Should Your Brand Go To Outer Space?

Beauty Consumers Want Less Concealer

Aspirational beauty will always be a part of the somewhat superficial beauty industry, but new emerging brands and products are attempting to reverse some of the deeply entrenched toxic behaviors. Our Culture Briefing on the Future of Beauty discussed the trend of Radical Transparency and how it’s making an impact on the way younger audiences shop for makeup and skincare. 

While eco-conscious packaging and clean ingredients have been a part of brand transparency, brands are pushing the envelope even more as they work to normalize taboo topics and encourage consumers to discard their embarrassment or shame. Megababe, a company that sells products for thigh chafing, breast sweat and melasma mustaches, was laughed out of retailers in early days but is now being sold across national chains like Target and Ulta. 

Radical Transparency is taking its business elsewhere, as beauty brands looking to connect with Gen Z audiences are moving from the visually-aesthetic Instagram to the more relatable TikTok. The beauty products that rack up the most views are affordable and basic, as teens embrace items you can easily grab at CVS or even Dollar Tree. Hyram Yarbro, known on TikTok as Skincare By Hyram, is a 24-year-old “skinfluencer” who educates his massive audience with skincare videos, using accessible brands like CeraVe and The Ordinary. Yarbro said,  “I think particularly for a Gen Z audience—who is really trying to cut through all the marketing claims of an oversaturated industry—it's beneficial for them to just hear the basics you really need in terms of functionality.” Seeing Gen Z ask for receipts and push for Radical Transparency on TikTok makes a lot of sense.

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Data That Gives Back

In our ongoing series about our Future of Giving 2020 Culture Forecast with the Morgridge Family Foundation, we explored how nonprofits are adopting startup mindsets and using new data-driven tools to engage a more skeptical generation of givers, particularly Gen Z and Millennials. In a time when businesses are taking on more social causes and government organizations are pulling back, it’s no surprise Blurred Responsibility emerged as one of the largest Elements of Culture in our conversation on Precision Funding.  

There may be tools, such as Guidestar, for future donors to gauge a giving organization’s effectiveness, it’s optimistic to think everyone will do their homework on their own. It’s up to nonprofits and charities to be as transparent as possible. “We can’t depend on donors going through Guidestar. It’s just not exciting reading,” said Raymond Gary, CEO of iDonate. His company and briefing guest Nina Siemiatkowski’s MilkyWire are paving the way for a new era of giving.  

Non-profit managers have long avoided terms like “cold-hard cash”. With these new precise technologies, “cold and hard” data can tell engaging stories about the effectiveness of donations and nourish donor relationships for long-term support. And it doesn’t mean you need a new 30-person IT team to develop your blockchain strategy. “Blockchain is very complicated. But just look at smartphone usage, you know you’re sending money, now you have a person saying, ‘I received your money and here’s a video of the truck when it rolled into this village,’” said Nina Siemiatkowski.

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Space Inspiration Brought Down to Earth

Our Culture Briefing on the Future of Space, brought in industry experts to discuss advances in the space race over the last two years, building on our Space: Innovation Exploration Brought Down to Earth report from 2017. 

“We’re in a golden era of space exploration,” shared Rob Meyerson, CEO of Delalune Space. “We’re opening up a new world of commercialism in near-earth orbit.” The surge in interest in space is largely fueled by the entry of private enterprise, a curious public and new tech innovations. Experts say NASA has seen a significant boost from the rise of the private space industry, which has become a hotbed for innovation led by billionaires like Elon Musk (SpaceX), Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) and Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic). 

While this golden era may feel fledgling to non-space businesses, our panelists discussed the numerous ways space can inspire multiple industries. “Necessity is the mother of invention. It’s a situation of scarcity. Whether it’s climate change or tiny homes, the space model, designing for space, is provocative,” shared Marketing Futurist Sarah DaVanzo. With private funding juggernauts and increasing accessibility of space data and programs, the final frontier is finally here.