Project Scope:
Branding & Identity / Art Direction / Desktop & Mobile UI/UX / Product Packaging & 3D Renderings / Amazon Storefront & A+ Content Creation / Customer-Facing Digital & Print Assets / Marketing & Promotional Materials / Photography Direction & Oversight / Copywriting
Tools used:
Illustrator / Photoshop / Lightroom / InDesign / After Effects / XD / Dimension
Overview:
Perfect Image Skincare is a leading skincare brand specializing in professional-grade chemical peels and advanced skincare solutions. With a focus on quality and efficacy, the brand offers a comprehensive range of exfoliation treatments designed to address various skin concerns. With a commitment to quality and science-backed formulations, Perfect Image Skincare empowers individuals to achieve smoother, healthier, and more radiant skin through high-performance peeling solutions and targeted skincare products.
My work with Perfect Image Skincare covered various aspects as a UI Designer and Design Lead, from defining the brand's online identity and crafting user-friendly interfaces to designing product packaging, marketing materials, and directing product and lifestyle photoshoots. During a critical rebranding phase, I had the unique opportunity to shape and elevate the brand, ensuring visual consistency across all touchpoints and drive engagement across all platforms. See full case study below.
CASE STUDY: PERFECT IMAGE SKINCARE
The Perfect Image brand encountered several key challenges driven by rapid sales growth and the scaling issues that accompanied it. As a result, a number of high-level objectives emerged that required immediate attention:
• Establish and maintain a cohesive and recognizable brand identity across all platforms that appealed to consumers who focussed on elevated & effective peel products that addressed a number of common skin concerns.
• Enhance online user experience, engagement, and visual storytelling through high-quality marketing materials, and consistent digital and print design.
• Strengthen the brand’s e-commerce presence, particularly through a more strategic approach to sales funnels on the brand’s website along with an optimized Amazon storefront.
• Streamline internal design workflows & collaboration processes for my team and myself for better efficiency and brand consistency.
1. Challenges:
• Inconsistent Branding: Across marketing materials, digital assets, and product packaging, there was a lack of uniformity, resulting in a fragmented brand identity. Brand consistency on a detailed level- both in voice and visual identity- is often overlooked, yet from a consumer's perspective, it speaks volumes about a company's attention to detail and significantly impacts the overall user experience. A strong, seamless brand presence across platforms builds user trust, sets clear expectations, strengthens recognition, and ultimately drives purchasing decisions.
• E-Commerce Presence Obstacles: As the brand was positioning itself to shift a portion of its sales from Amazon to its main e-commerce website, several challenges emerged. These included refining the user experience to better address customer needs, optimizing UI for smoother exploration, education, and sales funnels, and ensuring stronger brand identity alignment between Amazon and the website. Additionally, there was a need to establish an improved Amazon storefront presence with high-quality Amazon A+ product assets.
• Disjointed Digital and Print Materials: Marketing collateral, social media visuals, and website design lacked strategic alignment, causing confusion and negatively impacting engagement and conversions. The brand voice, call to actions, and visuals needed to be one across platforms.
• Lack of Protocols and SOPs: Within the internal team at Perfect Image, the absence of streamlined creative processes, disjointed collaboration on projects, and missing big picture objectives for stakeholders led to inefficiencies and inconsistent messaging. Establishing some sentiment of structure and procedure would go a long way.
2. Research
A structured insight-driven approach was first taken to identify and analyze Perfect Image's core audience:
Deep Dive into Core Audience:
• During a rebranding, a company is redefining and evolving its identity, and understanding an audience's evolving needs, preferences, and expectations is crucial to aligning the brand with them. It ensures that the new identity resonates with the right people.
• This presented an opportunity to engage with customers in a more authentic, meaningful way while gaining insights into their pain points, desires, and motivations. As a result, we were better able to fine-tune messaging, visuals, and tone to connect with them more emotionally and strategically.
• There was also an understanding that the skincare industry had shifted since the brand's inception, and being aware of trends, competitors, new science, and customer expectations offered the chance to realign with the changes and keep Perfect Image competitive.
• A customer-centric approach would allow for sound decisions that were rooted in the needs and desires of the customer, and ensure that the brand's evolution was relevant, meaningful, and sustainable. It also made for a clearer path in determining what Perfect Image's true value propositions were.
Research Methods:
The following are four key focus areas, among many others:
• Market Research: We utilized incentivized customer surveys and questionnaires to gather insight on the most common skincare concerns, product preferences, and purchasing behaviors. We also conducted a competitive analysis to identify market gaps, consumer expectations, and positioning opportunities.
• Customer Data Analysis: We took a deeper look at website analytics that examined visitor behavior, conversion and click-through rates, and product interactions. On all social media platforms, we tracked engagement and influencer-driven trends. Lastly, we analyzed top-selling products, seasonal changes, and repeat purchase behaviors.
