How To Set Trends and Build Brand Loyalty With NUDESTIX

0:00Hey, everyone. In case you didn't know, we launched a YouTube channel for Shopify masters. So go ahead and subscribe for brand new video episodes. Thank you so much. It's very easy to blame the platform often to say, oh, well, the TikTok algorithm or, oh, you know, this is for awareness not to drive sales. But I think ultimately, if you create really engaging content that will make someone want to click, that's the goal. Beautiful content is king. Hey, how's it going? I'm Shuang Esther Shan, and you're tuned in to Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. Changing an industry requires you to be ahead of the trends.

0:46Taylor and Ali Frankel did just that with Nudestix. The Frankel sisters, along with their chemical engineer mother, Jenny, set the trend with easy-to-use, multitask makeup products back in 2014. Throughout their decade in business, Newstix have secured key relationships with celebrities and entered into retail stores like Sephora, all while remaining as a trend-setting brand. Today, we have Taylor with us to chat all about the strategies that Newstix have deployed to gain a dedicated community while staying relevant in a rapid-evolving market. Taylor, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me.

1:27I'm so excited to be here. This is a long time coming. We're big fans of Nudestix, and it's amazing to think about that you and your sister, Allie, have taken a decade-long journey setting such a big trend within the industry. Before everything got started, how did you see this opportunity and validate your ideas? so for me to answer that I'll have to take you back to my childhood years so to give you full context and a holistic view of how Nudestix came to be my mom Jenny who is also one of the co-founders of Nudestix she is a chemical engineer and she has been developing cosmetics for over 20 years So my sister and I, we've always been around beauty.

2:19You can call us beauty babies. We've been surrounded by product and the industry for a very long time. and nearing the years 2011, 2012, as we were entering our adolescence and we were being a little bit more playful with our makeup. And when I say playful, I mean, maybe we were applying a little bit of concealer, a little bit of eyeliner, a little bit of blush. And at the time we felt that the industry was speaking very much to this consumer or this woman who wanted this more is more glam when it came to makeup. This woman who maybe would spend hours doing their full face and their hair, and it just didn't speak to us.

3:08We were your everyday girls. We rather sleep in an extra 10 minutes than do our makeup for an extra 10 minutes. We barely brushed our hair, but we brushed our brows. And we were really, you know, the everyday girl who just wanted to look and feel like the best version of ourselves without having to wear a mask of makeup every single day. And that's when we identified there was this gap in the market for a brand that was speaking to less is more beauty for the everyday woman who does it all. And we also realized that the beauty industry did a really beautiful job at celebrating artistry and skincare.

3:44So again, that gap, that in-between that we recognized, it was a gap that we identified that, you know, where we felt it wasn't being spoken to, to the woman, the everyday woman, but also that gap was, was us, right? And so that was really a problem that we were looking to solve. And that obviously spoke to the products in terms of how they were used. So everything was multitasking, easy to use, fuss free, you didn't need a million steps, you just needed one or two products for a full face, spoke to the tones of products. So nudes for all skin tones. And then it also spoke to the less is more from an ingredient perspective.

4:27We being millennial and Gen Z, most of us are super, super cognizant of what's in our products, what's in our products, what we're putting on our skin, what we're putting on our bodies. And so we wanted that same consciousness when it came to our makeup. And so less is more meant a lot of different things. I think it's truly amazing for your mom, Jenny, to not only be encouraging of the two of you to have ideas, but she also was working in an industry at the time that was all about airbrushed finish and high coverage that she really encouraged and also put you two at the forefront of developing this new brand.

5:09At the time, I feel like it was also really hard to communicate this new concept of just having simple products that are multi-purpose. So how did the three of you initially get the word out and try to identify this new change in the way that people should think about makeup? So at the time, this was 2012. So the landscape, the marketing landscape looks quite different than it did 10 years ago. But back then, it was really about grassroots marketing. And this was also considering budget when you're launching a new business, you don't have thousands or even millions of dollars to spend on marketing.

