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After years of working in PR and branding for luxury beauty, Jaimee Lupton decided to break away and disrupt the space by making beauty products that are accessible. With her business partner and real-life partner Nick Mowbray, she launched Monday haircare in 2020. Lupton saw a gap in the market for a brand that was targeted toward a younger demographic. There were few haircare brands that addressed the needs of younger customers, and even fewer who knew how to speak to those customers through their branding, messaging, and packaging. Lupton knew the power of a personalized message, and she created Monday with that in mind. The haircare company has received its fair share of accolades since it launched. Beauty outlet Glossy named Monday Haircare Brand of the Year for 2024, and the company has 21 other major beauty awards to its name, including from Allure, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and InStyle. Its currently the number-one haircare brand globally on TikTok, according to statistics from the platform measured by the most liked and most followed haircare brands. The brand is on track to reach half-a-billion dollars of retail salesno easy feat for five years of business. The success of Monday then set her up to self-fund other brands. It also put her on the radar of retailers, which began to ask Lupton to work with them to create new bespoke brands. She has since done so with retail partners including Target, Walmart, and Ulta. In the span of five years, Lupton founded five other beauty brands, with more currently in development, maker her a kind of big box Gen Z beauty whisperer in the process. [Photo: Monday] Lupton’s bespoke portfolio of accessible brands Luptons most recent brand launch is Daise, a range of playful, mood-matching fragrance and bodycare, which launched February 1 at Target. Its a clear play for younger, emerging markets, Lupton says, referring to the specific spending potential of Gen Z. They’re in control of $450 billion of spending power, and that’s set to increase by 48% before 2030, so they’re a huge demographic that we need to be able to target, says Lupton, referring to a 2021 World Economic Forum statistic cited by Snapchat and November 2022 Gen Z report by Afterpay. She also notes, referring to a report by consumer insights platform aytm, that Gen-Alpha is now the fastest emerging group of beauty consumer. Daise is a way to tap into that purchasing power early, too. [Photo: Daise] It seems to be working. The brand had $1 million in retail sales in just one week, according to Daise sale statistics, and is forecasting over $50 million in retail sales in the first year. The company hit $400,000 of sales in the first four days of launch in Ulta. On February 1, Daise launched at Target. Lupton says that the number of sales are looking more impressive every day as the brand builds. Lupton described Daises creation as a way to build a fun self-care brand where beauty could meet play, and isnt taken too seriously. This manifests in the fragrances many form factors, like spritz, mists, and foams, all with youthful appeal. The visual brand is all very Gen Z-oriented, utilizing many of the visual tools of brands targeting similar demographics. It includes bright, sunny colors, like yellow and light purple, with a sans serif all caps type, and bold gradients with combinations such as pink and orange or blue and green that seem to speak to a younger generation. Its form factors also stand out on the shelf. The body foam, which comes in a uniquely styled body whip, is one example. Daise is one of the first brands to do this at Target and Ulta, creating a product range that is unique to consumers, especially for younger consumers. (Suncare brand Vacation is perhaps most known for popularizing this novel form factor, with its whipped sunscreen that comes in a spray can.) The body mist, bath bombs, and lip balm come in the shape of a flower, with designs including sprinkles or daisies. [Photo: Being] Prior to Daise, Lupton launched Being Haircare in July of 2024 with Walmart, after the mega-retailer asked Lupton to create a haircare brand that was in one aisle and on one shelf, and that could target everyone across demographics and for every hair type. The brand has vivid, color-on-color packaging that carries through to its website, type, photography, and styling. Being was the number-one brand for the retailer in the haircare space in the first three months of its launch. Similarly to Daise, Lupton harnessed Instagram and TikTok marketing as they launched in store aisle endcaps. It’s all around being you, says Lupton. And it’s not a segregation of brands. Were a unisex brand, and the products are shopping arranged for each hair type, noting it will expand into masks and treatments. [Photo: Being] Lupton has a few other brands in her portfolio. Theres Châlon, which according to its website, she made with a leading Parisian perfumer to create scents that convey elegance and tradition but fit into modern life. Then theres Osna Naturals, which is described on its website as a skin- and haircare range crafted with care to nourish both body and mind. Both ranges are free from sulfates, phthalates, and parabens, and are certified cruelty-free, dermatologically