• Audience Segmentation & Customer Personas: We researched demographics, psychographics of skin concerns, along with behavioral trends (usage habits, brand loyalty, online shopping preferences). We then developed profiles of core customer types and organized into categories (ie. chemical peel beginners, ant-aging focussed, those seeking clinical grade peel solutions).
• A/B Testing & User Experience Feedback: Product pages, email campaigns, and ad creatives were all tested to refine messaging and visuals. We monitored product reviews, social media discussions, and customer service inquiries to adjust accordingly.
3. Findings
Our research uncovered both expected and unexpected insights to better align Perfect Image’s brand and products with the needs of its core audience. While we confirmed that our consumers are highly knowledgeable and results-driven, we also identified key nuances in their preferences, behaviors, and expectations.
Core Audience Insights:
• Big Picture: Skincare-savvy individuals who are well-versed in chemical peels and prioritize anti-aging and targeted skin concerns of hyperpigmentation, acne scars, and uneven textures. They seek high-performance solutions and are willing to invest in products that deliver visible, science-backed results.
• Demographics and Psychographics: Predominantly women, 30-55, with a strong presence of younger consumers (under 35) seeking preventative care, and older consumers (50+) maintaining long-term results.
• Behavioral & Buying Habits: Research-driven individuals who compare ingredient lists, watch and follow skincare experts, and read reviews extensively before committing to a brand. They prefer brands who prioritize detailed product descriptions, before-and-after images, and professional recommendations.
• Key Preferences and Expectations: Visible, fast-acting results with noticeable improvement within a few weeks is expected, along with inclusions of formulation breakdowns and concentration percentages. Customizable routines were also highlighted, as many follow layered skincare regiments and prefer products that integrate seamlessly with other treatments. Minimal, effective branding that communicates efficacy and credibility was also important.
4. Process:
With our newfound insights, we had a clear foundation to move forward with the rebranding, ensuring every decision—from messaging and visuals to product positioning—was tailored appropriately and strategically. Understanding their needs, expectations, and behaviors allowed us to refine with confidence and ultimately strengthen Perfect Image’s connection with its audience.
Brand Identity Alignment:
• Development of unified digital & print brand guidelines encompassing typography, color palettes, visual tone, imagery, and design language.
• Redesigned product packaging that resonated with core audience preferences.
Digital & UI/UX Enhancement:
• Revamped website UI, ensuring an intuitive, seamless and visually engaging customer journey that promoted exploration and further education on chemical peels. Additionally, greater emphasis was placed on highlighting the range of products specifically designed to address various skin concerns.
• Optimized Amazon storefront with creation of high-quality A+ content, infographics, and upscale product imagery.
• Creation of visually compelling and user-friendly marketing assets for social media and digital campaigns.
Content Strategy & Visual Storytelling:
• Product and lifestyle photoshoots that yielded high-end imagery that aligned with the brand’s premium positioning.
• Targeted, engaging marketing materials for email campaigns, advertisements, and online promotions.
• Strong emphasis on ensuring brand consistency across all touchpoints, aligning digital platforms and print materials with a unified tone, visuals, and brand image.
Streamlined Processes:
• Ensured all visuals adhered to brand guidelines, maintaining its refined aesthetic and aligning with any strategic objectives.
• Implemented team-wide organized workflow processes for content creation and design approvals, increasing efficiency and reducing turnaround time. This included establishing protocols for production of video and photography assets, as well as most consumer-facing digital and print materials.
• Established a clear collaboration process between marketing, design, copywriting, and other stakeholders using robust project management tools and software to ensure consistency across all projects. This meant a heavier focus on defining roles and responsibilities, progress tracking, handoff protocols, and maintaining open communication throughout.
5. Outcome:
Perfect Image sought to empower individuals with diverse skin concerns by providing both educational resources and results-driven products. The tagline "Confidence is Freedom" emerged, reflecting the brand's promise that transformative results were within reach. The rebranding not only refined the messaging and product offerings to align with its core audience's needs, but also elevated the brand's image to mirror their dedication to trust, expertise, and guiding consumers along their skincare journey.
• Enhanced Brand Recognition: The overhaul led to a more polished, professional, and cohesive brand presence across all platforms that echoed their guiding principles and strengthened consumer trust.
• Increased E-Commerce Performance: The optimized Amazon storefront resulted in a 26% surge in user engagement within six months and 20% increased brand recognition within 10 months.
• Elevated Customer Experience: The new website offered a more intuitive, engaging shopping journey, effectively educating users and driving faster conversions.
• Streamlined Processes: The introduction of structured design workflows, enhanced collaboration tools, and refined project management software boosted productivity, efficiency, and long-term brand consistency. As a result, the time from project ideation to launch improved by 20% over the course of nearly two years.
• Stronger Market Positioning: The refreshed branding solidified Perfect Image Skincare's position as a leading authority in the chemical peel space, paving the way for its international expansion in late 2020.
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