Kiramoon Beauty

Used existing research to find the link between a specific type of female gamers, the games they prefer and other experiential media to design social media strategy and deliverables for a skincare brand.

TL;DR

Creating a strategic marketing plan for Kiramoon, a whimsical, multisensory skincare brand.

My Role

Researcher and comic creator

My Team

Ora Watanatham, Creative Brand Manager

Helina Markos, Creative Brand Manager

Chunjie Shan, Creative Brand Manager

Vanessa Galdamez, Copywriter

Aisling Deane, Copywriter

Smera Dhal, Art Director

My Research Tools

Google Scholar, Midjourney and Notebook LM

Project Deliverables

3D models for a Kiramoon x Mario Kart partnership and a stand-alone comic book series for Webtoon.

See the full project breakdown below. ⬇️

The Problem

Kiramoon faces tough competition from brands like Glow Recipe and Drunk Elephant, which have over 1M followers and strong Sephora presences.

The Solution

Wield The Whimsy - a new campaign for Kiramoon to appeal to adult women, maintaining a sense of both maturity and fun.

The Context

In the skincare industry, retail presence is crucial for DTC brands, with top brands successfully engaging Gen Alpha consumers (Facial Skincare - US - 2024, Mintel).

My Design Tools

Adobe Creative Suite, Midjourney and SketchUp

How The Problem & The Context Affect the Brand’s Success

To stand out from competitors in social media spaces where they dominate with dedicated younger audiences, our strategy focuses on connecting Kiramoon with "joy jumpers"—a segment of adult female gamers—by infusing the fun and excitement they love in gaming into their skincare routines.

The Ask

How might we develop a comprehensive strategic marketing plan that propels the brand's growth over the next five years?

Research Findings

Our research objective was to understand the exact type of adult female gamer is and how Kiramoon can connect with them in unique ways.

1

Kiramoon’s target audience is adult women, 70% of which ranges between 18 and 34 years old. These women are interested in gaming, pop culture, cats/dogs, animals and self-care. We wanted to distinguish the specific type of female gamer who would benefit the most from Kiramoon products.

Joy jumpers are a subset of female gamers who prefer creative games that encourage community, give multisensory experiences and tell a good story. These gamers tend to appreciate nostalgia and novelty associated with games they grew up with.

The types of games joy jumpers prefer have the following characteristics:

  • Completion - To get all stars/collectibles, complete all missions

  • Fantasy - Being someone else, somewhere else

  • Design - Expression, customization

  • Community - Being on team, chatting, interacting

  • Story - Elaborate plots, interesting characters

Sources:

2

Games like Mario Kart 8 have the basic characteristics for Joy Jumper-friendly games, despite the lower amount of female players compared to other types of games such as Match 3 and Farm Sim, which center puzzles and life simulation respectively.

  • The Mario Kart 8 game has 13,350 customization options for each character - 41 different vehicle bodies, 22 sets of tires and 15 gliders.

  • Mario is responsible for the creation for one of the most iconic female characters in gaming history, Princess Peach, a playable character in Mario Kart 8.

  • Mario Kart 8 also has many different opportunities to ‘unlock’ prizes and playable character, such as Gold Mario.

Retro Raji. (2022, December 16). How to Use Custom Items in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | A Quick Tutorial [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/qxHhfJlRUts?si=qfjCUWBt-8aGqcnE

Parkin, Jeffrey. (2017, May 3). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe unlockables. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/mario-kart-8-deluxe-guide/2017/4/27/15445610/unlockables-gold-kart

3

The Mario franchise already has various brand collaborations, such as with Kung Fu Tea.

Given that the cost of licensing for the Mario franchise intellectual property can be expensive, such as costing 12% of sales made for using a character’s visage from the franchise on top of a minimum cash guarantee to the company, we also wanted to explore alternative forms of experiential media that don’t rely on brand collaborations.

Source:

Kung Fu Tea x Princess Peach: Showtime! Announcement

Important User Experience & Product Considerations

The research collected revealed issues related to both the user experience and product design for us to solve.

  1. A Mario Kart x Kiramoon brand collaboration sounds good, but what else can we establish that can live on its own without a collab?

