Our whole range of makeup products are dermatologically tested, FDA approved, cruelty-free, made on the principles of veganism.
Tell Us About Insight Cosmetics? How did you start? Who is your direct audience? What has been their response to your products?
The parent brand VOV International was started in the late ’80s. We commenced with a limited range of products available offline at preferred stores in a few cities. The company initially concentrated only on producing and selling nail polishes. However, with time and after obtaining better acumens into cosmetics, we diversified our product range.
With the launch of Insight cosmetics in 2012, we started manufacturing compact powders, lipsticks and a few more basic products.
As a company, we have evolved in multiple different ways. We kept up with the evolving cosmetic trends over the years, and our range of products has evolved and grown from manufacturing only lipsticks to including a wide range of makeup products. In addition, we grew to include a select range of value-added makeup products. Company-wise we have opened new channels for sale. We started purely offline and included modern trade. Currently, our whole range of products can be purchased online as well. Over the years, we focused on building our technology and client database and collecting and analysing cosmetic trends across different sectors and cities in the country. Our current focus is on lowering our customer acquiring cost through all the data we collect and the trends in the cosmetic market.
Our products have been curated, keeping in mind the makeup habits of women between 14yr to 60 years of age. However, we have noticed that our highest buyers are between 16 to 35yrs of age.
The main USP of our products is that our whole range of makeup products are dermatologically tested, FDA approved, cruelty-free, made on the principles of veganism. Our products are available at affordable prices. Our customers return back to our products, and our database has a strong repeat client list, who are loyal to our products due to the high quality we maintain throughout.
What is the future outlook for the colour cosmetic industry in India?
The colour cosmetic industry in India is still in its infancy stage. However, the industry has a lot of growth potential within the country. Globally the colour cosmetic industry is worth over 27 billion dollars, while India currently does not account for even 10% of the world cosmetic market. Nevertheless, with the fast adaptation of the industry amongst the masses of India, the industry is expected to see a growth rate of over 12% in the coming years. As a result, many international companies are now investing in the Indian market.
Do you disclose all the ingredients for each product?
The secondary packaging of our products includes the complete ingredient list we use to develop and manufacture that particular product. We believe in being transparent about the ingredients. We use in our manufacturing process. Since we believe in offering the best products using the finest ingredients, we ensure our customers know the products they buy from us.
Tell us about your products? How are they different from others? What is your USP?
In the late 80’s we started manufacturing only nail polishes. As we gained more insights into the industry and better knowledge of how the market for makeup in India functioned, we expanded to include other products. Currently, our product range includes all your makeup essentials, right from primers and concealers to lipsticks and highlighters. While we manufacture all your makeup essentials, our primary focus is on the Colour Cosmetics sector.
Our whole range of makeup products are dermatologically tested, FDA approved, cruelty-free, made on the principles of veganism. Our products are available at affordable prices. We ensure we give our customers high-quality products at very affordable rates.
Since our products are all formulated based on in-depth research and studies on how the ingredients react and work together. We ensure our products are developed only after we are 100% certain of their quality.
In a vast or very competitive market, price matters the most. So how do you make sure that you are keeping costs affordable for all the customers?
Since all our products are of the highest quality and backed by science, our director, in an attempt to keep in line with his vision while ensuring the customers could afford the products, set up a whole manufacturing unit in India. Our entire product line is indigenous and 100% in India, which gives us an edge over other brands to keep the costs as low as possible for the end consumers.
Are customers shifting towards natural and organic products? What are your views on it? Do you have any plans to foray into natural-based products?
While colour cosmetic products cannot be made 100% natural, we ensure the ingredients stay as natural as possible despite needing some synthetic ingredients. We aim at providing products that can be curated around the maximum quantum of natural ingredients. All our products undergo an FDA approval process and are dermatologically approved.
We are working towards developing a few products which can be manufactured to be almost 90% natural.
What is the new product launched from Insight Cosmetics that we should look forward to?
Our latest range of non-transfer lipsticks is something to keep your eyes on. Within a few months of being launched, it is already one of our best selling products. Curated to ensure your lipsticks stays put and does not fade throughout the day, our lipsticks already have a loyal user base. We are currently working to widen our range of non-transfer lipsticks, highlighters, HD foundations, and concealers. Within the next few months, we will launch a wide range of new products.
Is there any advice/message you want to share with our readers and your customers?
The most important message to anyone who wants to consider a livelihood in the cosmetic industry is the flexibility to customise your makeup products. Customisation is the future. While generalisation is easier to work with, the newer age of makeup enthusiasts and users are now more keen on getting access to makeup that suits them 100% instead of using something that they can workaround.
What are your future expansion and funding plans?
Currently, we have a low supply of some of our products to meet the growing demand. Our next step would be to ensure our suppliers can meet the demand by expanding our production capacity by almost 30% within the following year.
We also plan on investing in our marketing and offline sales channels in different cities across the country. In addition, we want to expand our reach in tier 3 cities as well.
How does insight Cosmetics generate employment for women’s? How many women are currently associated with your company?
Since we are a colour cosmetics firm, we have over 70% women as part of our workforce. So we are enthusiastic about the women empowerment movement. Since our target audience is women, we believe in getting them to help us curate a range of products they will love. We have noticed women have helped us improve our productivity levels over the past years.
Tell us about your upcoming ‘App Launch’? What are your exceptions with this launch?
We plan on launching our app in the next few months. Currently, we are still working on the user interface and UX UI of our app. Furthermore, we are working towards implementing a solid machine learning system within our app. Thus, allowing us to help customise our products to suit individual customers.
We would include education to our customers as part of our app. Education on which makeup looks would suit them, which products they should opt for and so on.
We hope to learn our target audience’s shopping preferences and habits to enhance their shopping experience and makeup usage.
What are the new lines of insight that will venture into?
We, as founders, want to be the best of our niche in colour cosmetics and want to expand our expertise and focus primarily on colour cosmetics. The company focuses on providing our customers with the best range of products using the latest techniques, and we can achieve that by focusing only on our niche. Furthermore, this singular focus will help us give the customers a range that can be made affordable.
Expanding with greater depth and knowledge of colour cosmetics, we want to expand further in that niche and design products with the same quality as international brands.
Source: Business World
