The Best USP for Beauty Brands: Defining What Sets You Apart
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Do you know what’s common among the globally successful beauty and skincare brands we all know and love? They’ve won our hearts and caught our attention with something unique that they do or the way they do it.
It only means one thing: such brands have perfected their USP. It’s what makes the consumers reach for the particular brand’s products rather than thousands of others in the fiercely competitive beauty market. Your brand can also become the go-to choice for customers worldwide, but only if they can find that magical thing that sets your products above others.
Today, we’ll explore the best USP for beauty brands and go through the process of defining your secret sauce step-by-step, so your brand can get the recognition it deserves!
Source: Isamaya & Glossier Instagram
Importance of a USP in the Beauty Industry
USP or Unique Selling Proposition, also Unique Selling Point, is the factor and main benefit that sets your brand apart from the competitors. To put it simply, it’s what your customers would answer when asked: “What makes this brand different?”
The beauty industry is evolving rapidly, expected to grow by about 25% until 2030, which means that the market is highly competitive. Similar brands with the same promises and claims pop up every day, so differentiating yourself among this noise is crucial.
Your USP needs to be strong and clear, because that’s how your customers will remember and connect with your brand and find your skincare niche compelling. In today’s landscape, a beauty brand isn’t just about the products or ingredients. You attract customers with values, experiences, and the feeling your brand gives them.
A good USP should actually do a lot of heavy lifting and be woven all throughout your brand’s story: overarching branding, partnerships, product development, marketing campaigns, communication, and more.
So, let’s get to work to define and find the best USP for beauty brands like yours!
Framework for Defining Your USP
Define Your Audience’s Wants
We have already touched upon the fact that the modern beauty consumer shops with emotion in mind. That’s why you should truly know your audience before defining the USP.
When getting to know your customers, go beyond the basic demographics (age, gender, location). Tap deeper into their inner world and find out their motivations, desires, values, aspirations, and maybe even insecurities.
You can use methods like social listening, carefully reading through your product reviews, or going the old-fashioned way and just asking your customers directly. You can approach your customers through email or publish a survey on your website asking them to share their thoughts.
Find Out Brands and Products Your Customers Use
You can’t start a skincare brand, let alone figure out your USP, without checking out your competitors. This is a crucial step to start shaping that differentiation that only your brand can offer.
The first thing you’ll want to do is identify your competition and create a brand positioning map. In the brand map, note the messaging those brands use, what their promise is, how they communicate, and what emotions they try to evoke in customers.
Lumene Positioning in UK: Lumene Research Blog
Then comes the interesting part: look for what your competitors are missing and not offering. You want your USP to stand in the space where there are gaps that the other brands have not yet filled.
Let’s say, most of your competitors go for the eco-friendliness angle. Your brand will want to offer a new twist to it, for example: “Organic skincare inspired by North African beauty traditions”. It sounds more unique and straight to the point already, right?
Gather Data-Based Proof
The best USP for beauty brands will combine the emotional direction with facts. In the beauty industry, buzzwords and claims like natural, clean, hydrating, etc., are thrown around regularly, and they’re not always based in truth.
To create trust and show your customers that you’re the real deal, it’s a good idea to base your USP on real, provable data. For example, rather than saying that your serum improves skin complexion, you want to present proof that 95% of your customers who tried this serum reported smoother skin texture and reduced dark spots after 4 weeks of usage.
You can gather information to support your claims in different ways:
Get data from clinical studies or laboratory testing,
Validate the claims with dermatologists and other beauty professionals,
Compile data from customer surveys and polls that reflect their satisfaction,
Look at your store data on repeat purchases and customer testimonials,
Get third-party certifications on claims like the sustainability of ingredients, products, and packaging.
If you sell private label beauty products with Selfnamed, you have a plethora of proof that your products are vegan, cruelty-free, nut-free, allergen-free, gluten-free, and organic. Selfnamed’s team has extensively tested the ingredients while working with chemists, dermatologists, and third-party organizations to make sure products align with these claims.
Determine What Angles Work the Best
Once you’ve got to know your customers, determined your space among customers, and gathered data-based proof, it’s time to start shaping your USP and weave it into your brand’s storytelling.
We already spoke of how, in the saturated beauty market, many brands share the same values or ingredients. So the angle you choose for your USP can make-or-break your brand and how the customers see it.
