Brand I'm Watching: Deciem's The Ordinary
Photo by Valeriia Miller from Pexels
About The Ordinary
As the pandemic has left many stuck at home and stressed, people are turning to self-care and doing what they can to ensure their wellness on a holistic level – which includes revisiting their skincare routine. I have spent more time than I care to admit watching many, many skincare YouTube videos in search of products to help me combat stressed-out skin and #maskne. One brand that I kept seeing again and again is The Ordinary.
While the brand is relatively new to me, it is a well-established cult favorite amongst skincare junkies. It’s known for offering a 1-2 punch of well-studied, basic skincare ingredients and a ridiculously low price point.
The visionary yet controversial founder Brandon Truaxe created Deciem, The Ordinary’s parent company, in 2013. Truaxe envisioned Deciem as an umbrella company for 10 beauty brands that would reimagine different personal care categories (including skincare, body care, and haircare) for various customer segments. Establishing Deciem’s most popular brand The Ordinary in 2016, Truaxe sought to disrupt a skincare industry that had historically built success on promising “perfecting” or “magical” or “age-defying” products at extremely high price points. The formulas underlying these expensive products, Truaxe noticed, were often very inexpensive to produce. According to Truaxe, “What I’m about is honesty, integrity and transparency. If you want to spend £500 on a great skin cream, fine. But the point is, there’s no need. If you’re selling someone a beautiful dream, tell them it’s a dream. Don’t turn something that’s entirely functional into a dream.” Truaxe was ousted as CEO in 2018 as he battled personal struggles and then tragically passed away in January of 2019. Co-CEO Nicola Kilner carries on his vision and legacy.
What I’m about is honesty, integrity and transparency. If you want to spend £500 on a great skin cream, fine. But the point is, there’s no need.
- Brandon Truaxe, Founder of DECIEM
A Brand for “Skintellectuals”
The Ordinary’s offering was uniquely created to target a growing segment of skintellectuals: self-educated consumers, who are probably beauty’s most knowledgeable and judicious shoppers yet. Thanks to the internet, consumers are more empowered than ever to discover and educate themselves about beauty products and ingredients. This has led to evolving demands around transparency and fair pricing. These shoppers are looking for affordable yet effective products, and they prefer messaging that is more ingredient-forward and science-backed. The Ordinary was one of the first to acknowledge and serve this consumer and is largely responsible for cultivating the growth of this segment.
Reddit user comments about The Ordinary, Reddit
We can expect the young skintellectual consumer base to continue to grow, especially when observing the rise of Gen Z “skinfluencers” on TikTok and other social media platforms. One such skinfluencer is Hyram Yarbro of Skincare by Hyram. He gained 5 million TikTok followers in just 5 months, and currently boasts 3.5 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. “My purpose and intent was just to educate about the basics of skin care and to help customers navigate shopping for skin care a little better since there is a lot of misinformation and industry-led ignorance, in order to have customers buy as much skin care as possible,” says Yarbro.
Hyram Yarbro of SkincareByHyram, Youtube
Truaxe understood the cost advantage of serving the skintellectual user base. In one interview he says: “Serving uneducated consumers is very expensive: it requires a tremendous amount of marketing spend which will then have to go back into product pricing. We target the more educated audience who then will indirectly communicate their love of what we do with others, in effect encouraging more education at large.”
And it’s true – if 1 year ago I had seen the Ordinary’s 10% Niacinamide + Zinc 1% on the shelf at Sephora, I would have no earthly clue what it does or why I would need it. But thanks to my rabbit-hole Google searches and endless YouTube viewing, I can fully appreciate how important Niacinamide is as an ingredient. It’s particularly excellent in controlling oil production and reducing congestion in oily or combination skin. At just a $6 price point, there’s virtually no risk in purchasing the product. As an educated consumer, I respect and appreciate the no-frills approach.
What Makes The Ordinary Stand Out?
The Ordinary doesn’t attempt to make lofty promises when presenting its products to consumers. Instead it chooses to simply state the active ingredient available in the formula and its concentration. On the website, which is totally void of color or flashy branding, The Ordinary provides educational content regarding benefits that different active ingredients have been scientifically proven to provide.
Let’s look at an example comparing The Ordinary with another popular brand, Drunk Elephant. Unlike The Ordinary, Drunk Elephant provides products with cutesy names, colorful packaging and playful marketing, at higher price points.
Retinol 1% in Squalane $6.70 USD, The Ordinary
A-Passioni Retinol Cream $74.00 USD, Drunk Elephant
Below, note the difference in language used to describe The Ordinary’s $7 1% Retinol product “Retinol 1% in Squalane” versus Drunk Elephant’s $74 1% Retinol product “A- Passioni Retinol Cream”. Drunk Elephant promises that its product will “reveal vibrant, younger looking skin”, and “restore bounce, resilience and brighter clarity”. In contrast, The Ordinary informs the consumer that, yes, Retinol does reduce signs of aging such as fine lines, but it can be an irritating ingredient for the skin and goes as far as to recommend formulations that are less sensitizing.
Retinol 1% in Squalane Product Description, The Ordinary
A-Passioni Retinol Cream Product Description, Drunk Elephant
To be clear, I’m not saying that Drunk Elephant’s approach isn’t effective – it’s a wildly popular brand and is often sold out. But The Ordinary’s straightforward style resonates well with the educated consumer who is looking for function over fashion.
Will The Ordinary Continue to Win?
Of course, where there is money to be made, there is also an invitation for increased competition. When The Ordinary was launched, it was the pioneer in serving skintellectuals. But several other brands have been popping up over the years - the Inkey list, PSA Skincare, Good Molecules just to name a few – that tout a very similar ingredient-led product lines at affordable prices. What will it take for The Ordinary to continue to win in this space?
The Ordinary’s Competitive Moats, Julia Rodenas
The answer: innovation, innovation, innovation. The Ordinary has to double down on creating innovative formulas that leverage science-backed ingredients. The Ordinary should capitalize on a few key assets and opportunities that will help them sustain a competitive advantage over new kids on the block:
Brand Power: Over the years, The Ordinary has built-up its street cred amongst skincare enthusiasts through Instagram and an excellent customer service experience. This trust is extremely valuable and very hard to earn, particularly with the scrutinizing skintellectual segment. As long as The Ordinary maintains its high-quality and affordability standards, their loyal followers will continue to recommend its products to their friends.
Vertical Integration: Deciem owns and runs its own labs, manufacturing, e-commerce sites, retail stores and marketing infrastructure, which allows it to be nimble and responsive. The Ordinary can quickly act on the latest scientific breakthroughs in skincare.
Cross-Brand Value Translation: Deciem’s super-sciencey brand NIOD offers products with more expensive, cutting-edge but lesser known ingredients. However, as technology evolves and such ingredients become more mainstream, Deciem can leverage NIOD’s learnings to produce such formulations at affordable prices under The Ordinary brand.
Ultimately, The Ordinary allows a larger audience to have proven skincare technologies at their disposal regardless of their income or status. That’s a mission I can get on board with, and why The Ordinary is a brand to watch.
The views in this article are purely my own. In no way is this article related to, informed by or endorsed by my employer.