The Incubator Effect
What Beis and PATTERN Beauty tell us about the future of celebrity brands
Hey Hey!
Celebrity beauty brands are an interesting topic. In my last letter I talked about the lip gloss lady Hailey but I’d like to peel back some other ones who I think are KILLING their marketing. When you think of Beis, who do you think of? Do you think of Shay Mitchell? Or maybe you didn’t watch Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family and it’s news to you that it’s celebrity-owned (backed?). Well it was founded by Shay Mitchell in 2018. What about PATTERN beauty? If you know PATTERN there’s a 90% chance you know it’s owned by Tracee Ellis Ross. Sidenote, it is so insane to me that when you think of Tracee Ellis Ross you don’t think of her mother first, but I’ll get to that branding queen in another letter.
So, what do a queer-lead from a hit teen show and the daughter of an icon have in common? They both have companies owned by Beach House Group. According to their site, “Beach House Group is a dynamic consumer products house with a proven track record of building industry leading, global brands.” So an incubator and business development firm - let’s break it down!
My introduction to Beis was Shay Mitchell’s Youtube channel. At the time, she was one of the few celebrities who’d mastered vlog style content that felt engaging. She was known for her cool girl attitude and her tips on traveling. And what did I say in one of my last letters? “...if a celeb or creator has taken a sudden interest and shares it with us, we know they’ll be selling something soon.” While her peers would’ve aligned themselves with a swimwear line or sponsorship, Shay gave us her version of the perfect travel bag - The Weekender. The October 2018 launch featured other innovative travel bags but this was their hero product and still is the most talked about 8 years later.
The travel sets have taken over the airport for young women ages 19-25. If I had to guess, their exact customer is a young girl working in SPAM (Social, PR, Advertising, and Marketing). She bought it because it’s all over her FYP and it’s cute (guilty BTW). Outside of the packing cubes, innovative compartments, in-luggage scale, and an array of other genius features - Beis does partnerships well. I’ve been following their Director of Brand Marketing Sydney Blake Thomas for a minute now and her team does amazing work. Beis has partnered with Rare Beauty, Gap, Chipotle, Poppi, and my favorite: Barbie ( I could do an entire series on Mattel’s Barbie campaign - more on that in another newsletter).
They know their customer and when she was frustrated about how quickly the bags got dirty after a single use they held a Beis Wash Pop Up. To put it shortly: Their marketing is FUN. It’s no surprise Ms. Mitchell’s brand hit a reported $200M in annual revenue in 2023.
Onto Girlfriend’s Joan Clayton. Tracee Ellis Ross is the embodiment of Rich Hot Auntie (future me). Like Shay, she’s known for taking a trip or two and giving us a silly IG Reel to go with it. Again, Tracee began doing interviews talking about her hair journey. As a young girl who was the first in my family to stop using relaxers, I was loyal to the natural hair community on Youtube. I knew all about porosity, curl types, and density. I even had my fair share of DevaCurl products after visiting the SoHo salon during my freshman year of college.
What piqued my interest with PATTERN beauty is the clear focus on Black tightly coiled hair. Yes Tracee has a looser curl pattern, but this felt like an elevated haircare that catered exclusively to Black hair. Where other curly hair brands want to speak to every consumer with curly hair, the marketing for PATTERN is clear. Very rarely do I see a non-Black person in their content (across paid, social, out-of-home, or in press). They specialize in Black hair care and their line is approachable. It’s not just your typical shampoo and conditioner set, they have multiple types depending on your hair type.
At launch, they had a light-weight conditioner, heavy conditioner, and intensive conditioner within their seven skus that entered the market. It was interesting to see an array of products specific for hair types. I believe I’d only really seen that in DevaCurl at the time. Tracee used her famous and diversely curled family in marketing imagery - from her sister, nephew, and brother to illustrate how the line was made for type 3B to 4C curls.
Beach House Group has found an interesting niche within the celebrity business space. Oftentimes we see people back a product and give us a story about how much it means to them, but very rarely do we see the company last. Hence why audiences have grown skeptical at launch. What is fascinating is we’re beginning to see the tide change. Now more than ever we’re seeing these women-led companies with billion-dollar (sometimes multi-billion-dollar) valuations. Off the top of my head I can think of The Honest Company (with leaders now at Rare Beauty), Skims, Fenty Beauty, and so many more. All led by women who understand cultural currency.
As I dive more into the world of companies owned or founded by celebrities and influencers I grow curious of how many of them invest versus being pitched. In Tracee Ellis Ross’s interview with Emma Grede, she stated she invested her own money, whereas Emma Grede came to the Kardashians with the idea for Good American.
We’re not just seeing traditional celebrities see success, influencers are making their way into the space. One of my favorite brands at Sephora is Cyklar - a bodycare brand with body washes, oils, fragrances, and so much more. It’s founded by a YouTuber I used to follow, but many wouldn’t know even owned it. Founder Claudia Sulewski was known for giving her reviews and showing us hauls from Sephora - and now her product has an entire endcap. Talk about a story people can buy into. Another is Leah Kateb becoming a refounder of fragrance company Skylar. Leah comes from the season of Love Island that put the US version on the map. Being part of viewers’ favorites PPG, featuring Serena Page and JaNa Craig, made people want to support anything the trio does.
It’s not lost on me that much of the target demographics for these companies are young women. The world of beauty is evolving and public figures aren’t just putting their names on random products. We’re demanding more from the people we put on a pedestal and they in turn are becoming wiser. Question, when was the last time you bought a product marketed to you by a celebrity versus one owned by one? Companies like The Beach House Group already know the answer.
With Love,
Bre