5:50And so we, our goal was to achieve brand awareness through grassroots marketing methods. One of those being leveraging us as founders to tell our story. So using platforms like Instagram, that was very organic at the time and telling our story, showing behind the scenes, talking directly to our community and showcasing how to use our product. So we used it for entertainment and education and obviously inspiration. And then we partnered with a retailer at the time in 2014, a small boutique apothecary. They were based in the UK and they had a few locations in the US and their goal was to bring in this millennial consumer.

6:34And we had approached them kind of cold called. And my mom at the time had known someone from her past life and we had lab samples at the time. And we said, okay, I know you don't carry a lot of brands, but this is our concept and these are some lab samples. And what do you think? And they, due to our story, really, because we barely had any product at the time, they said, we are willing to take a chance on you. We love your story. We love your multi-generational founder story. We love that. You're speaking to beauty in a modern way that speaks to this you know, this modern woman. And in exchange for a three-month exclusivity with them, they provided us with all of their internal press resources.

7:16So really allowed us to kind of share our story in a mass way to media and bloggers at the time. So that's initially how we got the word out. So it was really through, you know, this retailer partnership and then through grassroots kind of marketing. It was all like organic owned marketing. It's such a key relationship because not only was it a chance to test out having your products in stores, it's also the access to their PR list of contacts and working with outlets or bloggers. It's amazing how important this first connection is because now nude sticks can be found in Sephora, boots in the UK, and so many other retailers in other countries.

8:02When you're just starting out, what's your advice for cold emailing and networking to get that first relationship established? Yeah. So when it comes to cold email, because that's the majority of what it is when it comes to reaching out to these retailers, whether it's finding them through LinkedIn, finding them through social media, finding who their merchants are, who's the right point of contact. There will be a lot of ghosting, but firstly, subject line is incredibly important. Think of a traditional sales email when you're reaching out to someone. If someone is getting flooded in their inbox every single day, you know, what is really going to stand out for them?

8:47And typically what tends to perform best is creating an email or a subject line where there is something that is beneficial to them. What is Nudestix offering that's going to benefit this retailer? And at the time, this was in 2013, where our position was very differentiated was bringing in this younger millennial audience, because this was a retailer at the time that was very Gen X heavy, had very traditional, luxurious brands that were catering to an older audience. We knew looking at trends, where the market was going, the constant conversation at the time, and now it's shifted to Gen Z. The constant conversation at the time was, how do we approach this millennial generation that will have the one of the largest buying powers in the beauty industry over the next, you know, three to five years.

9:51But again, we had pitched many, many retailers before getting a yes. And I remember at the time, my sister and I were still in school and that email was was sent. We were lucky enough to obviously have our mom on our team. And she had actually flown to the UK because she's like, we need to see them in person. And that's another big, big suggestion. If you do get a response, the best thing you can do to pitch your brand is try to get an in-person meeting, whether you're pitching investors or you're pitching a retailer, um, because showing and telling your story and sharing products in person is so, so much more valuable than sharing that virtually.

10:36So that's always our suggestion. Even when we were raising money, I remember advisors telling us like, go in person, meet with them, get them to know you, get them to love US founders, and then the product kind of comes second. Now I think that there's a lot of different channels that you can find contacts, specifically retail. I will also say a really key way that we met with a lot of different merchants, especially global merchants, or through trade shows. So if you have a product, and again, this is obviously takes marketing budget, but I will say at the beginning stages, it is so invaluable.

11:12If you can present a variety of beauty trade shows, there's so many of them from Cosmoprof, there's Beautycon, there used to be Gen Beauty, but I don't think Gen Beauty is a thing anymore. Essence Fest, there's so many trade shows where you can display your products. And most people in the industry, most retailer merchants, I know this for a fact, will go to those shows to find new indie brands. Because again, they want to be the first to launch these new indie brands, right, and get exclusivity. And that's another way you can think about it. As much as you're benefiting from a retailer bringing you on into their stores, the retailers are all fighting to launch the new indie brand exclusively.

