especially when they are attached to products that are clearly industrially manufactured on a large scale across multiple locations.

Global: which of the following marketing claims would most encourage consumers to buy a beauty/grooming product?

 

"Natural" beauty products are in the spotlight

 

The interest of consumers in "natural" beauty ingredients is changing the face of the beauty industry. According to a global Publisher survey in 2015, 52% of respondents say that "contains natural ingredients" is the "natural" claim that would most encourage them to buy a beauty or grooming product. Urban Fresh's approach takes all of the doubt out of this, in terms of the importance of having transparent and undeniably natural ingredient sourcing, supply chains, and production. This is not just marketing talk – its business space is built around ethical process like sustainable sourcing, responsible resource usage, in-house production, and so on, making it very difficult for a major international brand to replicate, but that does not mean that larger companies cannot learn anything from the example.

 

Success Case Study: Urban Fresh Cosmetics is part of Publisher's Successes and Failures research and explores a success of a cosmetics business with a strong focus on "natural" products based on in-house, urban-farmed ingredients.

 

Key Highlights

 

- The success of Urban Fresh Cosmetics highlights the story of a cosmetics business created by a couple who were running a spa business. Leveraging their experience in aesthetics, they came up with the idea of creating a line of handmade, eco-friendly bath products.

- They adopted a new approach in the production of skincare products of growing raw plants and transforming them into beauty product ingredients.

- The pair used a creative marketing to develop communication of their sustainable and ethical image and target the right consumer segments.