You Don’t Know What’s Good For You.
3 minute read…
I was on lunch at a shoot for a client of ours last week, and one of our team mentioned they’d swapped out their Korean beauty products. The whole table nodded along. He talked about the damage an extensive skin routine can do to your skin barrier, and that some products of Korean origin could be the worst culprits due to the ingredients involved. One by one, more of the team agreed.
This was news to me. Not too long ago, Korean beauty was aspirational. Great branding, clinical storytelling, and perfect skin as a proof-point. Now the thinking is that too many steps causes long-term damage. I can’t confirm the truth of that, but that isn’t really the point of this piece.
It got me thinking about how much information is too much information. What happens when we can’t see the wood for the trees. We’ve spoken about this at length in our cultural reports. Marketing fatigue. Algorithm slob. Fake news. I’m guilty of it. I see a hack or a soundbite on TikTok and I’m inclined to believe it first and question it second. But what actually happens when we have all this insight at our fingertips, but we never really know the intention of the source?
The skincare conversation reminded me of our work for Sun & Skin. The challenge they faced, as an online department store for SPF products, was that the news around SPF had become misleading. Some people have begun believing SPF is an essential daily choice, not just for holidays. Others now believe it’s toxic, and want it nowhere near them. Again, no answers here. But modern platforms like TikTok serve us certainty, and if a unqualified creator is a better storyteller than a dermatologist, who do we end up believing?
We ended up helping Sun & Skin to categorise product by occasion. Showing people options based on what their days actually look like, and letting them uncover the science along the way. These guys were also about breadth. As a wholesaler, it wasn't about claiming they had the best product on the market, but instead handing the discovery over to the user.
Culturally, some people have begun rejecting the idea that they should hold macro knowledge across vast topics, a privilege modern social media allows, and have instead homed in on one. We called it ‘the hobbyist’ in our culture report over a year ago. The idea that avoiding the noise means going all in on one expertise, and being comfortable there.
But those who manage to float above the noise still have skincare routines. So, who do they trust when they need a new moisturiser? Brand plays a part. Social proof another. But tis difficult.
Take supplements. Starting a supplement brand today is like starting a t-shirt brand 2020. It’s quite easy, it’s aspirational and everyone seems to be doing it. But the space isn’t regulated with much rigour. You don’t need years of experience or evidence-backed products. Just a belief and a network.
It means that the market asks for consumers to be more educated than ever, but the challenge is finding that information from somewhere other than brands with sales targets to hit.
This take isn't anti-brand, it’s a case for it. I think brands can and should do better. I’d love brands to acknowledge the landscape the exist in. To talk to us like humans who are overwhelmed with options, who often pick nothing over something, or settle for substandard results. Or encourage trial and error, without having to have it all figured out. Culturally, what does a brand look like that is one of the people. A brand that doesn’t trust the algorithm, or try to shout louder than everyone else. That could be cool.
I told you I didn’t have answers here. I’ll keep looking. But I think the theme of overwhelmed and overstimulated consumers will really inform brand and marketing over the next few years. Do we have a duty to regulate and guard through design, to make sure our work is delivered with intention? I think so.
We help brands make sense of culture, and turn that understanding into systems that look, sound, and scale with intent. Let’s make it make sense — hello@unfound.studio