12:00so just remember that you have a lot of value in that um and then one more thing i will add is there's a lot of great networking events one of them is women's wear daily wwd um they are an industry magazine specifically for beauty and fashion but they host these events every year and again this will come out of your marketing budget and it is not um a small it's not it's definitely not inexpensive. However, I will say that every single one of these networking events, we've come out of it with a connection that had been instrumental to our growth, whether it was an investor, whether it was a retailer, whether it was another brand founder, just like there are so many ways to leverage these events and just really be a part of the community.

12:55What's your advice there when you have access to these people of influence to actually introduce yourself, nurture those relationships, and set up your brand for the right foot forward when you're trying to launch? Yeah, I mean, nurturing relationships is so important. I think that's one of the biggest key learnings for me over the past 10 years. I think when you're really young, you overlook the importance of maintaining relationships in industries. And I think in school, we are taught, you know, if you're in business school, you might be taught the importance of your network is your net worth.

13:32I think we've heard that a lot. But I do think that the challenge is not just putting yourself forward initially, but how do you maintain those relationships over the year, especially when the main, like not going into a relationship or not leveraging a connection immediately because it is for self-gain. Like how do you nurture a relationship that is mutually beneficial where it doesn't feel like you're constantly trying to find ways to take, take, take from this person or individual or this retailer, but there's actually this mutual beneficial relationship for both. And I think that's how Newstix was positioned off the bat.

14:17And I think that's how any business is positioned when you're selling to clients you're selling to a retailer. It's like, what can we offer you? And this is what you can offer us. And this becomes this really beautiful, blossoming relationship. But I would say when we first launched Nude Sticks, even retail partnerships that we fostered 10 years ago, we still continue to foster today. And we still continue to kind of water the plants and really ensure that we're reaching out on a regular basis. Even little things like remembering birthdays. If there's like a certain buyer from a retailer that you know, or there's an influencer that you want to approach to maybe possibly, you know, share your product or share your brand, like what are ways that you can kind of recognize them that make them feel special and make you stand out as a brand or as a person.

15:11We have now a whole robust influencer marketing team where we take notes of every single birthday. Did someone get engaged? Did they get a new dog? Do they have, are they pregnant? Like, and that's for influencer, that could be for a retail merchant, that could be for an investor. But there are little things that I think are, can be overlooked, but when they're put into action, they could be very, very meaningful. Yeah. And especially for the nude sticks community, I feel like you and your team do this really well for the community of fans as well with really engaging in-person events and also just like the relationship you build over time through social media.

16:00How do you make sure that your everyday customers feel special and included as you're growing the community as well? Yeah, so we do this in a few ways. One that you mentioned, we do community events. So whenever we're doing an influencer event in specific cities, whether it's LA, New York, or Toronto, we always add a consumer element to it because we truly believe that, you know, our community, they are our influencers. They are the ones that are, you know, buying our Nudestix products, that have followed the brand, that have invested in the brand, that have invested in our story. And so we want to essentially lift the curtain and give them access to all that we're doing as a brand.

16:41So we essentially build out sessions specifically for a community to come and pretty much enjoy these beautiful influencer or these beautiful brand experiences in different markets where we provide them with product. We provide them with masterclasses. We provide them with panels for them to just get, again, behind the scenes access to what we're doing as a brand. And then in addition to that, this year, I'm super, super excited that we are launching a program called News Love Club. And this has been years in the making. So first and foremost, I guess high level, it's an affiliate program where pretty much anyone who creates content on social, whether you have 100 followers or a million followers, you can sign up for this program and get an affiliate code to make commission on any Newstix purchase from your code.

17:33A part of this program is how do we give our nude love club more than just here's X dollars for sharing your Nudestix content or for selling a Nudestix product? Because I truly believe that community is built through these authentic relationships and where people could actually connect with one another. So it's not just us connecting with our Nude Love Club member, but they can actually connect with each other and actually build friendships or relationships through there. Because, again, we talk a lot about network and the importance of that. And I think there's a lot of, I think especially now, more than ever, a lot of us are looking for communities to be a part of.

