AXIS-Y — Brand Strategy - Positioning
Climate Inspired Skincare Solutions
What we Contributed to AXIS-Y
Brand Positioning
Audience & Ecosystem Research
Character Development
Internal Messaging Revision
External Messaging Revision
Creative Direction for All Releases, Content, Campaigns, and Products
Assessing the Brand’s Position in the Ecosystem
When first meeting the CEO of AXIS-Y, she had prepared a brand identity with the key promises of technology, climate, and nature.
After reviewing their business model and the business model of other brands in the ecosystem, we discovered that AXIS-Y was not prepared to deliver those promises better than other brands.
Rediscovering the Ecosystem
If those are not promises we can really deliver best, what are the promises people want that we can deliver?
For this, we sought to understand what buyers these days wanted.
We noticed the following trends
in general skincare, new products are moving away from meeting a “beauty standard” and instead helping people with more personalized care
Diving Deeper to Understand Buyers Better
To understand what promises or results people wanted, we sought to understand people’s situations on a more personal level.
We prepared a qualitative and quantitative survey to gather people’s motivations and personal situations. We designed this survey to go viral. And viral it went. Over 500 people responded and 3x our Instagram followers.
Their stories and responses revealed to us that:
They were young people feeling inadequate in front of others because they were still experiencing acne in college or in the workplace
They believe previous products with strong ingredients only made their skin more sensitive. They want something safer for their skin
They’ve been made to believe they need to have a skin color that’s not theirs to be beautiful
Deciding Our Position in this New Ecosystem
With this clearer understanding of the target audience, we analyzed the ecosystem of brands again, this time focusing on the promises they made and their relationships with customers.
Together with the CEO and founding team, we asked ourselves the role we wanted serve as for this younger generation.
We decided we wanted to look for the target market as an older sister who wants to support her younger sister in being the best version of herself.
We immediately recognize our first opportunity to serve in this role.
Our survey was part of a giveaway. We realized that there would be 500+ people who won’t win. So we wrote a message of support and love for all participants in the sweepstakes. We loved it and so did the participants.
Reframing Our Brand assets from Our New Role
With this role for our brand that energized our CEO and team in our hearts and minds, it was now time to reframe our assets and revise our messaging.
Reframing Our Assets:
Climate-inspired skincare was critical to our product thesis. Instead of championing the technology like before, we championed our Climate-Based Skincare as the next level of sincere skincare.
Revising Our Messaging:
“Climate Inspired” and “Skin Balance” became “Sincerely Yours.” This new phrase delivered the sincerity and personal touch we wanted to provide via our products and activities.
Articulating This to Our Team:
We articulated the key ideas and feelings of our brand and products for all staff to see within the office and our brand presentation.
Following Through With This Promise to the Community
With our new brand positioning in place, we supported the CEO of AXIS-Y as the creative partner for all external communication and activities to ensure our efforts resulted in people receiving the benefits and relationship we promised.
Product Launches and Messaging
Experiences and Products
REVIEW FROM AXIS-Y CEO
RESPONSES FROM OUR AUDIENCE
