In early May 2020, I interviewed one-half of Shakeup Cosmetics, co-founder, Jake Xu. The brand, headquartered in Bath, launched in 2018 and is growing fast. Just 2 weeks after launch, Jake and his identical twin brother, Shane, both born in Beijing, secured a national deal with Harvey Nichols. Striking that important balance between quality and affordability seems to be ticking all the boxes. On our Teams call we discussed the rise of the male beauty sector, routes to market, DTC trends, influencer marketing, the future of the store and life post Covid-19.

AH: You’re a relatively young brand but are already make waves in the male beauty sector! For those that don’t know Shakeup Cosmetics, will you tell us a little more about you and the brand.

JX: Sure. At Shakeup we believe beauty and makeup has no gender, but our skin does. Male and female skin is very different, and one man’s skin will differ from another’s. So, we produce hybrid skincare-cosmetics that are designed specifically for men's skin types and skin concerns. Our products blur the lines between clinically proven skincare, and colour cosmetics. They provide long term skincare benefits, while delivering the same instant gratification you get from using colour cosmetics for blemish coverage.

The brand was set up two years ago while my brother and I were running our successful beauty marketing agency, and it took 18 months of development before we launched our products in the UK in September last year. We secured national listing with Harvey Nichols two weeks after we launched and so far, in addition to the UK, we have reached the Philippines, South Africa and New Zealand.  

Just like many other brands before us, the idea came from our own personal needs and experience. We have been cosmetic users for many years. For us, going to a female cosmetics brand counter in a department store to ask for help isn’t a huge deal, but we know for many guys in our situation this is a massive hurdle. Even for us, we still struggled to find the products that were suitable for our skin and our needs. Most of the products on the market were developed based on trends lead by female consumers and were tested with female only trial groups. We found the majority of the products were either too heavy, or too cakey, or too dewy and oily. Guys generally want a matte, natural and undetectable finish. Having worked in beauty marketing for over a decade, we thought we’d give it a go to create a brand for guys just like ourselves. Shakeup was born.

AH: You mentioned your national listing with Harvey Nichols (which is very impressive so early on!), and the fact that you have already reached three international territories, but could you tell us a bit more about your current routes to market?

JX: Not surprisingly, we sell direct to customers and through wholesale. We’re really proud of our relationship with Harvey Nichols and currently have our products in eight of their stores (including one in Ireland) as well as on their website. We’re also listed in a few other smaller boutique cosmetic stores, and have recently opened our UK e-commerce site globally, where we sell direct to customers. We understand that beauty is a sensitive product area, and customers like to be able to test colour and texture before purchasing. This is tricky to achieve online, and so for us, having a physical presence in-store is very important.

We also export through distributors and overseas retailers. We had our eyes set on international markets right from the beginning and this is a core part of our strategy – even though male cosmetics is a growing trend it’s still a niche, and the UK male beauty market isn’t large enough to support our ambitions, so we must think beyond our shores.

AH: Just picking up on your customer base, I know that you’re a brand that is acutely aware that the gender divide is more fluid than ever.  Are you finding that your core customer base is made up of Gen-Z consumers? 

JX: There’s no denying that Gen-Z will become our main consumer group very soon. However, interestingly at the moment our core customer group are slightly older than that; mostly millennials but also a large portion are in the 45+ age group. 

This is not to say that Gen Z’s aren’t more gender fluid, you only need to jump on TikTok to see how differently they view gender divide, but I think our brand positioning and our product pricing aren’t necessarily targeting the younger end of the Gen Z bracket. Our products range from £12 to £25; what we call affordable luxury. But these aren’t necessarily the price points at which Gen Z’s are shopping. We promote overall skin health at Shakeup, and for guys in their teens, the most asked questions are about acne, breakouts, etc. and we offer them the appropriate advice on the best products to use for this.

AH: You mentioned your products are “affordable luxury”, how do you ensure you balance quality (something that we know is really important in the beauty industry) but at the right price?

JX: In general, customers nowadays are much savvier than they used to be. Especially when it comes to skincare and cosmetics - people want to know what goes into a product. You only need to look at the explosive success of ingredient driven brands such as The Ordinary and The Inkey List to see how much consumers will scrutinise your product and formula. At our price point it is difficult to source quality raw ingredients within the budget available, but it is achievable. Right from the outset, we wanted to work with a skincare renowned lab, rather than a colour cosmetics manufacturer, to have access to the latest premium skincare ingredients that would nourish and protect skin. We also needed a partner who would be able to help us scale when we go international. Finding that partner took a long time and a lot of convincing! Labs that fit the above criteria usually only work with big brands, so we had to sell them the vision, and the potential. Fortunately, our manufacturing partner believed in us and have been very accommodating since we started working together

Our products are formulated by the same scientists who worked on brands such as Chanel and Elemis, and we truly believe at the end of the day, the quality of the products makes or breaks a brand. Of course, to produce products to this level of quality isn’t cheap, but we made the decision not to compromise on quality right from the beginning. Pricing wise, we wanted our brands to be accessible and affordable. After all, we are about democratising beauty, not making it more exclusive, and competitive pricing is key in such a highly scrutinised market.

