Beauty Pie : The Viral Brand Disrupting Beauty Industry

Mar 17, 2024

March 17, 2024

Pic Credit: @beautypie via Instagram

Today we will look into the workings of Beauty Pie: the viral brand disrupting beauty industry. Lets take a deep dive to see what made this brand the " Netflix " of cosmetic industry.

Origins

The brainchild of Marcia Kilgore who is also known for her iconic brand Soap and Glory, Beauty Pie was founded in 2016 as a membership service to challenge the status quo in luxury beauty industry and to make beauty products available to everyone at TRANSPARENT factory prices with no markup.

Stats

Founded in 2016, Beauty Pie has raised $170 million to date and is currently valued at $1 billion. The trajectory of Beauty Pie is nothing short of meteoric. With sales ballooning 140% to 39.8 million pounds in March 2021, it grew its revenue by more than 100% between April 2020 and April 2021 and increased its membership rates by 300% between March 2020 and Nov 2020. The brand has doubled its size ever since and is on track to surpass 80 million pounds in sales by end of 2026.

D2C Business Model

It is a Direct to Consumer makeup and skincare subscription service which provides luxury products at affordable price points ranging from $3.72 to $33.25. In any standard model for a beauty brand, the markup is usually 80% to cover profits, middlemen, marketing costs, fancy packaging etc. But by effectively cutting off the middlemen and markups by sourcing directly from the laboratories and warehouses Beauty Pie provides top quality products at factory prices to their consumers. It originally started as a MULTI TIERED subscription service offering two different pricings for people who are not in the club and people who pay a premium to join the club. Customers have the option for free membership for 60 days to try products or 59 pounds annual membership fee with product allowance cap. Now it has STREAMLINED its subscription service further by offering two options: $15 per month membership with a spending cap of $150 and a virtually UNLIMITED spend annual offering for $59 with a spending cap of $3600 called Beauty Pie Plus thereby offering flexibility to their customers which many other subscription services do not. Thus with their MAKEUP WITH NO MARKUP STRATEGY, Beauty Pie has REVOLUTIONZED the beauty industry.

Agile Business Model And Rapid Testing Strategy

Beauty Pie has an easily adaptable AGILE business model with great level of personalization and FLEXIBILITY to switch between memberships. By streamlining its operations, Beauty Pie follows RAPID TESTING STRATEGY wherin it allows for new developments in skincare to be in the hands of their customers within months as opposed to 1-2 years which is the norm for any standard beauty brand.

The "No Free Shipping" Strategy

Because Beauty Pie makes its money only through memberships, it has adopted a $10 shipping strategy. Because consumers find it hard to justify shipping cost for a low basket value, so they end up adding more products in order to justify the shipping cost. This "Unlimited Options" strategy has significantly contributed to creating a craze for their products among their customers.

Product Design

One of the ways Beauty Pie keeps its costs low is by reducing unecessary packaging and instead opting for a sleek minimalistic Scandi design with neat text and pastel solid colours which gives it a SUPER LUXE feel and also looks AESTHETICALLY pleasing.

Encashing On "The Lipstick Effect"

During the pandemic, it cleverly encashed in on the Lipstick Effect wherein during economic downturn when the future is uncertain, people refrain from buying expensive items and instead prefer to buy products which gives CHEAP THRILLS like lipsticks, eyeliners etc. The brand encashed on this by cleverly launching a wide range of products in these categories during that particular period of time.

Building A Social Contract

Beauty Pie frequently conducts live Q&A sessions on social media by inviting top make up artists to test out their products some of which they haven't even launched yet. They also regularly conduct polls to incorporate their customers opinions on various product names. They also maintain a strong communications channel through emails thereby ensuring their customers feel both seen and heard. All of this has contributed to their success of effectively building a SOCIAL CONTRACT with their customers.

The Beauty Pie Community

Creating a close knit community is a key aspect of their marketing strategy. By giving their buyers greater control over their buying experience and by incorporating TRANSPARENT COST STRATEGY Beauty Pie offers products which ACTUALLY WORK thereby winning their customer's TRUST and successfully creating a community of brand LOYALISTS. Thus with very little marketing costs involved, Beauty Pie has been able to dominate the social media space with the #ILoveBeautyPie which constantly trends on social media channels.

Last but not the least here are a few of our favorite Beauty Pie products.