Conscientious Beauty: how MyChelle adapted consumer and media communications in a year of turmoil
Founded by Myra Michelle Eby in 2000, MyChelle Dermaceuticals was acquired by Encore Consumer Capital in 2008 and in 2017 sold to French Transit, the company behind Crystal Deodorant products.
As the MyChelle Facebook page explains it, “When contemplating a name for her company, Myra used a combination of her own name, Myra and Michelle, and the association with one’s skin, or ‘shell’, to create ‘MyChelle’, (pronounced ‘my shell’). She joined ‘Dermaceuticals’ to represent the science behind the natural skin care line, as all of the products in the line feature natural medicinal-grade ingredients that provide bioactive power to effectively address skin issues and produce visible affects.”
The brand is known for its clean and conscious approach to skin care; but now MyChelle is making strides as a conscientious brand as well.
Finding smart ways to do business when business as usual is no longer appropriate
Now in its 20th year, the MyChelle Dermaceuticals brand shelved any ostentatious anniversary celebrations, like a happy hour event and educational presentation series meant to showcase the brand’s clean beauty legacy at Expo West, which turned out to be one of the first beauty-adjacent trade shows here in the US to be cancelled due to Coronovirus precautions.
Instead, the brand is spending 2020 creating connection, interacting with the MyChelle community, giving back, and supporting organizations that align with the brand’s approach to clean beauty, according to Catie Wiggy, Vice President of Marketing and Product Innovation at French Transit and Master Esthetician at MyChelle.
Like so many brands and businesses, MyChelle is taking meetings online and talking with consumers and media “about the brand, its 20 years as a leader in the clean beauty movement, and MyChelle’s plans to continue that leadership into the future,” Wiggy tells Cosmetics Design.
Making time and space for virtual desk-side meetings with beauty editors
Without tradeshows and travel, Wiggy and her team aren’t getting in front on consumer beauty editors as they might normally do. And with so many of those editors working from home, getting them on the phone and sending out product to sample comes with a whole new layer of challenges too.
So Wiggy has been spending the past several weeks having video calls—or what she’s calling virtual desk-sides—with beauty editors. It’s an opportunity to keep the MyChelle brand top of mind and to educate new writers about the brand’s role in the clean beauty movement. But it’s more than that.
And as part of the calls, Wiggy is putting her knowledge as a Master Esthetician to work, learning more about editors’ individual skin care routines and expectations, and then creating personalized product kits, which of course feature MyChelle’s new packaging designs and a mix of both new and classic products for the collection. “Some of our top sellers,” says Wiggy, “have been part of the collection for decades.”
The virtual desk-side is also a great relationship building tool, Wiggy tells Cosmetics Design, explaining that despite the distance of digital, she’s getting to spend more time getting acquainted with editors and in many cases is being virtually welcomed into their homes.
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Deanna Utroske regularly covers news of clean beauty brands, clean ingredient innovations, and the global clean beauty marketplace. It’s part of the reason she’s a leading voice in the cosmetics and personal care industry as well as in the indie beauty movement.
As Editor of CosmeticsDesign.com, Deanna writes daily news about the business of beauty in the Americas region and regularly produces video interviews with cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, and packaging experts as well as with indie brand founders. And much like the team at MyChelle, she knows a thing or two about staying connected while staying at home during a pandemic too.
