How a 9-Person Team Competes With Lancôme & Maybelline

0:00It's important for us that when discovering beauty for the first time, we want Hiccup to feel like a warm hug into the beauty world. Kindness to yourself and others and a healthy view of beauty are central to everything we do. Your marketing philosophy and how that translates to Hiccup and what you guys do? I learned that really repetitive, simple but solid processes are gold. What you need to do in the early stage is to work with consistency in all stages of your company. A lot of people say that consistency is boring, but it's not. It's a growth accelerator, right? You're also very much in charge of the creative side of the marketing for Hiccup, right?

0:39Creativity in beauty signals quality. So that's really important for us. How we present products, explain benefits and design launches shows that we care for excellence.

0:55Hey, everybody. Thank you for listening. My name is Andres Figueira, and I'm going to be your host for the day. This show is brought to you by the Global Talent Company, helping fast-growing teams hire exceptional remote talent from Argentina, South Africa, and beyond. We connect companies with world-class professionals who bring skill, reliability, and global perspective to every role. And just for our listeners, we're offering an exclusive 10 % discount on your first hire. All you need to do is visit GlobalTalent.co, click Start Hiring, and mention the podcast listener discount when we reach out.

1:27And today, with me here, I am speaking with Lynn Salstrom, Head of Sales and Marketing at Hiccup, a company with a mission to enable a stress-free beauty routine by creating products that people can use with a clean conscience, 100 % vegan and cruelty-free. So, Lynn, how's it going? It's a pleasure to have you here on the episode today. Pleasure to be here. Thank you, Andres. Oh, it is so nice. I must say that this is the first brand, the first makeup brand that I'm speaking to, So I'm really excited about hearing how you guys have really been able to live up to the 100 % vegan and cruelty-free mentions that you have in your descriptions of the company.

2:06Wow, that's interesting. Is this really the first makeup or first beauty brand that you're on your show? Yes, I have not spoken with that many beauty brands. So it really is very nice to learn all about this industry from your side, Lin. And with that said, would you be able to provide further context to the audience and give us a bit more about your background and what Hiccup is in your own words? Yeah, yeah, sure. As you said, well, thank you so much. I'm so grateful to be here. My name is Lynn and I have a quite nonlinear background, actually. But that's actually one of the biggest strengths in what I do today.

2:45So I started out as a financial analyst at a global company, Mondelez, which I think most people are aware of. So that was a great school, but in understanding margins and business and performance. But after a pretty short while, I realized that living in spreadsheets wasn't really where my energy was. So I moved on to management consulting at Business Suite and the Swedish Trade and Invest Council, helping Swedish companies grow into global sales. So I spent several years in the Netherlands trying to work with export strategies and international expansion and how to position brands on new markets.

3:31That was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from there. from there I moved into sales and marketing getting much closer to brands and products and consumers in everyday life and in 2018 I began my journey in beauty so that's not too far too long time ago actually okay and today I'm the head of sales and marketing for a nine-year-old 10-year-old university in next next year a nine-year-old a Scandinavian beauty brand called Hiccup. Oh my goodness, 10 years old. That's a bunch. Congratulations on that milestone because that is really nice. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. And Lynn, I'd love to know because nowadays me as a humble spectator because I don't consume too many beauty products or anything like that, I feel that many beauty brands are claiming to be clean and sustainable.

4:25So how has Hiccup been able to differentiate themselves from other beauty brands that might be vouching for the same thing? Well, when it comes to vegan or not, it's not really optional. It's not really hard to tell. It's either vegan or it's not, right? So either it has animal particles or animal parts from animals in it or not. It's as simple as that, really. so what what differentiates us i think is the tone of voice and how we speak to our customers and how we've been able to be seen in such a competitive market but i think that what has made a difference for us is that our dna really hiccups dna is kind welcoming and it's never about sharp elbows we don't want to be the kind of company that um even though we operate in the influence in an influencer driven influencer driven world we don't want to be that kind of brand that's uh too too cool for school if you know what i mean yes voice is really warm inclusive and it has a very come sit with us attitude okay we have a strong focus on community where customers and creators happily share the same place share the same space at events at campaigns or in our content so we we we tend to even invite our customers onto our influencer events and that's something that's quite new and spectacular because we heard that even from PR, PR bureaus and stuff like that, well, you can't do that because, you know, how it's going to be that you combine ordinary customers with influencers, it's not going to work.

