Somethinc: Scaling Up Consumer Education

through Triple-Strategic Communication

Initiatives

Proposed by
YOBU Team
Michael Yoe
Cut R A Buleen
View Appendix B for guides on how to breakdown the slides
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Somethinc is looking for new strategy to increase In 2021, Somethinc has achieved a total sales of Rp8.1
Situation their sales volume as existing misperception leads to billion, ranking third among all local brands as the best-
a decrease in potential consumers selling brand in Indonesian e-commerce

Low level of product understanding among consumers

Insufficient Product
Information in Marketing
Complication Technique
Differentiated from internal and
external aspects, e.g. resellers’ failure
to provide adequate information
Complicated and Confusing
Product/SKU
Consumers are facing difficulty
understanding product because of
its name and unfamiliar ingredient
used
Language Barriers for Local
Consumers
Targeted consumer (Indonesian)
may encounter problem to
understand the product due to lack
of English proficiency
High Number of Product
Variety
Somethinc launches high variety of
serum which leads to confusion and
shifts consumer to look for other
substitutions

How could Somethinc tackle the product & ingredient misperception among its consumers along with boosting its
Question sales volume by 13% over the span of 1 year?

Free Robo Consultation
Giving free AI-based
Answer questionaries & photo analysis
xxx
to assist consumer in
identifying their personal
skin problem
Free Product Sampling Constant Reseller Education One-Pager Product Packaging
Giving free 5ml decants (consumer picks Providing Somethinc’s top resellers with Providing Somethinc’s top resellers with
different products) for every purchase of
xxx
40 mL products to encourage repeat
workshops to increase their understanding of workshops to increase their understanding of
xxx and ingredients
products information xxx and ingredients
products information
purchase

1
Situation Analysis: Makeup Industry’s Market
Porter’s Five
Threat of New Entrants
Due to its unique ingredients in skincare products like serum, Somethinc is
lacking advantage in the supplier’s power. In contrast, the influence of the
new entrants in the business and threat of substitutes is low due to large
Threat of Supplier’s variety of product launched, fitness to consumers’ skin, and diverse target
Substitutes Power
markets.

Market Sizing*

Rivalry of Competitors
Buyer’s TAM:
Power US$627.78bn

SAM:
US$93.78bn
Low Threat of New Entrants

Threat of Substitutes
Low SOM : US$8.84bn
Rivalry of Competitors
Med Indonesian’ Beauty Industry Market Size
Med Buyer’s Power (Statista, 2022)

High Supplier’s Power

*Statista, 2022

2
Company Analysis: Market Research and Organization
McKinsey 7S

STRUCTURE
Focus on improving
internal processes: risk
management and customer
relationship management

SYSTEM
STRATEGY Channels used to sell the
Provides skincare and product vary from retail
cosmetics for all classes, online to offline shops in
which product are distributed
all skin types, and all skin SHARED from the warehouse or near
color
VALUE official store
Disrupting the traditional
industry as an underdog with
transformative energy and
delivers best
outcome
SKILLS STYLE
Innovative, competent, Implementing
persistence, and team employee-centric
players are things that environment that is agile
BeautyHaul seeks in their to changes by creating
workers the ‘CREATE’ culture

STAFFS
The company had
grown from 80 to 600
employees in year,
mostly in
sales and warehousing INSIGHT: Somethinc sought for both heavy and light users consumers with recurring-personal occasions as
personality with its targeted demographic are teenagers and adults in lower and middle-upper class who pursue
experiencers and innovators as a lifestyle.

3
However, Somethinc’s successes are encountered with the following problems; preventing itself from
market expansion to more cities and consumers

Root Cause Analysis

Root Cause
Breakdown–
MECE Tree
Analysis

v
Problem How could Somethinc tackle the product & ingredient misperception among its consumers along with
Statement boosting its sales volume by 13% over the span of 1 year?

4
However, Somethinc’s successes are encountered with the following problems; preventing itself from
market expansion to more cities and consumers

1
High number of Over Somethinc’s website (09/22) Somethinc has launched over 25 different Severity
products/SKUs serums which consumers have not been able to keep up with. These new Index*
launched by product launches have not been matched with huge problems our consumers
Somethinc are facing.
64%

2
Insufficient Product Participants within the survey feels that there may be more information Severity
Information on about Somethinc’s product in the product, such as storage guidelines, Index*
Somethinc’s Marketing
Strategy
indications, warning labels, etc 36%
v

3
Most of the product names and functionalities in Somethinc’s Serum are Severity
Zooming in to the 4 Language Barrier provided in English, losing the market due to the unavailability to cater Index:
with 28% Indonesians who are not able to have English as a second
Key Issues
language.
28%