tested, and suitable for all skin types. While the brands may target different sectors, the mission across her portfolio of brands stays the same: providing accessible beauty for everyone. Digital-first with a major retail footprint Luptons North Star is to be a modern day LOreal: creating accessible brands that modern consumers want. To do so, Lupton has taken a two-prong approach: the brands have an in-house digital team, but they are also partnering with big retailers. With this strategy, she taps into a beauty business model that has proven success: launching a digital-first brand with a brick-and-mortar retail footprint. I would say we’re 90% digital in terms of our marketing spend, and we create really unique ways in which we speak to [consumers] on digital platforms, Lupton says, citing the brands creator studios, influencers its consumers naturally migrate toward, and UGC content which together creates a multiplatform digital brand destination. Though Lupton markets her brands as a direct-to-consumer, the digital-first marketing approach is complimented by physical presence in stores like Target, which she views as tween destinations. She explained that the goal is to make the products accessible in terms of price point and purchasabilitybeing able to go to a store and grab a product off the shelf. Retail partners are a big part of how far they have been able to go. Lupton plans on continuing to grow her brands and expand her portfolio into a bigger range, including treatments and styling. There is a lot in the pipeline for Lupton. She has about 22 brands in development, and intends to roll out all of them in the next three years.
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E-Commerce
In recent months, weve seen a wave of companies (including Amazon, JPMorgan, and Dell) and the federal government announce plans for a full-time return-to-office for workers. Other companies have slowly increased the numbers of the days they require in-office weekly. The subsequent pushback from many employees has been intense, with workers signing petitions, opting into coffee badging routines (where they swipe their badges, grab a coffee, and head home), or quitting all together. As multiple elements of psychological safety are broken by actions such as these, there is often some collateral damage. After accepting countless changes needed to survive and thrive over the past few years, employees thought they had found their grooves. Therefore, when changes that were viewed as working well are amended or even nullified, workers feel justified in being upset. If up to 70% of team engagement can be attributed to ones manager, how, then, should managers guide teams who are feeling let down by the organization? When companies remove the remote flexible work arrangements they have come to enjoy and expect, how can you remain an authentic leader when your teamand youmay be feeling let down? Does anybody care what we like? One of the greatest tools leaders can employ to demonstrate their respect toward their employees is how they validate their emotions. Employee engagement has long been measured at an organizational level as an indicator of organizational effectiveness and workforce retention. Whether via large scale annual surveys or team-based conversations, employees will usually respond if asked how they are feeling. In aggregated findings, flexible work arrangements and ability to work remotely (at least some of the time) have shown positive correlations to employee happiness, augmenting this sentiment by as much as 20%. Combined with other studies that indicate that happier workers are up to 20% more productive, many thought that hybrid and flexible work arrangements were here to stay. However, for as many different means as executives use to determine levels of employee satisfaction, they seem to be ignoring sentiments that support flex-work and flex-time sentiments. Beyond this, as many companies are eliminating their diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, employees are not only feeling their opinions are unheard, but they are also not feeling welcome. This sentiment has the potential to create significant ripple effects since, when employees share whats on their mind, they will only feel heard if listeners meet their subjective needs and expectations. Thus, despite many reports indicating flexible work has increased productivity and job-value satisfaction, employers are catching the RTO wave and calling employees back to the office. Employees are, therefore, apt and justified to feel resentment. This may be an indication that companies are not listening, or perhaps employers simply believe that being in the office will (eventually) equate to higher productivity and/or engagement. Whatever the reason, companies initiating RTO do not appear to be weighing employees desire to continue to have flexible working arrangements. Gallup reports that overall, U.S. employees daily negative emotions have been and remain elevated above pre-pandemic levels. If employers were really listening to their people, they would likely hear that workers have settled into flexible work and appreciate its attributes. There are likely opportunities to fine-tune or tweak how it is managed, but abrupt RTO announcements have made the