Many growing brands struggle with their identity, especially as they broaden their product scope. When you’re growing your audience into new categories with new SKUs, the temptation to launch a second distinct brand is real.
This week, we’re chatting with an expert on this topic, Lauren Wolk-Goldfaden. Lauren is a Los Angeles-based mother, Co-founder and VP at Goldfaden MD and Founder of Mini Bloom.
First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to discuss your two sustainability and family health-driven personal care brands, Goldfaden MD and Mini Bloom. For you, it’s always been clear that you run two distinct brands. This might seem like it was an obvious and easy business decision, but we know that it’s complex.
Goldfaden MD:
Dr. Goldfaden is my father in law. He has always been a creative yet clinical thinker when it comes to medical solutions, so problem-solving for his patients naturally steered him toward product development. When he began practicing in the late 60’s, the anti-aging movement hadn’t really begun on a medical level, and most patients sought in-office procedures as the first line of defense. As he gained experience in private practice, he realized just how significant preventative at-home skin care could be for his patients and how it could hopefully reduce their need for more extreme corrective measures in-office. There was a void in the skincare marketplace of products that delivered visible anti-aging benefits but that could be tolerated by sensitive, post surgical, and allergic skin types. Dr. Goldfaden recognized that the world needed a serious yet chemically clean skincare line they could trust, leading to the creation of Goldfaden MD. It wasn't until we came together as a family that we developed a full range of products mirroring the treatments Dr. G had been performing in his practice for over 40 years.
Goldfaden MD is a dermatologist-developed, naturally developed skincare line that delivers targeted, clinically proven solutions for a healthy, glowing complexion. Goldfaden MD delivers problem-solution solutions, blurring the lines between at-home case and professional in-office treatments. The brands’ global success echoes innovation, combining luxurious textures with formulas that pioneer advancements in proprietary, cutting-edge technologies for the overall health and radiance of your skin.
Mini Bloom:
Mini Bloom was created selfishly. I wanted a stable, natural product I could use on my newborn that I didn’t have to whip up in my kitchen every day come bath time. Beauty is still a widely self-regulated industry and I needed a line that I could trust. So I spent about three years working through the meticulous formulation, testing, and certification processes to create the cleanest, most skin-friendly products for you and your baby. Mini Bloom has been my longest pregnancy to date.
Every Mini Bloom product is composed of natural, organic-derived, consciously cultivated, and sustainably sourced ingredients. For Mini Bloom, this is essential not only for skin, but also for reducing our consumption of ecological resources to meet our defined clean standards: ingredient transparency, accountability, and quality guarantee. Mini Bloom has partnered with manufacturers and supply chain partners with rigorous sustainable quality-control standards in order to quantify our environmental impact and mitigate our overall consumption.
Mini Bloom and Goldfaden MD are still under the umbrella of our corporate entity but run as separate businesses. The intention was always to treat them as separate brands, separate identities, separate messaging.
Splitting the two brands was a strategic decision that ultimately allows us to better cater to the unique needs and preferences of different target audiences, address the needs of its customers, strengthen its market presence, and promote long-term growth.
This allows us to have its own distinct messaging and identity, which can help connect more effectively with different segments of customers and allows for a more targeted approach to marketing and product development.
From a marketing perspective, separating the brands prevents dilution of the core brand identity and reduces customer confusion by clearly differentiating between product offerings. Having separate brands under the same company umbrella creates opportunities for cross-promotion, attracting customers from one brand to explore the other.
The development of the two brands leads to increased innovation and product diversification, ultimately driving growth and expansion for the company as a whole.
To define the unique value propositions for Goldfaden MD and Mini Bloom in the natural skincare space, I considered the following factors:
Target audience: Goldfaden MD primarily caters to adults who are seeking high-performance, dermatologist-developed skincare solutions, while Mini Bloom is focused on providing gentle, effective products for children and babies.
Product specialization: Goldfaden MD is known for its advanced, cutting-edge formulations inspired by in-office procedures, whereas Mini Bloom offers simple, nourishing products tailored to the delicate needs of young skin.
Brand ethos: Goldfaden MD emphasizes the combination of innovative technology with natural ingredients, while Mini Bloom highlights the importance of clean, gentle, and pure products for sensitive, developing skin.
Product selection: Goldfaden MD offers a wide range of skincare solutions targeting various skin concerns, whereas Mini Bloom provides essential, everyday products that cater to the basic skincare needs of children and babies.
Beyond the positioning and brand messaging communication, keeping the visuals of the branding and all supporting marketing materials distinct to each brand is how we keep the identities clear and separated so that there is no confusion between the two.
I noticed that Goldaden has family bundles where you can buy both brands in one kit? Kind of like a collab with yourself. I love it!
By keeping the brands separated, it allows us to be able to collaborate with one another, when applicable, and given that both brands have a DNA foundation that is consistent (naturally based formulas, effective, yet delicate even for the most sensitive of skin types), it allows us to capture the attention, for example, of a Goldfaden MD customer who is just entering parenthood for the first time. We see cross over in the customers who have families.
Actually not at all! The infrastructure is the same and given the history of working with Goldfaden MD and the lifespan of that brand, it has allowed us to simply insert Mini Bloom into the workload seamlessly. We can leverage relationships, production orders on packaging, design and marketing teams, just to name a few.
Creating two distinct brands within the same company has provided invaluable insights and experiences and beyond continuous market research, initiatives and activations, here are some of the more fundamental pieces of the business that have been the biggest lessons learned.
While initially we had conducted targeted market research for the brand, I would have concentrated more heavily on the research of the Goldfaden MD customers who have children or are interested in purchasing gentle skincare products for young ones.
By analyzing customer feedback, purchasing patterns, and demographic data, i would have been able to identify specific segments within the Goldfaden MD audience that are most likely to be receptive to Mini Bloom offerings and would have tailored marketing strategies, messaging, and product offerings to maximize the potential market share for Mini Bloom right off the bat.
I think I was so sensitive to keeping the brands separate that we did not leverage the existing GFMD customer base in this way.
There are three key pieces that I think ultimately help define the direction of creating two brands, whether it’s a separate brand all together or a line extension, and this can be achieved through conducting thorough market research, defining clear and concise brand identities and also determining what can be leveraged internally and externally with strategic resources. These are really the nuts and bolts of the business.