6:25But this is really the DNA for us. It's important for us to show that everyone is as important and who is not more important than our customers um so also when it comes to um uh we have a large uh gen c audience okay even a gen alpha audience and um it's important for us that when discovering beauty for the first time we want hiccup to feel like a warm hug into the beauty world so kindness to yourself and others and a healthy view of beauty are central to everything we do. And I think that has been a competitive advantage for us. Okay, I feel that's kind of like your differentiator as well because you're creating this safe space for people to enter and start learning about makeup and start using it with you guys.

7:17And Lynn, do you serve mainly European markets or are you with Hiccup trying to go global and do you sell worldwide all your products? Well, actually, we always sell worldwide on our own website. When I was talking about my mission before, when I came into Hiccup in 2020, my mission basically was to roll out the multi-channel strategy and to add categories to our assortment. So today, my mission actually means that I sit in the middle of go-to-market product development and brand storytelling. Definitely, we started out rolling out our multi-channel strategy in Sweden, of course. Today, I think it's safe to say that we're also one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in Sweden or in Scandinavia.

8:12Okay. But definitely Scandinavia is our focus. But as late as in last week, we also launched at Flakoni, which is a huge European beauty operator e-commerce, e-retailer. Okay, okay. And this is helping you guys expand into other markets or mainly consolidate yourselves in the Scandinavian? Well, this helps us to move into other markets and to see the interest because, I mean, all markets are, I have great respect for that, all markets are very different. The consumers are different. They like different things. It's not, I mean, even Sweden and Finland are different. so this is an interesting way to see what what works and not and so is our own site of course we see all the time that if we have traction in one market well then that absolutely it's more important or more interesting for us to see what we can do can we go with the digital advertising and so forth and how can we take this further i understand and lynn would you be able to tell us a bit more about then your marketing philosophy and that and how that translates to um hiccup and what you guys do?

9:24Well, I've been thinking about this so much, about marketing philosophies and stuff like that. But when it comes down to it, it's the everyday work, yeah? So when we were small, I learned that really repetitive, simple but solid processes are gold. What you need to do in the early stage, at least if you ask me, is to work with consistency in all stages of your company. A lot of people say that consistency is boring, but it's not. It's a growth accelerator, right? So sticking with the core task repeatedly builds muscle and confidence. And it makes scaling smoother when you bring along new people, right?

10:07What I would say is make consistency your competitive advantage. Because you know why? not all people far from all people and not all brands have the stamina to stay truly consistent so that's why you set yourself apart over time so when you build a long-term team and you keep showing up the same way um the same way how you work how you speak and how your brand looks and feels you create a kind of um momentum that's hard to copy so so i would say consistency isn't boring. It's a growth accelerator. I agree with what you're mentioning and the fact that being consistent with all these different aspects of the brand, it also helps create like a certain benchmark.

10:53And when somebody also comes into the team and as a new person, as you're mentioning, when you're seeing this consistent look always being achieved and this way of working and this result being consistently obtained, then it's easier to understand how to get to that standard and then they can proceed to try new things and see if it keeps incrementing. But I really like that view in terms of what it represents. Well, consistency is, of course, great for all processes, but I'm not only talking about consistency in general processes, but certainly in marketing. And there's a Swedish professor of marketing called Niklas Bundeson, and he's also a senior lecturer at Svakon Business School and I had the opportunity to listen to him speak a couple of times and I just love the way that he stresses how important repeating and consistency in marketing is.

11:50To be patient, building a brand is about activating and repeating the same associations time and time over and this is obviously best being done by being consistent in your brand position and your communication over several years. The effect will grow over time as the audience learns to recognize your brand. So I think I definitely agree on what he said because he told me, if you're getting tired of yourself, if you're getting tired of how you sound, if you're getting tired of your pictures, quit your job. Because go to another brand or start another brand, but don't change anything. And I think it's well said.

12:38And Lynn, when you were mentioning right now, when you were talking about consistency as well, you said you had several times that you mentioned your team and if new people entered, would you be able to provide a bit more insight in regards to how many people you have helping you out on the marketing side at Hiccup and how your team is divided? Yeah, today we're in total nine people. Wow, but I really thought you guys were bigger. It's nine people total in the whole company. Wow. It really is a small and lean team. It's a lean team. Yeah, it truly is. And for Hiccup to have been around for what will soon be 10 years, just nine people heading that, I think that's amazing.