4
Gen Z is less familiar with individual research and is more likely to associate daily Severity
Complicated &
products with a simple name, several participants that we have interviewed has a Index*
confusing product tendency to associate Somethinc’s serum with their liquid colors instead of the product’s
branding real names. 23%

*Sourced from Individual Research, see Appendix A

5
Somethinc needs a well-planned & holistic strategy to enhance consumer knowledge
about its products and ingredients

Key Strategy Main Idea

Yobu team offers strategies for
Somethinc to do for its targeted
Generating an AI skin advisor to help website visitors consumers, starting free robo
Free Robo
decide which product line will match their skin problem
Consultation and expectations.
consultation to constrant reseller
education which results to:

Constant Providing Somethinc’s top resellers with incentives &

Reseller workshops to increase their understanding of products
Education information and ingredients.

Word of mouth
Providing free sample products (decants) to allow the
Product comsumers to test out other Somethinc’s products which Higher engagement
Sampling increases brand devotion of Somethinc as consumer
confidence in the brand enhanced.
Increased traffic

Product Increased traction

Sending one-pager/flyers of Somethinc’s catalog with its
Packaging:
ingredients explained in each purchase transaction.
One-Pager Increased CVR and sales

6
Taken together, Yobo Team recommendations are developed based on the credible
research and curated to the most current trend

Target’s Persona Proposed Strategy Supporting Arguments

• Due to the online business model (E-Commerce), the absence of a sales assistant is crucial to facilitate
A group of college decision-making process on which serum to purchase.
friends or • The skin analysis is capable of putting a value to wrinkles, facial lines, eyebags, dark circle, redness, skin
colleagues in their
Free Robo texture, firmness, acne, etc. ranging from 0 to 1 and advises the right products to solve the skin problem
• Robo advisors charge lower cost than human advisors as it has advantage of economies of scale (Ludwig,
early-to-late 20s Consultation 2017)
who is aiming to • Answers 40.000+ potential customer’s confusion on choosing the right product which leads to increasing
have their glow up consumer’s trust and repeat order

time!
• Effectively get product into the hands of the people who are most likely to buy
Product Sampling •
•
“Make up itu cocok-cocokan, gak ada one fit solution kecuali kita in hand ke produknya”
Encourage Repurchasing rates from free samples are ranging 38-50% (Linstendt, 1999)
• The psychology impact of freebies includes the obligation that consumers feel when they’ve been given things
and people will try something new if it doesn’t cost them money
A teenager (Gen Z)
who wants to spend • Giving out incentives for the top resellers thus will boost resellers’ motivation to be invited which
results in them giving better performance on selling the product while giving the correct product
his/her school
holiday starting the
Constant Reseller •
knowledge to consumers
Seller competence indirectly leads to buyer loyalty at the factor coefficient of 0.4
daily self-care Education •
•
Explaining the product, what it does and how it alleviates pain points
Maintain good communication among company and the reselling team
routine!

Product Packaging: • Plays a crucial role in clarifying, inspiring, educating, building relationships, creating desire and selling the
product
One-Pager •
•
Builds shared understanding and communicates the product information and ingredients
Catalogue increase the likelihood of additional purchases through store or web (Tanya M., 2019)

7
Analysis – Impact on Implementation

Strategy
Affected Chosen
Robo
Advisor
Reseller
Education
Product
Sampling
One-Pager Cost-Revenue Analysis
Key Issues
Annual Cost*
High number of products/SKUs
#1 launched √ √ √ √
by Somethinc

Insufficient product information

#2 on Somethinc’s marketing
√ √ - √
strategy

#3 Complicated & confusing product

√ √ √ √
branding
Annual Benefit*

Key Insight:
To measure probability and the strategy efficiency, operating expense ratio is used and
the strategy achieved the number 30% as number below 50% is considered optimal. This
strategy is also shown to boost sales volume by 13% increase over the span of 1 year.

*Effective after 1 year Implementation

8
Analysis – Risk and Timeline
Planning Phase
Robo Consultant: Creation
Action Plan

Robo: Testing Phase

Robo: Execution
Reseller Engagement
One-Pager Execution

2 4 5 7 8 10
Product Sampling Trial Time
1 3 6 9 11 12
(Month)

Critical Lin Challenges Mitigation

High

e
(Implementation Reliant) (How to Avert the Risks)

2 1 Website Capacity Robo consultant taking website

Likelihood

Overload Proactive IT infrastructure supported with a team

1
Medium

bandwidth

3 2 Demotivated Resellers are tired to try Promoting incentives as reward, maintaining

reseller educating consumers relationship and continuous education
Low

3 AI Consumers finding their

Continous maintenance on AI and keeps collecting
Low Medium High skin problem to be
Accuracy inputs for better accuracy
different with Robo AI
Impact/Sensitivity

9
CONCLUSION
Before purchasing a Somethinc serum, Anya uses 5 minute to submit her photo
Meet Anya, Free Robo and fill in the questions.