18:18So through Nude Love Club, we are giving them access to a variety of community events across all of our global markets. In addition to that, we're actually creating a mentorship program where every quarter we're going to have a variety of panelists as well as mentors talk about different topics within the beauty industry. So we, as an example, could have a topic that's all about how do you develop a beauty product? What is from point A to point Z? Like how do you actually go to market with a beauty product? Another panelist or another moderation could be by an influencer that we partner with on how to monetize your content on social media.

18:55Another one could be, you know, how do you create engaging content in the first place? And how do you partner with brands? And so we want to give our community access to information where they can actually grow their own network, grow their own platform. For me, that is the most rewarding. And I feel like that's where you can build a lot of strength in community. Yeah, it sounds like such a cool way to engage with the community and allow each other to learn from someone within the same community and also grow themselves. And I think that really beautifully ties back to how Nudestix really saw success on social media because the team really dove into organic content that was created by the community.

19:40And people love watching those videos, whether it's Hilary Duff or a friend that's showing you how to use Nudestix. what's your philosophy or approach to content creation now and how do you highlight different people within the community and also their content yeah so when when it comes to content on our channels right now so we primarily play in instagram and tiktok i would say my team is amazing and we um obviously have a lot of buckets to check when it comes to social media like Like, obviously, there's hero products that are kind of always on that we talk about. Obviously, showcasing like our community, showing diverse skin tones, showing diversity in age, making sure that we're speaking to our global community because we're in over 35 countries.

20:33So making sure that there's representation. organization and for us we actually have a series called our nude love club roundups where once every other week we actually do a roundup of like every community member that has used nude sticks in a really unique and special way so making sure that we're tagging them that we're giving them visibility through our platform and in addition to that we have our social team that is constantly engaging with everyone so if you send us a dm you send us a comment. We're always making sure that, you know, we respond timely and that if someone is looking to work with us, that we, you know, can make action and we can kind of start that conversation with them and start building that relationship with them on social for us in order to build community.

21:20It's also really important as a founder to speak on our channel. So I create a lot of content for social. So making sure that there's a founder voice on there that is authentic because it is. And I've been doing it for over 10 years. And I feel like that's something that has differentiated us as a brand and is ensuring that that founder voice is always present and is always speaking authentically on our platforms. So whether it's like speaking to brand or whether that's just doing a demonstration on how to use our products, that's always been a part of our strategy as well. And there's so much great content that you create as well, walking us through your day in the life of building a business along with different videos that showcase new sticks products.

22:08I think a lot of founders struggle with the balance of creating content that's entertaining, that builds the community versus content that aims to drive sales. How do you reconcile that tension. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's funny because we always go back and forth on this as a brand. And I'll say any image or video that is very product focused. So let's say it's a photo of our lip butter and there's a beautiful textured swatch, or if it's a nudie, which is our blush category, and it's like the array of colors and shades that we have to offer. I would say anything that's more product specific is definitely more of a conversion type post.

22:54Anything that we do that's a little bit more of a demonstration, how to use a product, get ready with me behind the scenes, blog style is definitely more top of funnel. It's more awareness and it's more brand. So that's how I would say we kind of differentiate on, you know, or how we ensure that we're balancing, okay, how do we create pieces of content that are going to drive conversion? And what type of content do we have on feed that's specific to driving brand? And I think both are very needed. But I will say TikTok specifically, now with TikTok Shop, it is a very shoppable platform. As a Canadian business, we actually just launched TikTok Shop recently.

23:39I still think it's a fairly top of funnel platform. So it's a very, it's primarily for awareness, you know, Instagram lends more so to like shoppable content, or I think consumers maybe feel more comfortable shopping on Instagram than they do on TikTok. So that's kind of the experience that we've had. But ultimately, you know, they can both act as sales channels, like we've seen influencers post on TikTok and we've seen products go viral and sell out. So although I think that there's benchmarks or that there's historical data on like what typically converts and what typically drives awareness, I do think that social media can surprise you.

