Comparing Abbellita with Competitors

As I approach the end of my FMP I am looking at my competitors to look at their price range, the customers and their marketing techniques to see how Abbellita compares and to ensure I stay in the same price bracket. As there are currently no brands known to me that sell decorative silicone skin jewellery, I have looked at similar brands which sell products that my target market may also purchase.

I will look at the packaging from these brands in a packaging specific post.

Paperself

Screenshot of Paperself website, taken 02/05/2016

 Paperself creates laser cut paper eyelashes in ornate, decorative designs. They have also recently started selling temporary tattoos in metallics and colours. The tattoo prices range from £5 to £7, with the option of purchasing a package for £50, while the lashes are £10.50 to £14. The prices of the lashes would be around the lower end of what I could charge for my pieces, as the cost of silicone and the time needed to create the pieces is much more than that of the tattoo printing and materials.

 Paperself lashes have been seen on The Hunger Games, have been featured in magazines such as Vogue and Instyle, and have also been worn by celebrities and featured by popular make up artists and beauty gurus on YouTube. On the site there is a link and advertising to include a hashtag of you wearing the lashes, this shows more of a general public based customer profile as it is more personal and less professional. They have one core collection and then bring in new collections for spring/summer and autumn/winter, keeping up to date with the trends. Their website features pages to buy the lashes or tattoos, a lookbook, a blog, a press page (Similar to my "Ass seen in" page) and a collaboration page which has their contact details. It is quite similar to mine, and was a website that I took inspiration from when creating my own site. There is not as much focus on the images on their site however, and as they have such a large product range their images are very varied in style.

Make up artists often use Paperself products to customise their looks, giving the brand more publicity.

Facelace

Screenshot of Face Lace website, taken 02/05/2016

 Facelace was created my Makeup Artist Philis Cohen in 2012 as she felt the need for a product which could quickly place an intricate design on the face which would be symmetrical and long lasting. Prices start at £4.95 for brow shapes and £9.95 for a small face piece, up to £39.95 for a set of four pieces, and £34.95 for a mask. This would be more similar to the prices of my pieces.

Facelace definitely seems to be more make up artist focused than Paperself, with the majority of their featured gallery images being on celebrities or from editorial shoots. In the About section it even emphasizes the popularity among make up artists before the general public by saying that the products have been used on television shows, celebrities and on London Fashion Week.

Facelace also has tutorials on their site as I do. I think that it is important to have these tutorials as sometimes with a product like Facelace or Abbellita if it is not applied correctly it could ruin the piece and not work, giving the customer a bad experience. It is therefore best to have clear instructions and a video to demonstrate the most efficient way in which to apply the products, and then if someone does not follow these instructions and it goes wrong the company is not to blame.

RBFX

Screenshot of RBFX website, taken 02/05/2016

 RBFX is a supplier and creator of prosthetics for films etc. They are not fashion focused at all but I thought it was important to look at brands which make and sell silicone pieces for price reference and packaging. I could not find any images of the RBFX packaging, but their prices range from around $100 to $300 (£68-£207) for silicone pieces. These pieces are for professional use and so are a much higher price range. They have all been created by special effects veterans who have years of experience of working in the industry with these products, and each product they make will take weeks of their time and a lot of expensive equipment. All of their pieces are also made to order.

MEL Products

Screenshot of Nigel Beauty Emporium MEL products page, taken 02/05/2016

I had not heard of MEL products until I recently saw an image shared by Nigel beauty emporium on instagram of their silicone cuts. From what I can gather, it is an Australian brand but their company website seems to be having some issues. Like RBFX, there is not a fashion focus with MEL but the pricing and packaging was what interested me. The products are around $28, or just under £20 which I believe is a good price for the products considering the materials and manufacturing time.

All of their pieces seem to be out of stock at the moment, and as their website is not working fully I am not sure if the brand is closing or if they are just having technical faults.

 What does this mean for Abbellita?

After looking at my competitors I feel that I have a much stronger view of what Abbellita can be and where it fits in the market. I need to decide prices for the pieces but from what I have seen I think they will range from £10 to £18, with collections having discounts, and possibly some multi-buy discounts in future.
I have noticed that all of the brands have instagrams and the fashion based brands have benefited from having make up artists and popular beauty gurus feature their products. To market Abbellita it would be valuable to have popular artists and beauty YouTubers using them, so when the range is officially launched some pieces will be sent to these professionals for their consideration.