Visual appeal has been commonplace for marketing products in the beauty business. Beauty is something to be treasured for it creates a level of artistic appeal to a buyer.
As a beauty business, visual elements are key to drawing in audiences and inviting new customers to revel in your brand.
The 5 senses allow customers to feel and absorb the products on an emotional level. If something is pleasing emotionally, you are more than likely to gravitate towards the product again because how something feels and looks is vitally important in how you establish your beauty brand.
The process in which you are able to create a product must be meticulous. Attention to detail may seem minuscule at first, but little details can make an impact on the outcome of your product.
Remember, the attractiveness of a product to buyers is first dependent on how something looks.
These are the main questions to ask yourself when it comes to choosing visual designs for your beauty business:
- Does the design catch and captivate customers visually?
- Are they willing to stick around and learn more about the product(s) because of what they see?
The beauty industry is much as an art form as any art experience out there because you are allowing accessible designs to allow freedom for self-expression.
In order for customers to see if your products are right for them, they must first see the product: the packaging, the color, the themes, and essentially, the all around aesthetic.
As you build your story and your brand, make sure the visual elements are part of the process as it is a key element for the right emotional response for your products on display (whether online or in a store).
Design Principles in the Beauty Business
Visual displays of products happen mostly online via a website. Of course, brick and mortar stores still exist for visual merchandising, but consumers now can mostly see products online. If you are solely an online beauty brand, you have to convey the visual weight of your product via a screen because the consumer cannot touch it or experience what the product feels like.
The visual images of not just the product, but the entire website, must all have a responsive design that fits together with the overall focus of your beauty business.
Then, once a product is purchased, it is important to break down the principles of design of visual elements that are key to drawing in audiences and inviting new customers to understand your brand. Without further adieu, here are the three elements of visual design when it comes to the beauty business:
1. Packaging Design
How you design a package is key to appealing to your buyers. Material choices such as glass or reusable plastic can make an impact on the messaging of your brand.
It’s crucial that your design packaging tells a story through a sensory experience.
Texture and design can also make a huge impact on the messaging and emotions you are trying to elicit with your products. Shapes of product containers and design can communicate a message as well.
For instance, if you are a sustainable beauty business, packaging choices especially matter to your customers base. Natural textures are the basic design principle for a more environmental aesthetic, while modern fonts with special effects, such as tactile texture that people can feel right away when they receive the item, may be perfect for the more modern personal perspective.
While environmental impact is important, the container in which your products are stored must also be pleasing. Anything pleasing to the other four senses, not just to the eyes, is key to marketing design principles in the beauty industry.
Make sure you understand the colors, fonts, and logo you need to establish the branding for the packaging. Taking your time to put the design together before launching the product is key to smooth workflow and productivity.
If there are going to be words, make sure to also have a copy finalized and consistent throughout brand packaging, especially since people also need the packaging to understand how to use the product and look at what ingredients are used.
Picking up a container is part of the user’s satisfying shopping experience. So, be sure to have containers that don’t leak and that are easy to use as part of the visually appeal.
2. Color Choices
While this may seem insignificant, colors and patterns make a difference in advertising and packaging your product. Colors often communicate a message or feelings, and people often associate colors with different emotions.
For instance, bold patterns can exude confidence while mellow patterns may allow for peace and calm.
Therefore, color is essential for branding and marketing.
According to color symbolism here are what the different colors mean:
- Red – heat, energy, passion, love, danger
- Orange – youthful, vibrant, creativity, enthusiasm
- Yellow – happy, hopeful, positive, spontaneous
- Green – nature, growth, renewal, rebirth, prosperity
- Blue – calm, trust, relax, intelligence
- Purple – luxury, mystery, spirituality
- Pink – playfulness, romance, sensitivity, sweetness
- Brown – wholesomeness, warmth, honesty, earthy, friendly, old-fashioned
- Black – power, elegance, sophistication, exclusivity, mystery, bold, modern
- White – simplicity, minimalism, purity, clean, modern
- Gray – professionalism, formality, conventionality, conservative, reserved, serious
You can even include metallic or multicolored aesthetics, just so long as it is not overdone and it works with the messaging of your brand.
It’s also important to be aware that different colors have different meanings in various cultures. For instance, black is a mourning color in western cultures, but in some East Asian countries, it’s white.
It’s also important to understand these terms when it comes to color theory decisions:
- Hue – pure color
- Shade – adding black
- Tint – adding white
- Tone – adding gray
With color theory, you are able to mix and match different emphasis and focuses with a multitude of colors. Plus, by having a base hue and adding shades, tints, and tones, you are able to play up different warm and cool effects on your design.
Keep your brand message and story in mind when thinking of design choices, and this will help in creating what you want your brand to convey.
3. Visual Themes
Let’s be honest. People love themes.
Themes are what brings everything together in a unified focus.
As mentioned previously, people respond emotionally to visual elements, which means aesthetic is everything. Themes create an environment for the product to be bathed in for an immersive shopping experience.
Every story has a theme that circles back from the beginning until the end.
Your beauty brand needs to do the same…visually.
Think of this basic design principle to set the scene for your brand.
Ready?
Lights.
Camera.
Action!
Create a whole visual story behind your product that includes your brand’s message and the significance of the product you are specifically trying to portray. The action is your opportunity to cultivate a relationship with your audience by representing your brand’s aesthetic through a visual narrative.
A good example of this is with CoverGirl. They are famously known for their former “easy, breezy, beautiful, cover girl” messaging. They also do a good job of honing in on their light, playful, and airy aesthetic and visual themes in their marketing campaigns and product containers.
Themes can change and evolve, but the core foundation of what your theme has been built upon needs to remain consistent.
If you decide to do an uprooting of the theme change, or even complete branding change in the future, make sure to let your customers know via social media. If this change is thrusted upon an audience without warning, people may be confused, or even worse, turned off by the brand because it is something they will not recognize.
With any kind of major change a company goes through, remember to be transparent and authentic as well as keep your audience involved. You can even include your audience in the design decision-making process by holding polls, questionnaires, and prizes on your social media and online platforms.
The Ultimate Beauty Industry Shopping Experience
Aesthetic design matters when putting your products on display for your beauty brand. The visual merchandising is in itself an art form when it comes to the visual image of your products, whether that be online or in a physical location.
If customers are intrigued all-around by your products, this first step to that eye-catching moment is the design. Of course, the products themselves must fit a certain beauty need and be marketed to the target customer.
This is a great opportunity to work with a team, such as a design team, or even work with a design-forward individual, who can help get your products to come to life. Jot down ideas that make your brand, your brand, and think about what this brand design scheme will look like.
By starting to do this now, you are allowing your brand to flourish in the beginning and adapt when the time is right, or as the brand continues to evolve. Once you established the base design principles, the building and growing will be straightforward.
Now is the time to open up the creative side that you already have.
Because if you weren’t creative, you wouldn’t have decided to be an entrepreneur.
And you wouldn’t have decided to be in the beauty industry.
You have what it takes. So, take this opportunity to design your beauty products into fruition.