All posts by Olga Zadorozhna

The process of making a SWOT Analysis for my business idea

To start with, SWOT Analysis is a very needful and crucial thing, it helps to understand what should be improved and where everything is pretty good. SWOT Analysis contains four parts : strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and strengths.

Here you can see the SWOT I made for my business idea, my beauty brand “Opal”. According to this analysis, there are some aspects that should be improved such as: make a worldwide delivery in some time and make our products affordable for everyone.

Also, there are some positive aspects, my brand have a lot of opportunities to reach the global level. For example, all of our products are fully eco-friendly and sustainable, we are not testing our items on the animals, we don’t use plastic because we are worried about the environmental problems.

The opportunities and threats should be improved in some time but overall, from my point of view we have a really strong marketing strategy, so the business should be successful.

The process of making a Range Plan

From my point of view, range planing is a very important thing because therefore the client can see a wide range go products and the prices. As we already know, according to our previous projects range plan is a pyramid that contains three stages : top products, medium range products and core products. I’ve never been so excited to make a range plan, it was very absorbing to do it with cosmetics cause all the previous times I did it only with clothes.

This is a range plan for my cosmetics brand “Opal”. So, now I would like to explain a little bit just to make the details clear.

Let’s start with the first part “Top Products”. For the top range products that cost approximately more than 55 pounds, I decided to choose the anti-ageing kits ( they include creams, moisturisers, face oils, facial ampoules, etc.), full makeup set (with more than 50 shades of shadows), some skin-care routine kits.

For the medium range products that cost nearly 25 pounds and more I decided to choose a basic products like mascara, foundation, brow pencils, blush, lipstick. So, my point was to make this products affordable for everyone.

For the core products range that cost 7 pounds and a little bit more, I wanted to choose the items that are simple but very useful. A good example is makeup brushes or makeup remover pads, etc.

To conclude, range plan is a very useful thing, it helps to get a clear structure that will provide a more successful sales in the future.

The process of making mood boards

As I said previously, I really enjoy the process of making visuals such as color palettes, mood boards, etc. So, according to this I really loved to make this outcomes for my final presentation. I did two mood boards in a different color palettes.

This is my first mood board in a purple theme. I personally think that it is very important to use bright colours because the mood board needs to get a customer’s attention, so I tried to make something very creative and convey the main idea and message of the brand through this mood board.

This is my second mood board in a green theme. I tried to make this outcome very eye-catching and provide a range of our products to show the evidence of the business idea. Moreover, I want to point out this slogans such as “cruelty-free”, “no animal testing”, “organic”, “vegan”, “bio”. From my point of view this is a great PR strategy to bring in new customers.

To conclude, I tried to convey the main idea of the brand through this mood boards. I wanted to make something eye-catching and creative to get a customer’s attention and to advertise my brand in some way.

The process of making a PESTLE Analysis

First of all I would like to say that it was a very absorbing process to explore my cosmetics brand in the different factors. PESTLE analysis contains six categories : Political factor, Economic Factor, Social Factor, Technical Factor, Legal Factor and an Environment Factor. So, before I started making my PESTLE analysis, I needed to analyze the marketing strategy of my brand. I made the final outcome as a chart because for me it is easier to read and it looks nice visually.

So I divided the PESTLE Analyses for my beauty brand into 6 categories :

Political Factor :

The government gives an opportunity to buy the materials and products locally. In addition to this, there should not be any shortage in foreign goods.

Economic Factor :

No need to spend some extra budget to buy some products in addition to the local area. Moreover, we are offering a high-quality service and accessible prices.

Social Factor :

Pop-up stores, social media, PR events, big sales, great experience, carefully organized stuff and people with akin interests.

Technical Factor :

A multifaceted website with an opportunity to do online shopping, making appointments and the virtual product’s reference.

Legal Factor :

Need to follow the government restrictions due to the shop policy. Furthermore, appropriate attitude to customers and workers. 

Environment Factor :

On the assumption that the Opal brand is fully eco-friendly and sustainable, we do not use plastic and other chemicals, only low waste packaging bags. 