news most often because employees did not see the change coming. When employees are happy with how things were but sense a change is underfoot, they will look to leaders to make sense of it all. This can be extra tricky with RTO policies, especially if you also appreciated your own flexible work arrangements. Thus, when it comes to leading the initiative to return to the office, a first step will be to determine how members of your team feel. Next, it will be to remain empathetic during the process, rather than trying to manage the change. Change Versus Transition: Making Sense of Whats Happening In 2020, the world hit a pivot point: Life as we knew it changed and, as a result, how and where we worked did, too. However, as managers we need to ask: Did we change, or did we actually transition to our new reality? Determining this distinction is quite relevant, as identifying what is happening bears significant influence on effective management. We tend to interchange the ideas of change and transition. But they actually have a slightly different meaning. We know when were experiencing change when external events impact how we live our lives and/or interact with others. Interrupting how work is done with a policy shift is therefore a change. Thus, when the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated people to stop working together in formal office settings, this was a change. Meanwhile, according to the Bridges Transition Model, a model focusing on phases of emotional experiences and reconciliations, a transition is an inner psychological process that we experience when we internalizeand then come to terms withthe new situations that change brings about. Learning to regulate individual productivity and the cadence of remote-office workdays was therefore a mental transition. While the change to remote work was almost impossible to plan for, developing a longer-term management plan was encouraged in tandem. However, in retrospect, it seems that many of these suggestions focused on the macro/organizational level, such as codifying company standards and practices and instituting training. Helping workers to become comfortable with their new reality was not a priority, and many fell into ruts of anxiety, burnout, and depression. However, those who elected to stay in their roles made mental adjustments, got into a new groove, and transitioned into a comfortable new-normal. The Center for Creative Leadership, a nonprofit focusing on leadership development, advises leaders who manage change to bring their team members together to create a shared vision around desired goals. This was not done with the switch to remote work, as workers were abruptly sent home because of health risks. And now employers are again sending this signal with blanket RTO initiatives. Some leaders may view changing work modalities as just going back to how things were, but for employees who had mentally transitioned to their new normal, its more than that. For the second time in five years, employees are realizing that what they want and like about how they work does not matter to their supervisors. If they are not willing to return to the office, their jobs will not be theirs. So its no wonder that many employees are sending their own signal: They are not happy being called to the office and many are indicating they would rather quit. Putting It Together: Transitioning Through Change While there are surely some organizations that are bringing people back to work just because they can (and do not have more of a rationale than that), most companies will have done some due diligence to make the RTO decision. Whatever the reason, if your company is going to institute a change in work modality, you will need to accept the decision, and then lead your people through. What if, instead of trying to manage the team through a change, you are empathetic to the unique needs, wants, and levels of acceptance the individuals on their team are experiencing? In other words, instead of focusing on the RTO change, focus on helping the team transition through the ending of what they are used to and will likely miss? Employees who were given the opportunity to work from home or who had flex-time or flex-space work arrangements have become comfortable in how they do their work. Whether they adjusted post pandemic or were hired into remote or hybrid roles, employees established a comfortable rhythm of work and felt trusted and empowered to work remotely. No matter how well justified RTO initiatives may be, individuals will feel shocked and angry, and may even try to deny that their old way of life is ending. It is very likely that they will grieve the loss of what they had become accustomed to which may manifest in sadness or anger if gone unattended. To approach a change that impacts a way of life by using company policyobjectively saying this is what has been decidedwill not feel good. At the same time, trying to make people feel comfortable by telling them it is not a big deal or that they will not notice the change after a while will also not likely work. In times of transition, a leaders imperative is actually to help people feel like they can be successful despite being uncomfortable and temporarily unhappy. Empathetic leaders who recognize their team members are struggling