13:21And Lynn, do you guys work in a remote first environment or do you all hang out in the office and work together in a physical space? Oh, yeah, we have a physical space. We have a great office in Stockholm. And actually, most people prefer to be here. So I would say a lot of companies today are only in the office two to three hours. But I would say most people are here at least three to four days a week. And that also leads me to another topic in mind that I had. And if you have such a lean team, are you guys leveraging AI to help you out with the company processes and to optimize any things you may need to do?

14:01Well, actually, when it comes to some parts of the marketing, well, we, of course, use AI in some parts of the imaging, illustrations, stuff like that, but not too much, really. I think it will get better. We're waiting for that, but we want everything to be authentic. Being authentic for us is also very important, And I think you can see today that brands are using AI maybe to a great extent when it comes to what's shown out for the public or what's vision to consumers in Instagram or TikTok and so forth. And I think it will come better. I think there will be better times to use it. No, because I've talked to many companies and I know AI is really a thing right now.

14:53But seeing the nature of the industry, I also understand that it might not be that needed. Yeah, you would think. But yeah, I mean, myself, I work a lot with Tonality and our naming of the products and text and stuff like that. But to be honest, like, have you ever noticed that when you're fully aware, when you're really skilled in something, in a team, and you're asking AI for a question and you get an answer and you're thinking, oh, how dumb, how can I get this answer? But every time you ask something that you're not aware of or that you don't have any knowledge in, you think the answer is super great.

15:34Okay. And then from what I hear from what you mentioned that you usually do is that then you're also very much in charge of the creative side of the marketing for Hiccup, right? Yeah. Well, I oversee it. And I mean, in the branding and in the creativity, that's where my heart lies. Creativity in beauty signals equality. So that's really important for us. How we present products, explain benefits and design launches shows that we care for excellence. So as soon as we have a really important launch, we really emphasize this with a creative campaign. Well, that signals to the customers that, well, if they're making this effort in the creative side, they must be doing the same efforts in making the same efforts in prior development.

16:23So intuitively, the customers see that, well, this is a trustworthy brand. So that's why creativity is really important for us. It's like showing them that you're doing your work. And if you have time to be creative with this, then you're probably also doing that. And that way they will be able to understand that Hiccup is an all around brand that's doing well. It is simple psychology. Yeah, I definitely that has an impact on how you see the brand. And do you have, Lynn, any examples of a creative campaign that worked out really well for you guys? Well, actually, our advent calendar, because we do an advent calendar each year and unfortunately already sold out.

17:02But that is a flagship example, I would say. It's a content-rich launch. It's really a seasonal launch, right? But it's so much more than that for us. It has actually become the flagship for the whole entire year. And, well, yeah, that reinforces we're best in class in this category. So, yeah, that's a good example. Okay, because advent calendars are very popular over there in the Scandinavian region, right? It is. And it's actually, I actually researched this a lot. And they are actually more widespread in retail and perceived as more popular in Scandinavia than in the rest of the world. I'm not sure why, but the tradition of Advent calendars and Advent has a strong cultural roots in Nordic countries as a natural part of the December traditions.

17:58Okay. Yeah, obviously it's very strong demand for advent calendars and even more strong for advent calendars within beauty in Scandinavia. Like I'm literally in Google right now looking for advent calendars because I wasn't completely sure what they were. And now I understand what it is. Oh, really? It is so cool that you guys are doing that. I totally know those. Those are the ones you open each day in Christmas and you get a new present for each one until you reach the holidays. Yeah. Okay. That is a beautiful way to stay in the consumer's mind and in your customers' houses during the holidays without them needing to actually buy stuff, but always getting a hiccup memory.

18:35I get that. That is a very nice campaign that is very tailored to the fact of the seasonality right now because I do feel it's very Christmassy per se or any part of the holidays of this time. Yeah, I think they're growing stronger in North America as well. I mean, there's, of course, part of the world where they're also a thing, but what I understand is not as strong as in Scandinavia. So, I mean, that has been extremely important for us. And it's not just a sales driver for us. It's a marketing engine, I would say. It's our biggest annual launch. So for us, bringing in about 2.3 million euros in turnover.

