Luxury hair and scalp care brand Monpure is celebrating five years since it was first established by founder and chief executive Nate Bigger.
While Bigger has experience at Pentland Brands, Zalando, and THG under his belt, he was ultimately inspired to create Monpure thanks to growing up with a model mother in the 1990’s.
He recalls how badly hair was treated backstage, as chemicals, extensions and glue were plastered on and removed carelessly.
As he got older and started working in beauty and fashion, he noticed that not much had changed in the hair and scalp care market as there was a focus on “quick fixes.”
Talking to Retail Week, Bigger discusses plans for potential stores, introducing a loyalty scheme, and putting innovation and quality ingredients at the heart of the brand.
How do you market a luxury brand that focuses on scalp and hair care?
“We launched during the pandemic in May 2020 and no retail stores would take us up. But how do you grow a brand with no education and support from a retail launch? We applied to as many awards as we could because the assumption was that a lot of brands in this tumultuous time wouldn’t do the same thing. We’re now at 65 plus awards in a few years, and we’re really proud of those.
“We also tried to break the taboo subject behind female hair loss with a campaign called ‘it’s not just hair’. We were genuine and authentic about it, telling the stories of five different women with different hair loss problems such as stress induced alopecia, menopausal, ageing or postpartum. Social media was huge, we had celebrities commenting on [the campaign] and sending us messages.
“Gaining awareness organically on social media is very hard, but if you want to get a feel for the brand, you go on social media. We would do paid ads through paid social and search, but we mainly use it as a first glance into the brand on Instagram, for example. On TikTok, we use a little bit more education and expert-led content as our product needs that education. We have a collection of scientists, trichologists, hair stylists and chemists on board to lean into that education.”
“We don’t opt for the cheap solution, we opt for what actually makes sense”
How innovative are your products and your ingredients?
“We experiment rigorously and test with active ingredients in hair care, and our best selling product is our follicle boost hair density serum. It’s all about hair growth and we see great results. It’s globally our best seller, and we’re one of the first brands to experiment with retinol against hair loss so we’re quite innovative.
“We don’t opt for the cheap solution, we opt for what actually makes sense. And yes, the challenge with that is that our price point is a little bit higher than other brands, but ultimately it’s about the best solution to target a certain problem.”
Over 50% of your customers are repeat ones. What has the feedback been like from customers?
“It’s funny because we haven’t got any subscription models, so they just keep coming back. Our best customers spend about £4,000 a year with us, which is a huge number, but they see results, and know we’re really genuine about maximising scalp and hair health. We’re not behaving like a typical ecommerce brand where it’s all about promotion—that’s not who we are.
“We of course have some beautiful accessories, and sometimes we offer them as a gift, but it’s not about the constant discounts. It’s about products doing something good for you. The feedback has been incredible. I love to hear customers have their confidence back as this isn’t taken seriously all the time.”
Have you considered opening any standalone stores?
“We work with Selfridges, and are doing really well in UK retail. Actually, we’re doing well globally, and in China we’re the fastest-growing hair care brand at the top luxury mall called SKP in Beijing. You can experience the brand across quite unusual channels, but we work only with the top luxury hotels and resorts in places like the Maldives for scalp, hair, and rejuvenation treatment.
“We do have a concept for our own retail and experience store. We have not launched it yet, but we’re definitely thinking about that.”
What’s next for Monpure?
“Without saying too much, we will keep building on developing long-term solutions for scalp and hair health preventative and maintenance treatment, and we’ll be emphasizing that instead of quick fixes.
“We’ve not had the chance to optimise everything on ecommerce, but one part is the loyalty scheme. Right now, we’re doing all of this without a loyalty scheme so we really want to support our customers in their hair health journey. There will be a lot of work in that direction of the loyalty scheme and making sure customers really enjoy the process.”
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