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| Indie Hair's 'Try Me' kit. |
Indie Hair has come up with a creative way to attract fans on social media – and engage a younger generation of consumers. The brand includes a hashtag symbol in all of its product names.
Indie Hair is a new hair care brand launched earlier this year by Scruples, a family-owned professional hair care company that sells its products at salons. The line includes seven hair care and styling products, and two new products are scheduled to launch in Fall 2013.
A Street-Art Inspired Look
Indie Hair's styling and hair care products are packaged in cans, bottles and jars, all of which are either plastic or metalized. Day-glow neon caps, and a puffy logo that looks like it could've been spray-painted onto the packaging's industrial silver finish, come together to create its eye-catching look.
"The Indie Hair logo and branding is very much tied to the world of street art or 'tagging' as we like to refer to it," explains Mia Liguori McHugh, co-president of creative for Scruples. She continues, "The look is effortlessly fresh, attention-getting and all about expressing who you are as an artist – whether it be hair, fashion, or music."
The vibrantly colored caps and dispensing closures are the packages' stand-out features. They're reminiscent of pop-art brights, in orange, yellow, blue, pink purple and green.
"The bold colors are representative of the trend of individuality, however, they also grab your attention on a store shelf," says McHugh.
Named for Social Interaction
It couldn't be any simpler for consumers to find and interact with the brand on all types of social media sites, since Indie Hair's product names were created with Twitter users in mind.
"After noticing how Twitter savvy our demographic was, we decided to also integrate the hashtag symbol as part of our packaging and product names," explains Tracy Liguori, co-president of marketing for Scruples.
She says, "Our target customers are between the ages of 18 – 30, male and female, hairdressers and consumers who want the freedom to be different by mixing products to customize their individual look."
Each Indie Hair product has a name with a hashtag, plus a description of the product's benefit.
The product lineup includes: #superfirm hairspray; #mixitstrong gel; #mixitsoft polish; #wreckit putty - clay; #round2 powder; #cleansweep shampoo_bodywash; and #untangled conditioner.
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| Indie Hair uses hashtags in all its product names. |
"We use QR codes on the boot and boxes of our "try-me" kits and stylist kits. They are also on our brochures and flyers. They take the users to a very fun Indie Hair video on our You Tube channel," says Liguori.
Gaining Followers, Fast
Indie Hair's strategy seems to be working, the brand says. "As predicted, our product hashtags have taken on a life of their own on Twitter and Pinterest - but surprisingly, we've been even more popular on Instagram," says Liguori.
She adds, "We've had a significant following increase on all those social media platforms, as well as on Facebook, and we continue to gain new users every day."
Indie Hair is also planning more ways to further engage its social media community. The brand will give away 20 ipad minis in November, to the winners of its online styling contest that begins July 1. More details will be explained on the brand's page at Facebook/MyIndieHair.
By Marie Redding, Associate Editor of Beauty Packaging Magazine
