Emerging brands are embracing their new reality in a Coronavirus-impacted world. Efforts include retooling marketing and product launches. “Brands are thinking, ‘What can I do right now that doesn’t make me look like I’m not in touch with what’s going on,” said Liz Kaplow, Founder and CEO of Kaplow Communications, which counts numerous beauty companies as clients. From thank you’s to check-ins, here’s what emerging brands are doing in the new normal.

Kristina Miller
Founder
Moroccan Magic

“We offered a discount on our entire skin and lip care collection on Amazon. People deserve to treat themselves and their families during these trying times. For our lip balm business, Walgreens and Target sales have actually doubled since there’s so much foot traffic in these stores lately. We’re making little care packs for doctors and nurses who are managing emergency care in our area, with lip balms, lotions and a note thanking them for what they do.”

“We’re making little care packs for doctors and nurses who are managing emergency care in our area, with lip balms, lotions and a note thanking them for what they do.

Calvin Quallis
CEO
Scotch Porter

“Our first concern is the safety of our customers and employees. Second, we’re staying even closer to our customers, with more increased pressure to over-deliver at every touchpoint. Finally, we’ll use this time to reimagine how we can better serve our customers, and with reimagination might come reinvention. This too shall pass, and our goal is to be better and stronger when it does.”

Stan Ades  and CC Sofrones  
Co-founder
Pacific Shaving Co.

“We’re focused on doing what feels right, authentic and aligned with our brand. Like many small business owners, we are toggling between adhering to the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines, in addition to local policies, and trying to continue pushing forward on the business side. While Pacific Shaving Co. is not in a position to directly combat Covid-19, we are concerned citizens and are committed to doing our best to help. Starting today, and for two weeks, the proceeds from our online sales will go to the CDC Foundation, an independent nonprofit and the sole entity created by Congress to mobilize philanthropic and private-sector resources to support the CDC’s critical health protection work. We also suspended our new social media campaign.  It’s not the right time to be marketing Pacific Shaving Co to the public at the moment. However, it is important to keep the economy moving so when we feel the opportunity has returned, we will re-engage with social media.”

“We also suspended our new social media campaign.  It’s not the right time to be marketing Pacific Shaving Co to the public at the moment. However, it is important to keep the economy moving so when we feel the opportunity has returned, we will re-engage with social media.

Mabel Lee
Founder
Velour

“With Sephora being one of our largest retailers, their announcement of closing stores for two weeks has had a huge impact on our business. While this is certainly the right decision for Sephora, small businesses like Velour will need to figure out ways to weather the storm. The biggest and hardest decision we’ve had to make during this time is to delay our Lash & Go Eyeliner launch that was scheduled for March 31. It’s a product we have been working on for more than two years and a launch that is highly anticipated. That said, it just isn’t the right time for us to launch when the focus should 100 percent be on safety, health and responsibilities as global citizens. We will begin a “self-isolate” series where I will virtually execute a hobby once a week to the Velour community to help them establish a new normal. We will also ask our community what they want to do with while in quarantine? Options can be planting a vegetable garden, working out together, cooking a meal decided by the community, book club etc. The point is that we have a platform to drive positivity during such a troubling time and hope that our platform will be a way to provide an escape for our community.”

Alicia Yoon
Founder, CEO
Peach & Lily

“There are a number of different things to juggle and contemplate during the Covid-19 health crisis. There’s the very important matter of keeping our team safe and healthy, which means everyone is work from home; there’s the matter of really understanding how best to serve our customers during this time; there’s also the matter of how our business can help those most in need during this health crisis; and of course, ensuring that once this situation passes, the business emerges in a sound way. The first part of working from home as a team has not been too tricky with so many tools to stay connected, including Zoom, Slack, emails and good old-fashioned phone calls.

The second part came from asking our community what they’d most like from us. Mostly they said normalcy for when they take a break from coronavirus news, so we’re continuing with our regular programming, if you will, of providing skin care and wellness content. The difference is that we’re amping up the amount of content as people are consuming a lot more right now given increasing time spent at home. We also see that people are looking for more connection. So, we’ve been increasing the two-way dialogue component. This means more live content, more Q&As and more back and forth communication.

The third part is thinking about how we engage our business to help those most in need. So, we will donate 100 percent of profits of our new Nourish skin care collection to City Harvest to help provide food to those struggling to keep food on tables, until the end of March.”

“We will donate 100 percent of profits of our new Nourish skin care collection to City Harvest to help provide food to those struggling to keep food on tables, until the end of March.