Four-year-old skin-care brand Kinship is moving away from its Gen-Z focus to broaden its messaging to sensitive skin customers of all ages.
Starting Thursday with the launch of its latest product, the Dreamwave 2% Bio-Retinoid Complex serum, Kinship will roll out new primary and secondary packaging and messaging, as well as a fresh logo and an updated tagline — ultimately, a new focus. Historically, the brand has focused on a broad narrative around sustainability, clean beauty, Gen-Z skin concerns and sensitive skin. Now, the narrative is firmly square on skin sensitivity. Darin Burnell, gm of Kinship, said the team is “confident” that the repositioning and repackaging will help double the brand’s sales by end of 2025. Kinship is sold via DTC e-commerce, Credo Beauty and Ulta Beauty.
Since the beginning, Kinship’s hero ingredient has been a proprietary microbiome technology called “Kinbiome” which functions as a plant-based pre-biotic. However, the Kinship team found that Kinbiome was not receiving as much brand attention as other talking points. The refocus on skin sensitivity was born from a quarterly analysis of product reviews in early 2023. Kinship customers overwhelmingly remarked on how the brand’s product helped reduce redness and sensitivity, which was affirmed by a survey of 500 customers. It found that 50% of the brand’s customers experience sensitivity and another 70% wish it were easier to shop for sensitive skin products online and in-store. Additionally, sentiment around the new positioning scored four times better than its current positioning, while the new packaging scored three times better.
“We set out to formulate for Gen Z customers, but when we talk to our actual customers, we realized 30-year-olds also love Kinship,” said Christin Powell, CEO and co-founder of Kinship.
The sensitive skin sub-category has been gaining traction since at least 2020, when it became a major talking point from brands like Tata Harper and Honest Beauty. Other brands have also flocked to OTC products for people with eczema and rosacea, as brands seek to find underserved categories ripe for disruption. Retailers like Sephora have also honed in on the sensitive skin category. Notably, in 2021, Cetaphil found that 70% of Americans self-diagnose as having sensitive skin, demonstrating a major sales opportunity.
Ad position: web_incontent_pos1
Kinship’s new messaging will revolve around what Kinbiome is, what it means to have sensitive skin and how the microbiome plays a role in sensitivity. As for the packaging changes, Kinship is known for featuring vibrant colors like pink, yellow, green and blue across its 15 products, which span face cleaners, SPF, moisturizer and targeted treatments. The new packaging will have four categories: hydration, brightening, protection and age prevention. Those categories will have a streamlined corresponding color scheme to make shopping and understanding their uses easier while shopping in-store. Hydration will be blue, brightening will be yellow, light purple will be used for sun and barrier protection, and dark blue will be used for anti-aging. In addition, two or three existing Kinship products may be discontinued at an undetermined date. New outer packaging will debut mid-year, including a new logo and tagline: “Sensitivity is our science.”
“We want our brand’s presentation to be vibrant and traffic-stopping in-store, but we also want it to look cohesive, thoughtful and elevated. Right now, it looks a bit like a birthday cake,” said Burnell.
With the launch of Dreamwave, new elements of the new branding will emerge on Kinship’s e-commerce site. The communication around the retinol product will focus on its compatibility with sensitive skin, as retinol-family products are known to irritate the skin. A more comprehensive website relaunch featuring the new brand colors and voice will occur mid-year. Kinship is also in conversation with its retail partners about potentially introducing sensitive skin landing pages on the retailer’s websites. Kinship’s social media and email marketing will also guide customers to understand the changes to packaging.
Ad position: web_incontent_pos2
Helping to provide feedback on Kinship’s refresh is its invite-only group of customers, influencers, friends and family known as the Kincircle. The Kincircle has been around since the brand’s launch in 2019, when it initially had 50 members; there are now around 300 members. The role is to provide feedback on product development, packaging and brand messaging. Kinship has held Zoom focus groups, individual meetings and surveys about Kincircle members’ skin type, lifestyle, interest in Kinship and the products that work for their skin.
“The [sensitive skin] category is more about talking with our customers than down to them. This type of customer wants to trust [a brand] and see transparency and honesty,” said Powell.
