Face D Exclusive Interview: Building Brand Identity is Stable on Your Original Principle

Face D is an Italian dermocosmetic brand. An impressive result with 108% growth in the first four months of 2021. Face D now has more than six hundred points of sale in Italy. Face D products can be found in pharmacies, Sephora, department stores, airports and TV shopping.

Chiara Sorman, the founder of Face D, found that the speedness of the makeup missed up in the skincare. And the efficacy of the skincare is also lost in the makeup. This meant that consumers had to wait a long time to see some efficacy when using skincare products such as creams or lotions. Chiara Sorman hoped skincare products to work as fast as beauty while maintaining the original skincare results, combining a quick solution with a stable treatment. So she created Face D, a dermocosmetic brand. It aims to build a bridge between cosmetics and skincare.

How does Face D view the concept of dermatologica? Is there any intention to enter the Chinese market? With great honor, we invite Chiara Sormani, the founder of Face D, to share the experience of building Face D and thoughts about the beauty industry.

CHAILEEDO: How would you describe your brand vision?

Chiara Sorman: Our vision is all about to be simple and pragmatic. We want our brand simple to be understood, simple to be used, simple to be sold. What’s more, Face D was also born for all the people that was looking to gain time, or not to devote time to reach skincare benefit that was postpone to forever time. Some consumers don't want to spend like two hours of their daily time in skincare and routine. Face D is to solve those problems. If consumers want something which is simple, effective and pragmatic, Face D is their choice.

CHAILEEDO: Face D has grown 108% in the first 4 months of 2021, how did Face D achieve such a result?

Chiara Sorman: I was very proud of it. How we did it? We working for it in former time. What we had been doing was building a brand. Building brand identity and building a proper portfolio of our products which never betrayed the consumer when they buy it. We achieve this result in 2021. But actually, we made efforts between 2013 to 2020. Because that was the crucial year when you do not have to betray your consumers.

CHAILEEDO: How to build a brand identity?

Chiara Sorman: Brand identity is a journey. How to make them? It's really to be stable on what are your original principle. You have to be very consistent all over the time. You have not to betray this kind of principle for communication, for products, for everything. Every two years we will rope up everything and make a check on what we are doing consistent to our identity and we are becoming something different. Identity is not a matter of communication. It's not only a matter of content. It is a matter of stay true to yourself through product development. So that's our approach

CHAILEEDO: How does Face D view dermocosmetics products (how to define dermocosmetics) and what are your views on the future market trend of dermocosmetics?

Chiara Sorman: Actually there is no ISO principal to define cosmetic versus dermocosmetics. Dermocosmetics enjoys a healthier approach to skin. It can better understands the specific problems of your skin. Dermocosmetics also has to be endorsed by doctors, pharmacists, formulations or sales channels such as pharmacies.

CHAILEEDO: Face D has always insisted on sustainable development, in what ways does Face D implement the environmental protection concept of sustainable development?

Chiara Sorman: Actually, we can't implement sustainability. What we can do as a brand is to decrease our waste and our handful approach to the to the environment. This is the first step that a brand wants to keep sustainable. Face D started working on office environment, which means that we decrease the emission and waste in our working offices such as light, paper and fans in our office. Since 2019, we changed the company car to be hybrid or electric car. We also do many other things in our daily working. The second step is packaging. Face D uses recyclable packages such as certified forest paper, glass and plastic. What’s more, you can buy the Face D products without the outer box. Because if you buy our products at third times, you don’t need the box. We did this to reduce the waste of energy and money.

CHAILEEDO: Will Face D launch refillable package in the future?

Chiara Sorman: Not yet. Because we are in Italian market. Italian market is not ready to refillable package. It's also a matter of culture. In Italian market, refillable package are experimenting in household products but not yet in cosmetic. There are other brands that are doing the rechargeable things. But they are not performing very well. So I think to adapt a market is a really important method to a brand to adapt to localization.

CHAILEEDO: Face D has said that he is very optimistic about the Chinese market, why?

Chiara Sorman: In my opinion, China has the capacity to be modernized and China has the power to become a game changer. I realize that what has China been done in the last twenty years is really to create one of the most modern country in the world when it comes to technology and business. If China decide to become the most sustainable country or have a different approach to economy, it would really change the world. And I think the new generation will be able to drive the country there.

CHAILEEDO: What do you think are the similarities and differences between Chinese consumers and European and American consumers' preferences?

Chiara Sorman: Actually, we have different culture when it comes to beauty. Chinese comes from an ancient tradition. Chinese brand inject things in the market from tradition. And consumers believe much more in tradition things. So these things have to be concreted. Firstly you need to have a long story, a nation story. As for American and European brands, they are more open to new things, new approach, new startup. If Chinese startups are in beauty, they go back to some heritage. They bring some heritage in the market. There is a lot of heritage Chinese brings to the market when they bring new concept when it comes to beauty.

CHAILEEDO: Will Face D enter Chinese market?

Chiara Sorman: Not in the very short time. we still have a lot to build in our own countries. Chinese market is very different from European market and we also need a strong partner to enter in China.

CHAILEEDO: In 2021, Face D mentioned that the next three years are crucial for Face D. What are Face D's development plans in 2023?

Chiara Sorman: We will focus again on our Italian market because we still have to grow a lot. We are building a more healthy a wider structure for people. We also start our steps in foreign countries in Europe. We are not a super fast-growing company. I'm trying to building a brand that will be here for 10 and 20 years. It's full of stories of a brand that make capital injection. Then they pump up. After a several years , a lot of their products are without identity. We don’t want to be a brand like these. So I want to be very careful in every single step via economics, product development.