Consultation
Anya(20) is a law student born in Jakarta
and have been struggling with skin-related
Impact: Anya receives answers on which products to buy, in this case:
Hylapore away solution.
If Anya chooses to buy the serum via her friend (Somethinc’s official reseller),

Anya’s Journey
issues to match her skin problems created Constant her friend is able to validize her serum choice.
by busy college activity. Reseller Impact: Anya is more certain about her decision and purchases her first
Education Somethinc Serum
Anya is buying a skincare product with
her allowance money to consume on a
daily basis
If Anya chooses to buy her serum via online store, Anya receives a package; 40
College Student, 20 Product ml serum and 5 ml Serum both associated with her skin problems.

Sampling

v
Impact: If one of the serum does not match with her skin, Anya has 2 options
to choose; sampling encourages repeat order
Anya has several skin issues, but she is very insecure about
1
Anya’s Pain Points

her pore & oil skin excretion

If Anya chooses to buy her serum via online store, Anya receives a package
Product containing a flyer with table comparisons of Somethinc’s product line and
Anya hears about Somethinc from a TikTok influencer but is functionalities
confused on which serum to buy. 2 Packaging:
One-Pager Impact: Anya less require the reseller or customer service to consult &
purchase more serums in the future.

Anya does not have time to research every serum in

3 Somethinc’s product line and their effects.
Anya becomes a regular customer for Somethinc & tries other
serums due to its potent effects on her skin.
This is where our solution will work

10
 - References & Literature

● Mark, Tanya; Jan Bulla; Rakesh Niraj; Ingo Bulla; Wolfgang Scharzwäller (2019), “Catalogue as a tool for reinforcing habits: Empirical evidence from a multichannel retailer,” International

Journal of Research in Marketing, forthcoming

● Statista Search Department (2022, April 14th) Revenue of the global skin care market 2013-2026 [Infographic]. Statista.

● Somethinc’s marketing strategy: https://hypeabis.id/read/9091/kisah-founder-somethinc-yang-sukses-memulai-bisnis-dari-reseller

● Somethinc’s company analysis: https://www.kompas.com/parapuan/read/532665005/mengenal-irene-ursula-perempuan-di-balik-kesuksesan-produk-kecantikan-lokal-somethinc

● Brochures and Catalogue in the Media Mix by Sappi

● Eriksson, K. and Sharma, D. (2007), “Buyer loyalty development through seller education of service buyers”, Journal of Euromarketing, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 17-31

● Salsky, Ezra. (2020). Personalization in Beauty Tech Using AI and AR: Investigating Consumer Behaviour and Benefits of Personalization In Beauty. Tampere University of Applied Sciences: Master

of Culture and Arts.

● Turner, John A.; Fish, Jill. E (2018), “The Emergence of the Robo-advisor” Wharton Pension Research Council Working Papers, forthcoming

● Sedliačiková, Mariana; Kocianová, Anna; Dzian, Michal; Moresova, M & Drábek, Josef. (2020). Product Sampling Effect on Purchase Decision Also by Social Aspects. Marketing and Management

of Innovations.

● Heilman, Carrie; Laishyk, Kyryl; Radas, Sonja. (2004) The Effect of In-Store Free Samples on Short- and Long-Term Purchasing Behavior

● Stahl, Florianl Koenigsberg, Oded & Halbheer, Daniel. (2010) SAMPLING INFORMATION GOODS: HOW MUCH SHOULD BE FREE?
 - Appendix A: Primary Research

Form: https://forms.gle/Fx5LXqbcmPGUwwi7A
- Appendix B: Slides Breakdown
Situation Analysis: Makeup Industry’s Market
Porter’s Five
Threat of New Entrants
Due to its unique ingredients in skincare products like serum, Somethinc is
lacking advantage in the supplier’s power. In contrast, the influence of the
new entrants in the businessCompany
and threatAnalysis
of substitutes is low due to large
Threat of Supplier’s variety of product launched, fitness to consumers’ skin, and diverse target
Substitutes Power
markets.

