Aesop
Crafting a Sensory Brand: How Aesop Built Loyalty Through Story, Science, and Experience
Aesop is a luxury skincare brand that offers skin, hair and body care formulations created with meticulous attention to detail, with efficacy and sensory pleasure in mind.
The problems
01
Becoming a cult brand
We consulted Aesop at the beginning of their journey of becoming a cult brand. At that time, the marketing budget was small and we collectively felt that if we made the product and in-store experience unique enough, people would talk about it.
02
Creating discoverers
We wanted to make early adopters feel like ‘discoverers’, people who had stumbled across a brand who not only sorted out their skin or hair but also spoke to the core of who they felt they were.
Our solution
01
Product narrative in-store
We recommended focusing strongly on product narrative in-store. Hiring good-looking staff is a no-brainer, but focusing deeply on knowledge, the chemistry, botany and design behind each product created a different kind of consultation.
02
Scent-family CRM
We used a CRM system that tracked what customers bought and gave samples according to ‘scent families’ or ‘perceived areas of need’ — skincare or haircare — so every follow-up felt personal rather than promotional.
03
Design philosophy over products
On digital, we recommended speaking in great depth about the design philosophy, rather than each product itself, to differentiate Aesop from other brands in the segment.
04
A brand as art
We also decided to speak about other things that mattered to our target audience, who appreciated the finer things in life. We wanted Aesop to be associated with more than a product or lifestyle — we wanted it to be a piece of art that delights in the home, the handbag and lifestyle venues.
05
Literature, travel and art
Our narrative became about literature, travel and art. We wanted to keep the brand exclusive and not inundate users with constant images. A carefully curated newsletter every quarter allowed our customers to keep in touch with the brand.
06
Mobile-first social proof
We created easy-to-pin images and designed stores that encouraged photography on mobile phones. Labels were designed for close-range mobile-phone photography. We reached out to lifestyle influencers and got them to incorporate an Aesop product into their photographs of whatever they blogged about.
Business impact
Aesop is the most celebrated luxury skincare brand in the world today.
80%+
Product Margins
0
Advertising Expenditures
2-3x
Pricing Power
$1,000+
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
“While expanding Aesop, one of the reasons the brand was so successful was getting the right partner when the business needed it. In 2008 our partnership with Ritu David was very important to us. One of the things I was focused on as a CEO was how to stretch our current resources as far as they can go, and getting the right partner was key for that. As a CEO you don’t realise sometimes how restricted your thinking becomes. Ritu came in with what was then called Red Teaming and is now called Design Thinking. We worked on our brand proposition, goal and visual assets. We decided our love for literature needed to be part of our brand experience.”
Michael O’Keeffe
CEO, Aesop