Takami
Narrative Strategy for a Japanese Cult Skincare Brand Post-Acquisition to L'Oreal Asia
Category: Beauty • Asian Market • Post-Acquisition Translation
Services: Brand Story
Brand strategy: Julie Kucinski
Product photography: Lilia Cretcher
The situation
Make a newly acquired elite Japanese skin-clinic brand relevant to young Asia, despite variances in beauty cultures nation-t0-nation and generation to generation.
The strategy
Identify key brand essences to create mystique that was true to the 20+ year old Japanese brand while building a mystique forJapanese beauty in the larger Asian beauty world.
Key ideas:
Hummingbird Gestures
While North Americans may see Asia or Asian beauty as a monolith, it’s far from it. Past in-home research in Hong Kong and Shanghai and multiple Asian rollouts with other beauty clients gave us insight into this already. After diving into L’Oreal’s own wonderful research plus dives into Asian social feeds and beauty channels helped update and affirm our insights.
Takami had a few cult beauty products in Japan, all extensions of a hush-hush A-list derm clinic with a fascinating philosophy of skin care and tools. We distilled a 100-page deck and many other transcripts of interviews into a a simple, evocative playbook for making Japanese skincare the new K-beauty. We leaned into the poetry and restraint of Japan and Dr. Takami himself to weave romantic metaphor into an elevated but modern vision for young Asia.