At the pop-up shop launch event last Friday evening, brand founder Holly Thaggard made it clear to a room full of media and influencers, that Supergoop isn’t a brand with a mission but rather a mission with a brand. “Skin cancer is mostly preventable,” Thaggard remarked, going on to tell her founder story about a close friend’s experience with skin cancer.
As much as Thaggard’s brand is grounded in her young friend’s experience, she isn’t dwelling on the past or getting stuck in the status quo of sun care. She realized early on in her effort that, “If we don’t have innovation in this category, nobody’s going to pull [sun care] into their routine every day.”
And now that Supergoop, founded in 2007, has such an expansive product portfolio, Thaggard believes that millennials are in a unique position: “This generation is so powerful,” she told a room full of content creators Friday evening; “You have the opportunity to stop an epidemic. And we won’t see that until you’re 60 and that 1 in 5 [statistic about the number of people who get skin cancer] is 1 in 20.”
More than marketing
Every consumer business needs people to buy product in order for the business to be solvent. And beauty consumers are not foolish; they know when they are being marketed to simply for the sake of sales. And so, brands like Supergoop, that are intent on helping consumers use sun care more often and in more ways than usual in order to help prevent skin cancer, are in a uniquely challenging position when it comes to marketing.
“It’s one of those rare cancers that takes a product to prevent,” Thaggard tells Cosmetics Design, explaining that she first considered launching a non-profit to help combat the skin cancer epidemic. She realized that simply wouldn’t work, that this was an initiative that needed products. And “that’s why we’re a brand,” says Thaggard.
More sun care in the pipeline
Supergroup recently launched Shimmershade eyeshadows with SPF as well as a product line for children 6 months to 6 years old. These new products are a good illustration of the brand’s objective to develop product that consumers can “layer and wardrobe” for sun (blue light and pollution) protection every day.
At last week’s launch event, Thaggard hinted at the brand’s extensive pipeline of product development, telling one curious influencer that her “absolute favorite [Supergoop product] is not on the market yet [and won’t be until] Spring 2020.”
And while she wouldn’t reveal what that product is, she did say that more Shimmershade colors are coming and that she’s seriously looking in to the after-sun care category. “I have been doing a lot of research on the afterhours of sun exposure...on how we can continue to keep the skin healthy after the peak hours of the day,” suggesting that perhaps Supergoop will develop and launch product to care for sun-exposed skin even indoors and overnight.
The first Supergoop pop-up shop was only open Friday through Sunday, May 3 – 5. But Thaggard and her team are endlessly keen on sun care education.
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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.