AH: You mentioned the increasingly savvy nature of your customers, and one way in which consumers are able to do their due diligence on a product is to look for personal reviews and recommendations – enter ‘the influencer’.  Do you use influencers as part of your marketing strategy?

JX: Yes, influencer collaboration is a key part of our marketing strategy, but we see it more as peer-to-peer marketing rather than just influencer marketing. In China, for example, we are seeing the rise of the KOC (key opinion consumer), which is what we would call a “micro-influencer”. The KOC’s are far more engaged and are seen to be more credible by their audiences. At the end of the day, it’s about recommendation and word of mouth. Coming from a marketing background, we have seen this method trailed and tested by many of our clients with various level of success. It is about engagement, but ultimately, it’s about the products, and it’s important to recognise that this type of marketing won’t work for everything.

It’s not a channel where everyone can see a meaningful return and there are some platforms and tools that do not deliver what they promise. The biggest challenge for brands is how to measure their return on investment when using these platforms. Some of them are quite new to commercialisation and monetisation, so they are largely unregulated. It's also tricky to find the right influencers that will engage with your audience. Then there are the fees. What is a reasonable amount to pay for what type of content done by what kind of influencers with what level of following etc.? I wish I had the answers!

AH: I think a lot of people wish they had those answers! Thinking outside of the influencer bubble, how are you continuing to retain existing customers and attract new ones? Customer discovery is key for any brand - how are you getting noticed in a time when ad spend for many businesses has been cut and department stores (a more traditional but important discovery route for beauty) are closed?

JX: The digital sphere is certainly key for the cosmetics and beauty industry. There are plenty of beauty brands that were founded, launched and are sold exclusively online, and Covid19 is drawing more brands to make the move to online marketing. For some, whose client base has been built from the floor of the department store, this is their first real foray into direct, online marketing. From our perspective however, guys tend to shop online for grooming products anyway, especially cosmetic products, so this is nothing new. The lockdown period has created an ideal trial period, during which customers can try new products in the comfort of their isolated homes, which is another positive for us.

Some brands are seeing an increase in online sales, therefore while the natural inclination during this time might be to protect cash, brands should see this as an opportunity to get themselves noticed by what is essentially a captive audience. Scrolling through social media channels pre-lockdown was typically confined to lunch breaks and evenings, but the current situation means brands can see a return on their online advertising spend at any time of the day. To my mind, this is exactly the right time to ramp up online media spend and diversify your advertising strategy. So much media is being consumed now, so you must change things up and stay relevant. Value-add must be at the forefront of your mind, it can’t just be ‘buy buy buy’.

AH: Talking of store closures, as a brand stocked in Harvey Nichols and other stores, are you concerned about the future of the physical store or the increased shift from B2B wholesale to DTC?

JX: We do believe it’s important to be visible both on and offline. One doesn’t replace the other. There are customers who wish to try the products, the colour and texture, and these things are really at the heart of any beauty brand. It also adds brand credibility to be listed with high street retailers and premium department stores. This is particularly important when you expand your brand internationally; the fact we had secured national listings with Harvey Nichols was one of the key reasons overseas distributors and retailers took notice of our brand, and for us, international partnerships are key to our growth.

We are naturally concerned about the future of physical retail, but I don’t think it’s going away any time soon. Even some exclusively online brands have had pop-up stores as part of their launch – they want customers to be able to experience their products, and we believe this is so important. This is particularly the case for independent brands; to be able to break into the mainstream market, brands need the support of retailers, otherwise they don’t stand a chance against the big names who roll out similar products with just a new look and feel. Having your products available online is one thing, but having a partnership with a retailer helps to elevate the brand and gives you access to much higher sales volumes. Yes, you compromise on a few points of margin, but for any business, cash is king, and you need to turn your inventory into cash as quickly as possible to fuel growth.

AH: Covid-19 has caused so many challenges in all of our lives but what positives are you taking from this and what are the long-term goals of Shakeup?

JX: Covid-19 has taught us that we can’t plan for all eventualities and our business model, marketing channels and product offerings have to be versatile enough to weather unforeseen circumstances such as this. It also highlights the importance of the quality of your supply chain. We are grateful for our manufacturing partner who has managed to supply to us with the product replenishment we desperately needed throughout the lock down. We use over 95 different ingredients across our range of products which are sourced from all over the world; if we hadn’t had a partner that could help us manage the production during such a difficult time, our business and our customers would have suffered. 

Our long-term goal for Shakeup is to become synonymous with men’s beauty and men’s grooming. We welcome competition, and see more brands entering into the male cosmetics market as a positive step towards building its credibility and towards giving men more choice. But we want to be the go-to brand for self-caring modern men all over the world. We believe that masculinity comes in many forms and we exist to reject the toxic masculinity that brands have used for so long – masculinity is stronger than that. We believe in a future where gender neutrality is default and given, but before we get there, guys like us and our customers need brands like Shakeup to include men in the beauty conversation and to give men the choice to look their best every day.

Learn more about Shakeup Cosmetics here, and my thoughts on Gen-Z and the DTC shakeup here.

Want to join The Collective, and contribute to the debate?

Email us at: The.Collective@lewissilkin.com