This is a stage where you experiment with all the possible framings of your USP and determine what you want your brand to convey. Let’s continue to explore this with the example of a sustainability-focused brand. You can lean toward angles like the ones below and experiment with messaging:
Emotion — Confidence boost powered by natural ingredients
Value — Sustainable beauty for those who care about the world around us
Lifestyle — Unapologetically simple routines with natural skincare
See how the basis stays the same, but the different angles give it a unique spin? I’m sure that when you brainstorm and write down different options, there’s going to be one that’ll just pop and feel right.
Test Your Findings with Customers
Okay, by this step, you should have shaped a USP that feels true to your brand. Now it’s time to test it to ensure it connects with your customers, because sometimes things look great on paper, but fall flat in real life.
You can conduct your testing through social media polls, email marketing campaigns, ads A/B testing, interviews with customers, and surveys on your website. Ask questions like:
“Does this statement sound like us?”
“What words would you use to describe our brand/our products?”
You can also go a step further and launch a small, exclusive product collection that embodies your USP to see how the customers feel about it. When marketing beauty products in the collection, integrate the USP throughout everything — the naming, packaging, and campaign storytelling.
Remember that testing is all about gathering feedback and learning. It’s possible (and completely normal) that your chosen USP doesn’t resonate with customers straight away. That’s your sign to get back to the drawing board and keep refining to reach the one that hits just right.
Well-Defined USP Spotlight
To get your inspiration flowing, here we’ll check out some examples of the best USP for beauty brands from successful businesses in the industry.
Charlotte Tilbury
Charlotte Tilbury is one of the most recognizable names in the makeup and skincare world, established by the MUA and entrepreneur of the same name.
An iconic quote by the founder that’s highlighted all over the brand’s channels is: “Give everyone the right skincare, makeup & fragrance and they can conquer the world!”. So its USP is something along the lines of making luxury glamour accessible to all.
The USP works because it evokes an emotional response with empowerment, and that, yes, everyone can feel like a superstar once they’ve found the right Charlotte Tilbury product for them.
Typology Paris
Typology Paris is a sustainable, vegan French skincare brand founded by Ning Li.
Their USP is based on radical simplicity, from using only the most essential, natural ingredients all the way to their clean and simple packaging design. I’d describe it as: natural skincare with nothing extra.
Typology Paris’s USP is straight to the point and is laser-focused on clean aesthetics and simplicity, which is why they appeal to customers worldwide who are confused by the cluttered ingredient lists of other brands.
OSEA Malibu
OSEA Malibu is a family-owned skincare brand focusing on vegan formulations inspired by the sea.
The brand’s identity revolves around the main inspiration and source for their skincare — the sea. Every touchpoint of their brand, like the packaging, ingredients, and naming, all enforce the same message, making for an exceptionally strong USP of vegan, seaweed-infused skincare.
OSEA Malibu shows us that when you find your skincare niche in such a unique way, the USP basically builds itself, as it’s integral to the brand’s story.
Stay Unique
Rule number one of the best USP for beauty brands: it’s not something you think about and save for later, but rather it’s at the heart of your brand, its products, and essentially in everything you do.
Most importantly, a strong USP connects your brand’s values with your audience — making them choose you over countless others.
Now, get to know your audience, find your secret sauce, test thoroughly, and reach the right USP for your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The beauty industry is rapidly expanding, making for a highly competitive market where differentiating your brand is crucial for your business’s survival.
A strong USP will help your customers remember and connect with your products on a deeply emotional level, and that materializes in sales and repeat purchases, ensuring your success.
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Find your skincare niche by determining two things: what your audience is and what they’re missing. Look for opportunities in uncharted territories that your competitors haven’t covered yet and think about how your brand can fill this gap.
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Private label cosmetics brands can definitely have a strong USP. Talk to your private label manufacturer to find out the properties of the products and ingredients they offer, to see what claims and points you can include in your USP.
If you sell private label beauty products with Selfnamed, you might see that all of the products they offer are vegan, cruelty-free, nut-free, allergen-free, gluten-free, and organic. You can use these points when creating your brand’s USP. -
Your USP isn’t something you use here or there. It should be deeply woven into your brand’s core, from products and branding to marketing campaigns and creator partnerships.
Whenever you make decisions like what colors you should use in the packaging of a new product, what the campaign’s tag line should be, or what type of content you wish to see from a partnership, stop and think: Does this align with our USP, or should we refine our processes for it to work?
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Some of the best USP for beauty brands comes from businesses that are laser-focused on their niche and unique offering. Such examples are Charlotte Tilbury, with its empowering messaging through luxury cosmetics, Typology Paris, with 100% French and radically simple skincare, or OSEA Malibu, with vegan, seaweed-infused beauty products.
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