Before diving into product prototyping, I have to think about how I want to present ‘The Glow Code’ in terms of its online presence and general ethos. What do I want my brand to focus on/stand for? What is important to my audience? These questions need to be answered before moving forward to my products.
I want my online persona for ‘The Glow Code’ to be relatable and professional. I want my audience to know that I am just like them but also maintain a clear and concise message.
These are some qualities that I would like to align my presence towards:
- Creative
- Kind
- Positive
- Understanding
- Wholistic
Inspiration
These are two specific skin care brands that I have engaged with for years based on the fact that I applaud the way they market themselves online and because I enjoy using their products.
Brand crush no. 1 – Frank Body
What I love about Frank Body:
- The way that they use first person tense to build a cheeky character for their online persona. This makes their audience feel special and more personal with the brand. ‘I’m natural, naughty and ready to make you as soft as a pug on a rug.’
2. Their repetition of referring to their customers as ‘babes’ (literally in every single post, its so cute).
3. They use cheeky slogans on their packaging that make you smile.
4. They have an amazing online aesthetic featuring:
- A good mix of memes, quotes, customer reviews and product pictures.
- A very coordinated colour scheme of pink.
Brand crush no. 2 – Peggy Sue Soaps
Things I love about Peggy Sue:
- Their clean white and pale pink online aesthetic.
2. Her goals to create a genuine and sustainable brand.
Engagement with my audience
I know that I want my brand to focus on natural ingredients and environmental impact, however I want to ask my instagram followers (on my personal account to reach more people) how important certain things are for them. I believe that the people that follow me on my personal instagram are the target audience for The Glow Code. The results of this survey will give me an indication on what I should focus and emphasis on for The Glow Code.
This is the order of posts that I put on my story:
- Doing a bit of research for my side project @Theglowcode__
- Answer as truthfully as you can. There will be 0 judgement of your answers.
- Please answer with a number from 0 (not important at all) to 10 (extremely important).
- How important is zero waste/minimising plastic in your life?
- How important is it for you to use skincare products that include natural ingredients?
- How important is affordability when it comes to your skincare products?
Results of instagram survey after 24 hours (around 70 people answered each question)
| Question Mean answer How important is zero waste? 10/10 How important is it to use natural ingredients on your skin? 8.5/10 How important is affordability $ when it comes to buying skincare products? 5/10 |
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I found the results to be interesting. They mean that I can emphasise on zero waste packaging and not worry as much on the products being cheap.
A few people said that their answers depended on whether or not the products were proven to work. I will need to advertise positive customer feedback/reviews and maybe some ‘before and after’ photos of customers.
Moving forward I want to build my online presence and aesthetic by posting pictures on instagram and facebook. Even though I don’t have products to sell yet, I want to build my following and create anticipation for the products to launch.
Here are my recent two posts:
(context: I created this brand a year ago but had haven’t worked on it since February this year so it’s kind of been abandoned til now)
Ideas to build following until launching products:
- Posting regular stories with skin facts/tips
- Posting a photo every couple of days, giving clues to new products, asking questions and building feed aesthetic
- Think of a give away I can do when pre launch (to build followers)
Words by Erin Waugh
Image by Raw Pixel
Erin Waugh 
Hi Erin! I love the whole idea of of your brand, even just reading this blog post now makes me want to go and purchase a little Glow Code scrub! Your whole aesthetic is clearly established and beautiful and you obviously have skills in editing and creating. I really liked how you showed a poll in your instagram and provided the results and continued to evaluate what you felt you needed to work on from that. My only concern would be whether you have enough time to continue the high standard of posts on both an Instagram and FaceBook as well as making and delivering the products. But aside from time being an issue, your use of examples and your inclusion of your inspiration is amazing! I’m so excited to see how you brand expands and progresses!
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I lovelovelove this idea! I personally really like body scrubs and skincare and i find this really admirable how you incorporate natural products and environmentally friendly packaging. Your Instagram page is very fresh, simple, aesthetic and really informational i got intrigued with the different natural ingredients you used to make a scrub. Also your prices are very affordable.
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Thank you so much ! I really appreciate it x
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