EP18. Behind the Scenes of a Rebrand with Huna Natural Apothecary

Our last three episodes of Green Beauty Conversations formed our Beauty Branding Week and gave you plenty of strategies and practical tactics to help you get under way on your branding journey. However, if you've already launched your brand but feel that it's looking tired or is not doing your business justice or perhaps you've simply fallen out of love with it, now might be the right time to consider rebranding your beauty business. If you are at this juncture, then our guest in this episode has plenty of insights to help you work out if a rebrand might be good for your beauty business. We chat to Formula Botanica alumni Heather Urquhart, founder of Huna Natural Apothecary about the gains and pains of a rebranding exercise. Huna Apothecary is based in Winnipeg, Canada, and creates 100% natural and organic high-performance skin nutrition. Although having launched her business only a few years ago, Heather realised that Huna needed to enhance its brand positioning to be able to attract more retailers and compete with well-known, larger names in the natural beauty industry. When Heather started out she wisely bootstrapped most of her business and branding, but when she started missing out on market opportunities, she decided it was time to invest seriously in Huna's branding. In this episode, Heather talks us through her rebranding journey with its highs and lows. In this episode, you'll find out about: Why investing in your branding as early as possible is essential not peripheral to growing your business; Why retailers are a great resource and can help give you a reality check and feedback when you face a rebrand; How working with creative professionals on rebranding your beauty business makes all the difference to its success; Why you need to allow a good six months, or more, from creative brief to finishing a rebranding exercise; What outcomes you can expect from taking the plunge to rebrand. As Heather moves Huna from its first years as a start-up beauty business to running a premium natural beauty brand stocked widely in her native Canada, and soon further afield, she has plenty of business advice too. Key takeaways from this episode on the reasons to rebrand your beauty business include: Communicate closely with your retail partners throughout your rebrand process. They have their finger on the pulse of consumers probably more than you do. Don't underestimate how much time and money can go into sourcing the right packaging. Note also that premium beauty may require a look and finish with high minimum order quantities. Don't forget about the website in your rebranding exercise. Hire web design and build experts with a proven track record in delivering on time and to brief. You will make mistakes in building your brand and business but remember, this is part of your growth and learning curve. Just remain agile and be prepared to change course. We're in the beauty business where image counts. Don't forget that in your quest to showcase its green, clean face. Find out more about Heather's journey from botanist to successful natural beauty brand by following Huna Natural Apothecary: Huna Natural Apothecary website. Huna Natural Apothecary on Instagram. Huna Natural Apothecary on Facebook. Huna Natural Apothecary on Twitter. Huna Natural Apothecary on Pinterest. Listen, Download and Subscribe to Green Beauty Conversations Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Formula Botanica: Green Beauty Conversations podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review on iTunes or Stitcher so that more people can enjoy the show. Don’t forget to follow and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.