CBO reporter Li Jianzi
When a brand is clean, men, genderless, coupled with black founders, in today's Internet social era, the brand's buff is undoubtedly a state of fullness, and it is not difficult to understand that it is favored by the capital market.
Recently, men's beauty brand Scotch Porter announced the completion of its $11 million Series B financing, with Pendulum, an investment advisory platform focused on businesses and brands of color entrepreneurs, as the lead investor. Calvin Quallis, founder and CEO of Scotch Porter, said the funds will be used to scale up the business and expand product offerings.
When Rihanna was named to the Forbes Global Rich List with a net worth of $1.7 billion, much of it was thanks to her achievements in the beauty field, and furthermore, Fenty Beauty's success has also led to the emergence of more and more brands of color around the world. Scotch Porter is one of them.
01
A men's grooming brand with a pure concept
The company's last round of funding ended last year. Under the leadership of the venture capital fund Stage 1 Fund, the funds were used to support the expansion efforts," said Quallis on the new round of funding, "and we are excited to work with calvin and the Scotch Porter team to support the company through the next phase of growth." ”
Pendulum managing director Ron Mackey said in a statement. "With a differentiated product offering and wide distribution, Scotch Porter is well positioned for continued expansion in the men's personal care market."
Scotch Porter, a new brand that has gained traction in men's grooming in recent years, was founded in 2015 and named the collection after founder and CEO Calvin Quallis after his favourite drink (Scotch whisky) and his favourite musician (Gregory Porter).
Less than a year into its inception, Scotch Porter has generated sales of more than $1 million and has grown rapidly among major retailers such as Target and Walmart ever since.
Currently, Scotch Porter's hair care products, including moisturizing shampoos, leave-in conditioners and softening balms, have given up more than 1,400 unnatural ingredients, including silicones, sulfates and DHA, as well as beards, hair, skin and more, and even expanded to perfumes and recently popular dietary supplements. It is worth mentioning that in the early days, Scotch Porter also launched products containing CBD ingredients.
In February, the capital-favored brand announced that it was selling its beard collection on the shelves of nearly 2,300 CVS pharmacies in the United States. Its founders say how the mission of providing clean, affordable beauty products aligns with retailers' commitment to community and health.
As part of its ongoing work, Quallis said that in the new brand plan, the brand will promote internal and external health by continuing to expand its retail footprint and launch a more diverse product range in 2022.
"Our focus is on making pure, affordable, and non-toxic products more accessible to consumers and promoting holistic health and wellness practices." Quallis said. "We are also excited to offer a more diverse product portfolio that adds value to our customers' lives while educating them about the importance of internal and external health practices."
02
The innate brand advantage of beauty for people of color
While Black Lives Matter once attracted the attention of black people around the world, brands with black backgrounds also had an innate communication advantage on social media because of their unique product genes since the day of their birth. The success of Fenty Beauty naturally goes without saying, and Rihanna has successfully entered the world's richest list by being a beauty blogger.
Naomi Osaka, 23, is the first Asian player to rank first in women's singles, winning four Grand Slam singles titles and the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam. With her impressive record and colored mixed-race characteristics, she became the darling of fashion brands, becoming a brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer.
In September last year, Naomi Osaka officially launched its own skincare brand KINL, which stems from the needs of the public, with the core concept of protecting, repairing, creating healthy dark skin and raising people's awareness of skin cancer. It is worth mentioning that KINL's product claims also specifically indicate that the features of the product activity and repair series include vegan, zero animal testing, chemical sunscreen-free, parabens, gluten, phthalates and fragrance products.
It can be said that beauty brands of color have become a new generation of consumer brands that have attracted much attention in the capital market and consumer market under the superposition of multiple buffs such as vegan.
Taking this opportunity, Fei Dong also officially created his own skin care brand "Humanrace", the brand focuses on "efficient cleaning, green and sustainable, genderless", each term can be the wealth code of the fashion trend circle, Fei Dong is also not polite, the first product was unveiled at a high price of 128 US dollars (about 815.33 yuan), but it was still sold out in seconds.
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How does the Chinese market tap the demand for multi-ethnicity?
Current and global beauty brands can clearly perceive that sales of men's personal care products are growing steadily as millennial and Gen Z consumers pay more attention to self-care.
According to PersistenceMarket Research, the compound annual growth rate of such products is expected to reach 8% during the period 2021-2031. With broader focus, brands have the opportunity to expand their product offerings to appeal to a male audience.
Mintel's survey found that 40% of men are deeply influenced by smell, which they consider to be an important factor in choosing a product. In response to this growth, many brands have added to the male face, body and hair care track.
In the Chinese market, since last year, Tmall has upgraded the men's category to a first-class category to develop. Behind this, relevant data show that China's men's cosmetics market has grown at an average annual rate of 7.7% in the past 4 years, with a market size of about 16.7 billion yuan last year, and it is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 6%-8% after that, and will exceed 20 billion yuan by 2023.
As Chinese local men's care brands such as Li Ran and Dear Boyfriend continue to gain the attention of the capital market for the post-95 market, coupled with the great prosperity of the global male skin care and grooming market, the men's care market will usher in a new round of outbreak.
"There are people abroad who pay attention to the beauty of people of color, and there are so many ethnic minorities in China, combining their beauty needs with national culture can also be used as a selling point for products." For example, Hua Xizi has made product innovations on Miao culture. Some insiders pointed out.