  2. Where do users who enjoy connection go online outside of traditional social media platforms?

  3. What else can we create that brings users closer to the ethos of Kiramoon while still using frameworks that games like Mario has established such as heroes, villains, fun stories and user engagement opportunities?

Question

What can we produce for adult female gamers who are considered ‘joy jumpers’ that can easily be integrated into the spaces that they enjoy?

Our Solution

A quinquennial Kiramoon marketing plan, including Kiramoon x Mario Kart and a stand-alone Kiramoon comic pilot for Webtoon, both of which would be aired during the second half of year five.

Kiramoon x Mario Kart 8 Brand Collab

In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch, we designed a special Kiramoon cart for players to unlock while racing.

Designs completed with Smera Dhal

Kiramoon Connection with Twitch Streamers

We focused on collaborating with female gaming influencers to integrate Kiramoon into their daily skincare routines.

More Relevant Research

Approximately 38-40% of female gamers love comic books too!

Experiential Brand Interaction: World of Kira Webtoon Comic

This comic series would be entirely run by Kiramoon, without any other brand equity involved. The pilot introduces the characters and comic world for the first time. Read the story here!

The Story:

In this pilot episode, stressed career woman Nadia confronts Mister Negative, the who is embodiment of her insecurities and modeled after her troublesome coworker. Guided by Miss Kira in an alternate world, she learns to “wield the whimsy” and overcomes Mister Negative.

The episode introduces Kiramoon’s brand values and sets the stage for future issues.

Social Media Calendar, Including Comic Issue Releases:

The World of Kira pilot episode would be released on Webtoon, a platform meant for users to read anything from manga to comics, with 85.6 million active users as of March 2023.

World of Kira Characters

Explanations into designs of the comic characters.

Nadia, a stressed career woman working at an advertising agency who keeps getting her ideas stolen by her teammate.

As a stand-in for women across the world in real life, her anxiety and lack of confidence manifest as skin problems.

Mr. Negative, the physical personification of women’s insecurities. Using his shapeshifting abilities and powers of darkness, his sole mission to keep women like Nadia in perpetual cycles of self-doubt.

He serves as the main antagonist of the story.

Miss Kira, the physical personification of the Kiramoon brand, ruler of Kiramoon and an ally to women everywhere!

She is Mr. Negative’s cheerful nemesis and helps women wield the whimsy.

World of Kira: Miss Kira and Art Direction

Showing how the logic behind the stylistic choices made to create the Kiramoon comic, specifically Miss Kira.

Miss Kira is a hero and ally to the main character in the World of Kira comic, inspired by the anthropomorphic heart featured on Kiramoon’s merchandise.

For the comic, her design was expanded to include a human form, adding a Wonder Woman/Diana Prince-like vibe to her character.

The Kiramoon Self-Love Club Tote Bag ($25)

The visual style for the World of Kira comic book series is a 1950s pop art style which takes clear cues from existing comics, particularly those with iconic female characters such as Wonder Woman and Star Sapphire.

Green Lantern (1960-) #16

World of Kira: Product Integration with Kiramoon and Brand Extension

Showing how the Kiramoon comic connects to users to the brand’s real-life products in and out of the comic.

Miss Kira tossing a Kiramoon Moon Globe Ice Roller to wield the whimsy and banish Mr. Negative.

Miss Kira on the Kiramoon website acting as a guide.

Why This Works

The Kiramoon x Mario Kart collaboration engages female users by leveraging a well-known game they’re likely familiar with, given Mario Kart's long-standing popularity.

Through World of Kira and its unique comic universe, Kiramoon controls the storytelling, enhances online user engagement, and effectively manages product placement. This would also work since approximately 38-40% of female gamers are also comic book enthusiasts. Additionally, using Webtoon as a medium for comic issue releases also eliminates a cost barrier to users, as there are options for readers to connect with their favorite stories for free.

Project Reflection

I am pleased with the quality of secondary research and visual design that I did for this project. Delving into the comic world has always been a passion of mine and being able to connect that passion to such an unlikely place as skincare brand was worth all the work that went into it, from research to concept development.

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