19:19So it's a great launch. And it's done for now, for this year. It was actually sold out in six days. So that's pretty good. I love it. I love it. And Lynn, have you found yourself as head of sales and marketing in the position that Hiccup is having to compete with legacy brands that have a much bigger marketing budget? like do you feel that you've needed to to compete for a certain part of the of the of the customers that you have or of the market or has the scandinavian area really been something that has received you guys very well and you haven't needed to actually compete because it's mainly you guys well of course we're definitely competing and i can definitely see a question because i mean we always have max factor and lancome and maybelline and we have new upcoming brands and both Scandinavian and we have Huda Beauty and whatever kind of brand that enters Sweden because everything enters Sweden.

20:19I think even road enters Sweden now has entered. So of course, it's a harsh competition. But the way that we see that we can compete is through our community because we build trust and we build actually a relationship with our customers. So being Scandinavian brand, we can also, it's a small market. So we're able to invite our actual customers to events and talk to them and hang out. And that's what we actually say that we treat our customers as our friends. Namely, we listen to when they have criticism, we invite them to parties and we we try to listen to what they say when when they give us advice namely when they say you better launch this okay so we actually do a survey that we see that okay so these are the most software products that they want to see with hiccup and then we just walk work through that line of answers.

21:29So actually now we're actually, we're going by the end of the list because we're adding up to our makeup category every month. So that's really important for us to listen and to really understand our customers. And I think that's something that those bigger brands can't really do. They can't really compete with that. That is something I feel that brands that are smaller are using to their advantage where they compete with legacy brands. And it's the fact that they have a much easier way of creating community and actually vibing one-to-one with their consumers rather than these legacy brands that look so big that it's even an abstract concept.

22:09It's like, oh yeah, that brand that they don't even know who to talk to. Creating community when you're a lot smaller really does go a long way. And I feel it creates a faithful hub of fans and customers that don't want to leave because they know what you guys represent and how long you've been there with them. So I like that. I like that. And Lynn, do you have any, like, could you shed some light in what are the priorities for Hiccup in terms of marketing for 2026? If you were to list three main goals that you would have, would you be able to tell us a little bit more about that? Oh, wow. That's actually an important but difficult question.

22:49Now for the 2026, we already have all our launches made, of course. And what we're doing is that we're extending again our categories. So we started out with the vegan makeup brushes. So the founders grew organically with the makeup brushes for a couple of years. after that we started to include skincare and makeup and now we actually a couple of weeks ago we we add a hair care to our category so an important way of for us being on a pretty small market which what scandinavia still is is to how can we grow of course we can grow in categories we can grow in products that's one way of growing another way of growing is getting outside of Sweden or Scandinavia.

23:37So it will be important for us to make sure that our new launches will land as they're supposed to. And it will be important for us to stabilize or even to grow the partnerships with our new and existing retailers, of course. That's going to be important. No, but I do have just one last question for you. And that's before I close out the show. and really it's not actually a question it's just that i do want to give you the space to let anybody who is hearing us right now if they are in sweden if they are in the scandinavia like if they're around in the scandinavian area how would they go about learning um about hiccup and being able to shop for your products where could they find them where could they look at them and learn further yeah i would definitely say that if you're outside of scandinavia or sweden you you better go to www.hickap.com that's h-i-c-k-a-p.com we ship worldwide and if you're in scandinavia you already had the possibility to go to orleans or to liko l-y-k-o dot dot com or dot s-c we're pretty set in we're pretty knowledgeable in in scandinavia but as i said hicap.com is is where you'll find us And you better go there now because this is the best time of the year to go shopping, of course.

25:04It really is. Full disclaimer, this show is being recorded on Black Friday, guys. So if you hear this, it would have probably passed, but maybe some offers and deals might remain there. But just listen to what Lynn said. If anybody's interested in learning about Hiccup, just go to hiccup, H-I-C-K-A-P.com and find out everything they have to offer. we'll try to extend the deals for the listeners hopefully that'll be a possibility but Lynn thank you so much for hopping on the episode it really has been a pleasure and we appreciate you being able to take the time to let us know and inform us of everything that you're doing and everything that Hiccup is thank you so much for having me on the show it was a great pleasure meeting you and speaking to you likewise Lynn likewise and to everybody who has been listening to us thank you for joining us and we really appreciate you coming on the show to hear everything of the different industries that we talk to and to learn everything about the different personalities that we bring on.