Industry Analysis Market Sizing*

Rivalry of Competitors
Buyer’s TAM:
Power US$627.78bn
Beauty Market Analysis
SAM:
US$93.78bn
Low Threat of New Entrants

Threat of Substitutes
Low SOM : US$8.84bn
Rivalry of Competitors
Med Indonesian’ Beauty Industry Market Size
Med Buyer’s Power (Statista, 2022)

High Supplier’s Power

*Statista, 2022

2
Company Analysis: Market Research and Organization
McKinsey 7S

STRUCTURE
Focus on improving
internal processes: risk
management and customer
relationship management

SYSTEM
STRATEGY Channels used to sell the
Provides skincare and product vary from retail
cosmetics for all classes, online to offline shops in
which product are distributed
all skin types, and all skin SHARED from the warehouse or near
color
VALUE official store
Disrupting the traditional
Company Analysis
industry as an underdog with Somethinc’s Consumer
transformative energy and
delivers best
outcome
Demographic
SKILLS STYLE
Innovative, competent, Implementing
persistence, and team employee-centric
players are things that environment that is agile
BeautyHaul seeks in their to changes by creating
workers the ‘CREATE’ culture

STAFFS
The company had
grown from 80 to 600
employees in year,
mostly in
sales and warehousing INSIGHT: Somethinc sought for both heavy and light users consumers with recurring-personal occasions as
personality with its targeted demographic are teenagers and adults in lower and middle-upper class who pursue
experiencers and innovators as a lifestyle.

3
However, Somethinc’s successes are encountered with the following problems; preventing itself from
market expansion to more cities and consumers

Root Cause Analysis

Root Cause
Breakdown–
MECE Tree Problem Analysis
Analysis

v
Problem How could Somethinc tackle the product & ingredient misperception among its consumers along with
Statement boostingQuestion Formulation
its sales volume by 13% over the span of 1 year?

4
However, Somethinc’s successes are encountered with the following problems; preventing itself from
market expansion to more cities and consumers

1
High number of Over Somethinc’s website (09/22) Somethinc has launched over 25 different Severity
products/SKUs serums which consumers have not been able to keep up with. These new Index*
launched by product launches have not been matched with huge problems our consumers
Somethinc are facing.
64%

2
Insufficient Product Participants within the survey feels that there may be more information Severity
Information on about Somethinc’s product in the product, such as storage guidelines, Index*
Somethinc’s Marketing
Strategy
indications, warning labels, etc 36%
v

3 Problem Breakdown and

Further
Most of theAnalysis
product names and functionalities in Somethinc’s Serum are Severity
Zooming in to the 4 Language Barrier provided in English, losing the market due to the unavailability to cater Index:
with 28% Indonesians who are not able to have English as a second
Key Issues
language.
28%

4
Gen Z is less familiar with individual research and is more likely to associate daily Severity
Complicated &
products with a simple name, several participants that we have interviewed has a Index*
confusing product tendency to associate Somethinc’s serum with their liquid colors instead of the product’s
branding real names. 23%

*Sourced from Individual Research, see Appendix A

5
Somethinc needs a well-planned & holistic strategy to enhance consumer knowledge
about its products and ingredients

Key Strategy Main Idea

Yobu team offers strategies for
Somethinc to do for its targeted
Generating an AI skin advisor to help website visitors consumers, starting free robo
Free Robo
decide which product line will match their skin problem
Consultation and expectations.
consultation to constrant reseller
education which results to:

Constant Providing Somethinc’s top resellers with incentives &

Reseller
Strategy workshops to increase their understanding of products
Strategy Explanation Impact
Education information and ingredients.

Word of mouth
Providing free sample products (decants) to allow the
Product comsumers to test out other Somethinc’s products which Higher engagement
Sampling increases brand devotion of Somethinc as consumer
confidence in the brand enhanced.
Increased traffic

Product Increased traction

Sending one-pager/flyers of Somethinc’s catalog with its
Packaging:
ingredients explained in each purchase transaction.
One-Pager Increased CVR and sales

6
Taken together, Yobo Team recommendations are developed based on the credible
research and curated to the most current trend

