eCommerce success story: the story of Saigu Cosmetics (2)

Let´s continue analyzing the (brief) story of Saigu Cosmetics, a new non-toxic makeup and cosmetics brand that, to everyone's surprise, is taking the market by storm, carving out a not inconsiderable niche for itself in the natural beauty products niche.

Last week we put you in context by explaining the birth of Saigu and the philosophy behind. Today, we are going to go into more detail by analyzing some very important aspects of its marketing strategy. 

As we said a few days ago, it is very surprising that a start-up company, which also sells makeup products -a very mature sector- and whose development has coincided with a home confinement, is now on everyone's lips and growing like crazy. What is its secret? 

Here are some of the keys. 

Apparently, Gerard and David discovered in China a valley called Jiuzhaigou 4 years ago. It is an incredibly fertile valley, with rivers, waterfalls, wild animals... a living and wonderful natural ecosystem, very much in line with the brand they wanted to create. 

However, Zhaigou, the first option they thought of, seemed difficult to pronounce. From there they went to Zaigu and from Zaigu to S'aigua, "water" in Menorcan. As you will know if you read the first post of the series, Gerard and David are Menorcans, and as you will also know if you have been to Menorca, the island is a real natural paradise that has nothing to envy to the Jiuzhaigou valley in China. From S'aigua they changed to Saigu and this was the name chosen.

Apart from that, the choice could not be better: water is synonymous with life, nature, authenticity; without water human beings could not live. What is more, Saigu's star product, its fluid foundation, melts into the skin as if it were water, perfecting its appearance - filling it with life, like water - without its presence being noticed.

While telling the story of Saigu Cosmetics the other day, we stopped at the moment when the company was confined and had to stop the machines to rethink its priorities. We said that, at that time, they decided to focus more on cosmetic products, as they thought they would have more output during the time when people could not leave the house. 

Thus, they launched a day serum and a night serum, which today are the only two cosmetic products that the brand has for sale.

What is relevant about all this is that, despite the confinement, they kept launching new products through Instagram and TikTok, while reinforcing their presence in these social networks.

We were saying it the other day: the confinement resulted in people spending most of their day connected to social networks, with all the business opportunities and fame that this implied for digital brands like Saigu.

Given that they were at a critical point where they were either growing or dying, they opted for a headlong rush, putting all their eggs in the social media basket, betting on online marketing based on reputation, social proof and word-of-mouth, as well as collaboration with key influencers. And this commitment has been fundamental to its growth ever since. 

One of the first things they noticed was that Instagram and TikTok had different age audiences. Thus, they sought to partner with influencers that were aspirational for each of the majority female profiles in each of these networks. 

Thus, we can see that on Instagram the brand works with lifestyle influencers such as Loreto Gala (40 years old, image director of Two Thirds and wife of its founder) and makeup artists such as María Català (unknown age although young, but certainly aspirational for an audience between 30 and 45 years old):

But they have not only stuck to short videos and quick makeup tutorials: they have also opted for serious collaborations with specialized influencers that have involved consulting, launching and developing products.

Paradigmatic is the case of makeup artist Maria Català, with whom they have developed the 2 shades of the now famous Saigu cream bronzer, which sold out in a matter of hours after its launch on the web and Instagram. 

Saigu experimented for the occasion with the format of live streaming with product sales. This is a controversial format that works for some brands and not so much for others; but in the case of Saigu it has been a resounding success, to the point of bringing them to the brink of dying of success. 

So much so that with Maria Català they have ventured to develop from scratch an illuminator, with 2 shades and a composition of incredible quality, which they also pre-launched in streaming via Instagram live and that, on this occasion, allowed them to experiment with product pre-sale.

Working closely with influencers specialized in makeup has an advantage in this case, and that is that it allows to show how to use several products of the same brand together, thus enhancing cross selling and the sale of bundle products, which as we will see next day is a strong bet on the website of Saigu Cosmetics.

Another tactic that usually works very well on social networks, especially on Instagram, are the discount codes offered by influencers. At Saigu, they do not miss this opportunity and offer discount codes to their collaborators to further facilitate that first sale that leads the audience to try the product. 

Last but not least, a very prominent aspect of their online marketing is social proof. In each of the photos on networks where their products appear, there are dozens of comments raving about it. We do not know to what extent these comments are true, but they seem very reliable and there is no doubt that they have a huge influence on the decision to try the product.