Lego-like cosmetics: Shinsegae targets millennial beauty consumers with Stonebrick brand

The packaging of Stonebrick’s products is reminiscent of Lego. Like the famous toy system, it is also modular.

This allows consumers to build their own ‘make-up systems’.

With over 200 products, consumers are free to create many varieties of combinations.

According to the company, the creative potential was very important to the brand because its target demographic had distinctive tastes and personalities.

“You can use two lipsticks in one holder, or you can mix different colours to find your own colour.​

Bringing the fun into beauty

Stonebrick was designed to be fun, said Bobae Kim, public relations manager of Shinsegae.

He highlighted that unlike other cosmetic brands the company has launched, Stonebrick’s primary focus was colour

“You can see [Stonebrick] is all about colour and colour is the focus for the younger generation,” ​said Kim.

The modular concept also has a practical side to it.

The company conducted a survey and found that Korean women carry around two to six make-up items in their bags.

By allowing consumers to combine different products into one product, it can help consumers to declutter, said the company.

Store success driving future expansion

The company considers the launch of Stonebrick to be a big hit.

Even though the shop location is a ‘battleground’ ​with seven to eight other cosmetic shops nearby, Stonebrick experienced healthy store traffic.

It estimates that the store gets around 400 visits on the weekend and a thousand on the weekend.

According to the brand, a quarter of the visitors are tourists which are mostly Japanese.

“About 70% of [tourists] are Japanese visitors. Unlike other cosmetics brands, the proportion of Japanese visitors is overwhelmingly higher than that of our Chinese visitors.”​

The company added that it noticed that many social media posts of Stonebrick were uploaded by Japanese.

The brand plans to use this momentum to expand its presence in the cosmetics market domestically and abroad.

The brand’s success with tourists has prompted it to expand into the travel retail channel.

Kim said the brand has no plan to open another standalone outlet. Instead, it plans to enter multi-brand shops such as Olive & Young.

It is also looking to expand into China and the Philippines.

“We just established a new business relationship in the Philippines and we are in contact with them about Stonebrick. We hope to enter the market this year or next year​,” said Kim.