with a transition will create opportunities to foster dialogue. This may entail acknowledging that the situation is difficult and reminding the team that they have experienced challenges in the past, but the commitment to working together toward organizational goals while upholding organizational values has never waivered and will not change now. Then, leaders will listen to concerns while seeking to abate confusion and uncertainty by answering questions about what a change means, what it means to them, and how it will impact interactions with systems and with their colleagues. They will also not hesitate to offer direct feedback to their team members about how the change is going to impact things at an organizational level. For example, if RTO is a company-wide ordinance, leaders will want to explain how office space will now be managed in a way that may enhance team interactions and/or encourage team building. If relationships are nurtured in this way, it is reasonable to expect that most employees will progress to a calmer state of acceptancewhat Bridges calls a neutral zone. As a leader, you can follow up on what you hear as an employee advocate. You can find the right time and ask your own supervisor your why, what, and how questions such as: Why is the company doing this now? What metrics/data demonstrates that returning to the office is appropriate? And what lift do we expect to see (productivity, efficiency, retention, etc.) with RTO? How will we accommodate employees who have made plans assuming we were going to stay remote/hybrid as we said we would? If you do not feel the answers you receive make sense, its also okay to talk with Human Resources. Remember, you are not only asking for yourself, you are asking for the people you are leading. Authentic reconciliation: You and the change Change is never easy, but it can be the impetus for a new beginning. Leaders who take the time to respectfully listen to how team members are feeling will also need to remember that what they do with what they hear matters. The goal will be to help team members make sense of what is changing, then determine how they can effectively contribute as part of the new environment.
Category:
E-Commerce
When climate disasters strike, funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is just one part of the response. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also plays a significant role by helping cities and states rebuild after hurricanes, wildfires, and other climate impacts. The Trump administration, which has already taken aim at FEMA, now plans to drastically reduce the HUD office that funds disaster recovery. Its a move that threatens the entire countryand some Republican-led districts more so. Every single state has had at least one federally declared major disaster due to extreme weather since 2011, according to Rebuild by Design, a project at the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University that focuses in part on climate resilience. That means all Senate districts have been affected by fires, floods, tornadoes, or hurricanes (though extreme heat can be deadly and continues to be a growing climate threat, heat waves have not yet initiated a federal disaster declaration). Meanwhile, 99.5% of congressional districts in the U.S. include a county that has had at least one such disaster, with only two unscathedthough that figure doesnt include statewide disaster declarations, the organization notes, which if counted would have raised the number to 100%. Still, that 99.5% figure has amounted to at least $117.9 billion in federal post-disaster assistance from FEMA and HUD. [Screenshot: Atlas of Accountability] Since 2011, 22 congressional districts have been struck by 12 or more disasters, and 77.3% of those are represented by Republican House members, while 22.7% are represented by Democrats. When it comes to the most affected states, California tops the list with 39, but Oklahoma, Tennessee, Iowa, Vermont, Alaska, and Mississippi all have had more than 25 disaster declarations each. Still, nearly every American has been affected in some way: 99.5% of U.S. residents live in counties with recent disaster declarations, per Rebuild by Designs analysis. Rebuild by Design began as a HUD-launched design competition in 2013 to respond to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. It has since become a broader organization to help governments collaborate on climate preparedness. It has also created an Atlas of Accountability, an interactive map that catalogs county-level disaster declarations, overlaying that information with details on congressional districts. The tool is meant to help communities and policymakers understand their exposure to disasters and the benefits of investing in climate resilience. This week, Rebuild by Design updated the tool with its latest data, highlighting how disasters have impacted the country. This update continues to show that disasters impact everyone, said Jeff Stevens, EVP and general manager at iParametrics, an emergency management organization, in a statement. We need to invest in resilience before and after disasters to reduce the disaster impacts on communities and their critical infrastructure.
Category:
E-Commerce
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