The color cosmetics market is a saturated one, the market is brimming with a wide variety of brands. We did a deep dive into existing brands of all kinds with varied consumer bases. We documented what they say, how they look, the brand stories and personalities as well as the kind of consumer they appeal to. This helped us further understand the market and our consumer.We had the good fortune of market research with interviews from groups in tier 1 & 2 towns from the west and north of India. We detailed and defined the kinds of consumers we wanted to appeal to and created multiple detailed personas. We went one step further to narrow down our primary audience - the 27 year old, working girl and got into her lifestyle, her tastes, her ambitions and dreams. The problems faced by the consumer: I am scared of ruining my skin with makeup; Natural products seem ineffective and unglamorous.
We began the design process by exploring structures for the primary product packaging. We explored physical design language that we believed worked best for the product & brand, and represented the brand values in three dimensions. We presented structures that were humanist – with soft, gentle curves that highlight the gentleness of the product; sharp, faceted structures to create a more striking product form. However, the final selected form language was bold, solid, and simplistic to aptly represent Kiro products – reliable, clean, and luxurious.
Since custom moulds made little sense, we decided to aggressively explore a visual style that could make the product stand out. It needed to be eye-catching to be able to stand out in a highly saturated market. It needed to look premium, without it being expensive. We also wanted the visual language to represent attributes of the brand – natural, yet effective, gentle, and bold. The final selected concept was a rich combination of elements representing nature, art and science.
Like the product, we decided to use the colours of the launch palette prudently on the secondary carton. This was so the impact of the print on the primary product was high. Instead we used print techniques to create a tactile version of the print, with a high gloss. The contrast between the glossy outer carton and the matte, heavy primary product was more pronounced.
As a part of our launch activities, we wanted to share our products with some influencers and thought leaders that could help introduce the brand to consumers. We wanted to reduce wastage and leave people with a significant impression of the brand. After doing some hunting, we chanced upon the idea of creating an up-cycled tyre pouch - while this met our brand requirements of being mindful and effective, it fell a little short of being indulgent and glamorous. We thus create a beautifully detailed embellished lapel pin, that was reminiscent of our predominant signature print – something that would add a touch of glitz to the tyre pouch.
Before we actually began to design the website, we took a detailed look around at the things that we, as users, appreciated in websites that existed. Made our observations and discussed them at length internally. The website had to represent the brand’s values of being customer-centric and innovative.
Empathy was an important part of our process. At every step of the way, each one of us kept our consumer in mind, and put ourselves in their shoes. We were a part of the target group too. So if something did not meet our standards, address our own issues, we knew it would not be good enough to put out into the world either.