To conclude, this analysis helped me to explore deeper my cosmetics brand. Therefore, from that point it will be easier to move on and develop other aspects.

The process of making a Customer Profile

To be honest, visuals are my favourite type of work. I really enjoy making some moldboard, customer profiles, colour palettes working with the Pantone program. From my point of view, to get a successful business the brand should know their customers and create their products according to customer’s interests and hobbies. So, I did this customer profile according to my business idea. As I said previously, my beauty brand is focused on sustainability, everything is vegan and organic, so my customer should have first of all a healthy lifestyle. I have the eight most important points about how does my potential client should look like.

I have the eight most important points about how does my potential client should look like :

  • 18-35 years
  • Interested in the beauty industry
  • Follows fashion trends
  • Healthy lifestyle
  • Vegan or vegetarian 
  • Love sport, yoga, etc. 
  • Worried about our planet problems
  • Love animals

To conclude, it is crucial to know your customer’s interests very well because it will help us to make our brand more successful and fortunate.

The process of making Aims and Objectives

To start with, from my own perspective it is crucial to understand the aims and objectives while creating your own brand. With these considerations, it will be easier to analyze and to find the right approach to the client. In addition to this, I did mine according to my business idea.

The aims for my beauty brand are :

  1. Inspire other cosmetics brands to get rid of animal testing and develop their concepts without harming our planet.
  2. To allocate our customers with a huge range of high-quality organic products and service. 
  3. Show and convey to people that healthy products are no worse than the normal ones and even better to use.
  4. To give an opportunity to express their feelings and emotions through cosmetics. 

The objectives for my beauty brand are :

  1. By showing examples of how my beauty brand “Opal” is creating its products we will be able to present and convey that it is very crucial to stick to the concept of “cruelty-free” and work without harming our planet. 

2.  Opal brand has a wide range of high-quality natural products, all items have been made from organic and vegan materials because my brand is fully eco-friendly and sustainable for everyone. 

3.   There is a stereotype that vegan beauty brands are not that good and famous, in addition to this I want to demonstrate to people that it is not true and organic cosmetics can make your life even better and healthier. 

4.   My brand gives an amazing opportunity to express customer’s feelings and emotions by creating their own sustainable product. Moreover, we have a huge range of our products that every client can choose according to their mood and preferences. 

The process of making a mission statement

During the business session in class, we did a lot of group work and discussed what is a mission statement and how it should be written. I really enjoyed this session and understood how I would like to write the mission statement for my business idea “Opal” beauty brand.

According to the business class we should have divide our mission statement per four categories such as: mission / goal, principles / values, target customers and the USP. I thought that it would be easier to read if I will do it as a table (chart) also it get a better visual.

The mission of my beauty brand is: To raise the issue of animal testing in the cosmetic industry and animal slaughter help people to get rid of bad habits and live a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, my biggest ambition is to inspire other cosmetics brands to get rid of animal testing and develop their concepts without harming our planet. 

The principles and values of my beauty brand are: based on sustainability at its core and individual approach to each client. We will provide our customers with a wide range of opportunities such as creating their own products etc. 

Target customers are: The customers we are sighting at are people who are interested in the beauty sphere, mostly vegans or vegetarians, having a healthy lifestyle, love to do sport, yoga etc. Moreover, those who follow fashion trends and love animals. In Opal, every customer will get special attention and an individual approach. For us the client’s wish is foremost. 

The USP: The uniqueness of my beauty brand is that we are one of the few brands that give an opportunity to create your own product that will be made from organic products and will not be tested on animals because we stand for cruelty-free

Project Proposal

Through this progression project I will attempt to explore a business idea with sustainability at its core.There are a lot of valuable problems happening in twenty-first century that are destroying our planet. World issues are very important to me and I’m very concerned about our planet. I’d like to raise the issue of animal testing in the cosmetic industry and animal slaughter, that is inspired me to come up with this project idea. I have a huge ambitions about creating and presenting this brand because it will help people to get rid of bad habits and live a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, my biggest ambition is to make it clear to other make up brands that cosmetics must not be tested on animals under any circumstances.

