Tribe Skincare founder Kayla Houlihan rebranded and stopped advertising. Now her business is stronger than ever

When Kayla Houlihan went looking for the perfect gentle natural skincare that works wonders on sensitive skin, she realised what she was looking for didn’t exist. Instead, her search led the entrepreneur to create her own solution.  

For five years, the Tribe Skincare founder had run her own skin clinic in the heart of Geelong, in regional Victoria, helping people that walked through the doors with their unique skin concerns and issues.

Houlihan soon saw there was a big gap in the market for skincare for sensitive skin that was both gentle and results-driven, especially after seeing so many customers with sensitive skin come through her clinic.

Tribe Skincare was founded in 2017 after Houlihan invested $40,000, which was originally saved for a house deposit, into the brand to make it possible.

The last few years have seen Houlihan’s growth hit that elusive hockey stick spike, particularly in the past year since working with her mentor, ex-Adidas chief financial officer, Suzanne Hoyne.

Houlihan now has four employees working for her, and her brand Tribe Skincare has amassed more than 66,000 followers on Instagram, 189,000 followers on TikTok and built an enviable email database of 50,000 subscribers.

In 2020 and 2021, Tribe Skincare’s growth was healthy at 12%, however, a strategic rebrand and repositioning of the skincare range has seen the business jump to a 20% growth rate since September 2022.

In the past 12 months, Tribe Skincare has recorded almost $1.5 million in revenue from its online and wholesale channels, which Houlihan says represents a 20% increase on the previous 12 months.

“This was largely due to the rebrand repositioning the brand in the Australian market to appeal to a wider demographic and the introduction of wholesale,” she tells SmartCompany Plus. 

To rebrand, or not to rebrand?

However, Houlihan admits she had reservations about putting the full rebrand in motion, which included a new logo and all-new packaging, at the time.

“I was beyond uncomfortable about the rebrand and struggled to hear that my business needed a rebrand,” she said.

“What worked for you 12 months ago won’t necessarily work for you now. After three years in business, I thought I knew what ‘works’, but I need to be constantly learning and adapting.”

One of Tribe Skincare’s products the ‘Repairing Facial Oil’ had a 500% increase in sales within two months of the rebrand, and it was purely due to switching to a more aesthetically pleasing, functional packaging type. 

Houlihan says there were a few motives for Tribe Skincare’s rebrand, but the skincare formulas remained the same. 

“We wanted to make the appearance of the packaging and branding reflect the quality of the skincare inside the bottle and we wanted to improve the user experience with better functioning packaging,” she said.

“Also, we wanted to reinvigorate the brand and keep it ‘rare and fresh’ for the users.”

For business owners who are thinking about undergoing a rebrand for their own business, Houlihan’s advice is to go big and go bold.

“When we were going through the rebrand process, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted the visual identity to look like,” she said.

“We created a detailed brief that explained who we are, who are customers are, what we want to communicate and where we want to take the brand in the future. We then gave this brief to multiple designers and agencies to see how they interpreted the information which was really interesting to see how different they all were.

“When you are rebranding, I think it’s best to go bold and really create a lot of hype around the changes. We also communicated to our customers the purpose behind the rebrand so they felt included in the process. 

“We had to make it very clear to everyone that we were still the same brand with the same values and product range, we were just going through a ‘glow-up’.”

The rebranded Tribe Skincare products. Source: supplied.

Organic growth

With Tribe Skincare well and truly settling into its new identity, Houlihan has continued to embrace change, this time overhauling the brand’s marketing strategy by dropping almost all of its advertising spend. 

Instead, Tribe Skincare has driven all sales through organic Instagram and Tiktok traffic and its mailing list. Houlihan says this has resulted in six-figure revenue for the past two months.

Previously, Tribe Skincare was spending $10,000 per month on campaigns with influencers and $10,000 per month on Facebook and Google ads. 

So, while it’s only two months of data, Tribe has been tracking to spend $20,000 less per month in advertising while continuing to grow its revenue.

Houlihan says approximately 90% of Tribe’s customers are located in Australia where the skincare is manufactured, and its New Zealand and United States customer base is growing from strength to strength.

“Most of our new customers come from friends and family recommendations or organic Instagram,” she said.

This strong network is likely due to Houlihan’s decision to focus on a significantly underserved market.

While the skincare industry’s focus on ‘active’ skincare is “great for some skin”, says the founder, it means those with sensitive skin are left out. 

“Back when I was working at my skin clinic in Geelong, I was busy searching for a skincare brand for our clients to use that was suitable for sensitive skin, but still achieved great results.

“That’s when I realised what I was looking for didn’t exist and if I wanted to help people with sensitive skin achieve amazing results with their skincare, I was going to have to create something truly unique.”

Houlihan says the entire Tribe Skincare range is designed to be gentle on sensitive skin and packed with natural anti-inflammatories to even skin tones and make skin glow. The products are also vegan-friendly and made in Australia. 

“Since 2017, we have helped thousands of Aussie women get their skin in its best health — reducing facial redness, minimising breakouts and saying goodbye to dry patches and eczema,” she said.