How MERIT Beauty succeeded in a crowded makeup landscape by targeting the older millennial

And, it's available in Australia from September 18.

How many makeup brands does the world need? I ask myself this question a lot, especially when there seems to be replicas after replicas, calling to mind something you’ve seen before — another brand talking about self-expression being their core tenet on TikTok, another brand talking working with a celebrity, let alone celebrities launching their own brand.

I was contacted a few weeks ago to be given the heads-up that MERIT Beauty will soon become available in Australia from September 18, which has inspired this particular brand deep-dive. Prices will range from $32 for the eyeshadow blush, and $61 for the serum and complexion stick.

This isn’t paid/sponsored and while I was sent a PR gift of four products to try ahead of launch, there was absolutely no obligation to support the brand on any of my channels. (Oftentimes, when you are given something, they explicitly say they require an IG story/grid post.)

But the more I dug into it, the more I realised that it was a bit more than another beauty brand. Behind it, it’s got a founder who has extensive expertise in several other industries but isn’t so forwardly brand facing, it talks to the older millennial rather than targeting ‘The Youth’ which is basically refreshing nowadays in beauty, and, its aesthetic ethos really speaks to what I’m drawn to.

HOW IT BEGAN

Katherine Powers, the founder of MERIT, has an extensive list of brands she founded:

• Who What Wear was founded in 2006 with Hillary Kerr. They met while working at Elle US magazine and both realised that women were starting to consume media differently.

• Versed in 2019: an affordable skincare line available only in Target and its own DTC. Prices are all under US$20.

• Avaline, a natural and organic wine company that launched during COVID in 2020. Fellow co-founder is Cameron Diaz, naturally.

Plus, she is a partner at seed-to-growth venture capital firm Greycroft and operating partner at Sonoma Brands, a private equity firm.

The serial entrepreneur knew white space when she saw it.

Yet, for all her entrepreneurial accomplishments, she found herself wanting something personal — a makeup line that suited her needs as a 40-something, busy professional.

It was 2017, and Power was starting to think up of what this dream line could be, and what it definitely wasn’t. The makeup on the market felt too heavy and too time-consuming. 2017 was also the year of the ‘Kardashian contour’ phenomenon, but it wasn’t for Power, especially when she was pregnant and reacting to the ingredients in her existing products. As she puts it in a podcast interview with Bobbi Brown: it wasn’t appropriate to be at a work meeting and notice her highlighter had iridescent glitter in it.

The solution? A line that delivered luxury, minimalism, and ease, with a side of ‘clean beauty’ sensibilities.

“I didn’t fit into the bronzed and contoured Kardashian look, and I was older and maybe a little more professional than a Glossier customer,” Power said. And with that, MERIT was born in 2021, four years later since Power first had an inkling of the concept.

Within a year of launch, it had raised US$20 million in a Series A funding round led by L Catterton. By 2023, the brand hit the US$100 million sales mark, and it’s only growing — just earlier this year, they hired former MAC Cosmetics president, Philippe Pinatel, as CEO. Power, now chairperson of MERIT, wants her latest company to be a billion dollar brand.

This year, it has also engaged Goldman Sachs to explore deal options for MERIT.

It expanded in to the UK in 2023, where one product was sold every 30 seconds on launch day, and in fact doubled its UK revenue projections in the first year.

Pretty impressive for a company that’s been around for under five years.

As this edition includes advice, analysis and critique that I’ve developed from my experience working in both editorial and brand-side which I do charge as part of my consulting work, the majority of this article is paywalled.

I do a brand deep-dive once a month, so if you find this interesting, you can consider becoming a paid subscriber here.

What I’ve covered about MERIT Beauty:

• Brand positioning

• How they eschew gen Z targeting and instead go for the older millennial

• Their subtle launch

• Strategic and style-driven partnerships

• Distribution and ecomm

• Absence of hero product (not a bad thing!)

• The beauty trends that MERIT Beauty are addressing

And, explore the other brand deep-dives I’ve done here.