Multi award-winning skincare brand Barefoot Botanicals has relaunched with striking new pack designs and lower entry-point prices.
The brand — best known for the Rosa Fina and SOS ranges — was acquired in April this year by First Natural Ltd, owner of leading aromatherapy brand Tisserand.
First Natural’s chairman, Robin Russell, says he wanted to reposition Barefoot Botanicals as a more “serious” skincare brand. He told Natural Products: “The products are really effective, well researched and supported by study data. But the original packaging wasn’t telling people that. The new pack designs and overall branding say ‘if you’ve got dry, highly sensitive skin … this formula is good for it, it works’.”
So, with the re-worked SOS pack designs (Rosa Fina is next) gone is the floral photography and in comes a simpler design aimed at conveying efficacy — and one which should sit confidently alongside E45 — as well as strong natural credentials.
Russell continued: “Barefoot Botanicals was a great idea and has some fantastic products, but it also had all the features of a founder brand. So there was lots of passion and ideas — but also lot of products. As well as rebranding we’ve slimmed the range down to the six best sellers. We’ve also introduced smaller sizes of the best sellers, so people come into the brand at £5.95 for the 25ml Face & Body Rescue Cream (the 50ml version has a £10.50 RRP).
There is big push too on sample sachets, which is helping to win the range a growing number of listings in independents — the brand is currently in 200 independent health stores, plus Whole Foods and As Nature Intended. “Everybody seems to ‘get’ the packaging, so we’re confident about the future. We’ll also be involving some big names — Dr Chris Steels and Jo Fairley among them — in our media campaign.”
Alongside this push on Barefoot Botanicals, First Natural continues to refine and grow the Tisserand offer. A key area for the brand is developing the concept of ‘convenience aromatherapy’, exemplified by the seven-strong Remedy Roller Ball range. Convenient, and more accessible to the mainstream consumer, the roller balls can be included as part of a “mini regime” of products — a sales concept that Russell believes offers great potential to indepedents. “The multiples just can’t do something like that,” he adds.
The popular Tisserand Academy is also equipping independents with knowledge that can be directly used to increase sales (a similar scheme has just been launched for Barefoot Botanicals). Handy leaflets giving customers an ‘A-Z’ of uses for traditional essential oil products are now included and flagged up on pack.
Elsewhere, First Natural has secured a new distribution agreement for the Forever Natural range of bath and spa products from Canada. Russell comments: “This came about as a result of the relationship we’ve built with key retailers. It’s very gratifying that some of these retailers are approaching us and asking us if we’d take on a brand.”
So what can we expect in the way of short to medium term developments? “We’re actively seeking two other new brands with a good fit, probably founder brands,” says Russell. A case of watch this space, it seems.