Target’s Persona Proposed Strategy Supporting Arguments

• Due to the online business model (E-Commerce), the absence of a sales assistant is crucial to facilitate
A group of college decision-making process on which serum to purchase.
friends or • The skin analysis is capable of putting a value to wrinkles, facial lines, eyebags, dark circle, redness, skin
colleagues in their
Free Robo texture, firmness, acne, etc. ranging from 0 to 1 and advises the right products to solve the skin problem
• Robo advisors charge lower cost than human advisors as it has advantage of economies of scale (Ludwig,
early-to-late 20s Consultation 2017)
who is aiming to • Answers 40.000+ potential customer’s confusion on choosing the right product which leads to increasing
have their glow up consumer’s trust and repeat order

time!
• Further Supporting Data on
Effectively get product into the hands of the people who are most likely to buy
Target of Strategy Product Sampling •
•
“Make up itu cocok-cocokan, gak ada one fit solution kecuali kita in hand ke produknya”
Strategy
Encourage Repurchasing rates from free samples are ranging 38-50% (Linstendt, 1999)
• The psychology impact of freebies includes the obligation that consumers feel when they’ve been given things
and people will try something new if it doesn’t cost them money
A teenager (Gen Z)
who wants to spend • Giving out incentives for the top resellers thus will boost resellers’ motivation to be invited which
results in them giving better performance on selling the product while giving the correct product
his/her school
holiday starting the
Constant Reseller •
knowledge to consumers
Seller competence indirectly leads to buyer loyalty at the factor coefficient of 0.4
daily self-care Education •
•
Explaining the product, what it does and how it alleviates pain points
Maintain good communication among company and the reselling team
routine!

Product Packaging: • Plays a crucial role in clarifying, inspiring, educating, building relationships, creating desire and selling the
product
One-Pager •
•
Builds shared understanding and communicates the product information and ingredients
Catalogue increase the likelihood of additional purchases through store or web (Tanya M., 2019)

7
Analysis – Impact on Implementation

Strategy
Affected Chosen
Robo
Advisor
Reseller
Education
Product
Sampling
One-Pager Cost-Revenue Analysis
Key Issues
Annual Cost*
High number of products/SKUs
#1 launched √ √ √ √
by Somethinc
Correlating our
Insufficient product information Recommendation to Key
#2 on Somethinc’s marketing
√ Problems√ - √
strategy

Financial Analysis
#3 Complicated & confusing product
√ √ √ √
branding
Annual Benefit*

Key Insight:
To measure probability and the strategy efficiency, operating expense ratio is used and
the strategy achieved the number 30% as number below 50% is considered optimal. This
strategy is also shown to boost salesImpact
volume by Summary
13% increase over the span of 1 year.

*Effective after 1 year Implementation)

8
Analysis – Risk and Timeline
Planning Phase
Robo Consultant: Creation Feasibility - Analysis
Action Plan

Robo: Testing Phase

Robo: Execution
Reseller Engagement
One-Pager Execution

2 4 5 7 8 10
Product Sampling Trial Time
1 3 6 9 11 12
(Month)

Critical Lin Challenges Mitigation

High

e
(Implementation Reliant) (How to Avert the Risks)

1 1 Website Capacity Robo consultant taking Proactive IT infrastructure supported

Likelihood

Overload
Medium

website bandwidth with a team

6 2 Feasibility - Risk
4 2 Resellers are tired to try
Demotivated xxx
reseller educating consumers
Low

3 3 xxx
Low Medium High xxx xxx
Impact/Sensitivity

9
CONCLUSION
Before purchasing a Somethinc serum, Anya uses 5 minute to submit her photo
Meet Anya, Free Robo and fill in the questions.

Consultation Impact: Anya receives answers on which products to buy, in this case:
Hylapore away solution.
User’sisProfile
Anya(20) a law student born in Jakarta
and have been struggling with skin-related
If Anya chooses to buy the serum via her friend (Somethinc’s official reseller),

Anya’s Journey
issues to match her skin problems created Constant her friend is able to validize her serum choice.
by busy college activity. Reseller Impact: Anya is more certain about her decision and purchases her first
Education Somethinc Serum
Anya is buying a skincare product with
her allowance money to consume on a Solution & Impact on User
daily basis
If Anya chooses to buy her serum via online store, Anya receives a package; 40
College Student, 20 Product ml serum and 5 ml Serum both associated with her skin problems.

Sampling

v
Impact: If one of the serum does not match with her skin, Anya has 2 options
to choose; sampling encourages repeat order
Anya has several skin issues, but she is very insecure about
1
Anya’s Pain Points

her pore & oil skin excretion

Anya hears about Somethinc from a TikTok influencer but is
confused on which serum to buy.
Main problems
If Anya chooses to buy her serum via online store, Anya receives a package
Product containing a flyer with table comparisons of Somethinc’s product line and
functionalities
2 Packaging:
One-Pager Impact: Anya less require the reseller or customer service to consult &
purchase more serums in the future.

Anya does not have time to research every serum in

3 Somethinc’s product line and their effects.
Anya becomes a regular customer for Somethinc & tries other
Outcome
serums due to its potent effects on her skin.
This is where our solution will work

10