24:24And I think ultimately if the content is good, it will work. And I think that it's very easy to blame the platform often to say, oh, well, the TikTok algorithm or, oh, you know, this is for awareness, it's not to drive sales. But I think ultimately, if you create really engaging content that, you know, will make someone want to click, whether it's a click to bring them to site or it's a click to drive them to their cart to add to cart, you know, that's the goal. So just beautiful content is king. The other side of Nudestix content is how much different celebrities, creators are using Nudestix.

25:03I've seen Vogue Get Ready With Me's that feature Nudestix products. We've seen Sophia Ritchie on her wedding day using your products. How do you notice those mentions of Nudestix and bring those pieces of content back into your own channels? Yeah. I mean, we are pretty good at reacting when there is a viral moment. I think it's super important with social media. Like we've seen trends come and go within a week, right? So I think if it's something that you feel, you know, has legs, I think act on it now. As an example, we have meetings every Monday called trend talks. And during those meetings, every team member, every creative marketing team member will bring a trend to the table.

25:48or, you know, a video that they had seen over the weekend of an influencer using nude sticks or a celebrity using nude sticks. And the call to action from that meeting is what are what trends or what viral moments are we leveraging and how do we create a 360 plan around it? So as an example, Sophia Ritchie, when that happened last year, we all dropped everything that we were doing. And we said, Sophia Ritchie, just use nude sticks. What are we going to do to sweat it? And we had a PR strategy around it. We had a social strategy around it. We had a retail strategy around it. We made it a moment.

26:21I think that's what's so what I love about beauty and what I love about this industry is that when you create a really strong 360 around driving a specific product or leveraging, you know, a moment like that, it can make such an amazing impact. but I think it just always needs to be intentional. If we didn't leverage the moment from Sophia the way we had done, who knows if it would have had the same success. I definitely would have had success, but we don't know if that would have had the same impact that it did. So I think as a mid-sized brand, we have the luxury of being very reactive. And I think when you're a startup, I it's crucial to your business and personally, I think to survive.

27:08I think that relationship blossomed beautifully as well. There was a collab with Sophia Ritchie and as well with so many great content creators that use nude sticks, they also get highlighted and they get to collaborate to create shades and products. What's your advice there to identify the right partners and also make it a great working relationship where both people walk away with like really exciting products that they're proud to showcase? Yeah. I think we never go into any partnership unless it is already an authentic partnership. The consumer today is so smart that they will pick out a pay to play.

27:52So if you are just selecting an influencer because they have a following or because they have a reach, but they have never talked about your product or brand before, it's not going to convert. We've done it. It doesn't work. It might help drive awareness, but it will not help drive sales. So I think it really depends on what your metric is, what your intention is behind the partnership. It needs to feel authentic to you and it needs to feel authentic to the influencer. So whether it was Sophie Ritchie or whether it was Stephanie Valentine, also known as Glamzilla, Kevin Kodra, who is a huge makeup artist, as well as influencer, identifying those who have already organically used nude stakes.

28:40I've already talked about brand. And then that paid partnership is a very natural, organic segue. way. So that's how we identify a lot of the creators that we work with. And I think it just shows how much growth Nudestix have gone through with the partnerships, the retail expansion. And I feel like this is kind of the tough part of being a trendsetter is also that others will notice what Nudestix is doing. And there's been obviously more competitors coming out with their own version of multitasking products, especially in a stick form. How do you also stay relevant and ahead of the trends as you're progressing past the decade mark within the beauty industry now?

29:30Yeah. So I always talk about that. Staying relevant and while balancing your brand mission and ethos can be very challenging. Um, because the last thing you want to do is look at your competitor set and start chasing. I think chasing what your competitors are doing can destroy your brand. I think knowing what your competitors are doing and identifying what they do really well, but yet still staying true to who you are, um, and doing things that are different and differentiated and reminding yourself that that's why you launched in the first place. And this is, you know, your consumer loves you because of X.