This business idea has required remarkable amounts of both primary and secondary research into the brand. Using magazine, web sites and social media sources required finding new specific information that helped me to explore the cosmetics industry world. The whole point of this project is to create a new cosmetics brand that will be producing products that are 100% vegan, not tested on animals and bio means that it was made of biological and renewable products based on sustainable manufacture. There will be an opportunity to create a “special” products as customer wants, for example a lipstick based on a customer’s favorite fruit or a eyeshadow palette based on a client’s favorite dish. Moreover, there will be a chance to make your own cosmetic product depend on your interests, hobbies etc. There will be a huge choice of cosmetics products such as foundation, primer, BB cream, concealer, blush, highlighter, bronzer, powder, eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner, lip gloss, etc. Furthermore, there most exiting thing is that those products will have no age because there will be also an anti-aging sets and every item will be organic and not tested on animals. My future goal is to inspire other cosmetics brands to get rid of animal testing and develop their concepts without harming our planet.

According to my personal experience studying on IISF course, that was an amazing experience to explore my strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. In addition to this, I can clearly understand what I need to improve and where I need to be more attentive. Moreover, I want to consider the hard skills and the soft skills. Personally, that was a quite hard to learn how to do the fashion illustrations but hopefully I’m doing business and want to enroll to BSc (Hons) Fashion Management course as my first preference. Talking about the soft skills it was not hard for me to find new friends and contacts because I am good at communicating with others, but it was a little bit hard to manage my time flexibility. I am very thankful to have such an bewildering chance to study at London College of Fashion on IISF course.

So, I’ve organized this text for the final presentation and add some images just to dilute the text and to give it a more collected look overall.

My Business Idea

Nowadays there are a lot of valuable problems happening in twenty-first century that are destroying our planet. World issues are very important to me and I’m very concerned about our planet. So I’d like to raise the issue of animal testing in the cosmetic industry and animal slaughter, that is inspired me to come up with this business idea.

The idea is that people need to understand that we can be happy and live our best life without harming animals. With these considerations in mind, I want to create a new cosmetics brand named “Opal” that will be producing products that are 100% vegan, not tested on animals and bio means that it was made of biological and renewable products based on sustainable manufacture. There will be an opportunity to create “special” products as the customer wants, for example, a lipstick based on a customer’s favourite fruit or an eyeshadow palette based on a client’s favourite dish.

Moreover, there will be a chance to make your own cosmetic product depend on your interests, hobbies etc. There will be a huge choice of cosmetics products such as foundation, primer, BB cream, concealer, blush, highlighter, bronzer, powder, eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner, lip gloss, etc. Furthermore, there most exciting thing is that those products will have no age because there will be also anti-ageing sets and every item will be organic and not tested on animals.

To conclude, this will be a great opportunity to struggle with animal testing in the cosmetic industry and promote sustainability in fashion thus make it trendy and desirable for everyone.

Primary Research: Shop Reports

I am very happy to announce that I have started my final business project. One of the most crucial things to do is primary and secondary research and I’ve decided to do three shop reports according to my business idea. As I am doing a beauty brand, I thought that it would be perfect to choose beauty shops. So, my shop reports are about Huda Beauty by Huda Kattan, Fenty Beauty by Rihanna and MAC Cosmetics.

So, this is my first shop report about Huda Beauty brand. I really love their cosmetics, so decided to explore their business ideas with categories: about brand, purpose, product / personalization / process, positioning / promotion / the future. With those criterias it is really easy to analyse the brand.

This is my second shop report about Fenty Beauty brand by Rihanna. I, personally really enjoyed the process of making such a work. This research helped me to analyze the brand idea and understand how to manage mine, so that was very helpful for me.

This is my third shop report about the MAC Cosmetics. That is my favorite cosmetics brand and I really loved to explore it. I looked at the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and understood how does it works.

To conclude, that was my primary research that help me to analyze the process of making a beauty brand. I understood the pros and cons, goals and strategy of making a successful brand, so from that moment I will try to apply this knowledge into my business idea and create a rewarding beauty brand.