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For: Founders of beauty brands and brand managers who want to enter the saturated skincare category without disappearing among hundreds of similar bottles.
Between Pharmacy and Mass Market: How We Found a Niche for a New Cosmetics Brand
A new brand for an oversaturated category. Over ten competitors analysed, five name options proposed, several logo iterations explored. The result: a name with three layers of meaning and a mark that no Russian skincare brand has.
Project Fact Sheet
Aspects
Business Type: facial skincare, mass market
Scale: new brand, developed from scratch
Scale: new brand, developed from scratch
Challenge
To create a skincare brand for entry into an oversaturated marketplace category — find a position, invent a name, develop a mark.
Result
Name: Aspects, with the subscript 'skincare & aesthetics', final logo featuring the 'æ' ligature.
Timeline: 60 days
Timeline: 60 days
Key highlight
Logo with the 'æ' mark — a Danish-Norwegian ligature that no Russian skincare brand uses.
In the skincare category on marketplaces, there are over a thousand SKUs. Most brands do one of two things: they go for pharmacy minimalism with an emphasis on formulas, or they choose pastel tones and blurred slogans about 'self-care'. Both paths lead into a wall.
In this case study, we explain how we at SICHKAR GROUP searched for an unoccupied position between the two extremes, found a name that works on three levels simultaneously, and developed a logo mark from a single symbol that had never been seen in Russian cosmetics before.
Useful for those launching a new brand in a competitive category and wondering where to start.
In this case study, we explain how we at SICHKAR GROUP searched for an unoccupied position between the two extremes, found a name that works on three levels simultaneously, and developed a logo mark from a single symbol that had never been seen in Russian cosmetics before.
Useful for those launching a new brand in a competitive category and wondering where to start.
Have a similar challenge?
Contact us In the skincare category on marketplaces, there are over a thousand SKUs. Most brands do one of two things: they go for pharmacy minimalism with an emphasis on formulas, or they choose pastel tones and blurred slogans about 'self-care'. Both paths lead into a wall.
In this case study, we explain how we at SICHKAR GROUP searched for an unoccupied position between the two extremes, found a name that works on three levels simultaneously, and developed a logo mark from a single symbol that had never been seen in Russian cosmetics before.
Useful for those launching a new brand in a competitive category and wondering where to start.
In this case study, we explain how we at SICHKAR GROUP searched for an unoccupied position between the two extremes, found a name that works on three levels simultaneously, and developed a logo mark from a single symbol that had never been seen in Russian cosmetics before.
Useful for those launching a new brand in a competitive category and wondering where to start.
Have a similar challenge?
Contact us
The Challenge: Entering a Crowded Space
Aspects was created from scratch for marketplace sales. The client understood that the skincare category is oversaturated. But they also understood that without clear positioning, any launch is just money spent on promotion without a foundation.
The team’s task was not simply to 'come up with a name and draw a logo'. First, find a place in the category where the brand could stand without getting lost. Formulate how the brand differs from similar ones. Only then give it a name and visual identity.
The team’s task was not simply to 'come up with a name and draw a logo'. First, find a place in the category where the brand could stand without getting lost. Formulate how the brand differs from similar ones. Only then give it a name and visual identity.
Analysis: Category Map and the Unoccupied Position
We started with competitor analysis. We studied over ten Russian and international skincare brands — from pharmacy to niche. For each, we assigned scores across nine factors — from 'pharmacy-like' to 'sensual', from 'eco-friendly' to 'ingredient expertise'.
The picture came together quickly. The market divides into two camps.
The first — pharmacy-like. Minimalism, formulas on packaging, 'dermatologist approved'. It works, but evokes no emotion. Bought like medicine, not a ritual.
The second — sensual mass market. Pastel tones, beautiful models, slogans about 'self-care'. Looks cheap. Does not inspire trust in those who understand ingredients.
The first — pharmacy-like. Minimalism, formulas on packaging, 'dermatologist approved'. It works, but evokes no emotion. Bought like medicine, not a ritual.
The second — sensual mass market. Pastel tones, beautiful models, slogans about 'self-care'. Looks cheap. Does not inspire trust in those who understand ingredients.
Between them — an empty space. A brand that understands product chemistry but speaks to the customer not through a medical chart but through sensations. Not a pharmacy, not a glossy magazine. That is where we positioned ourselves.
From the reference analysis, another conclusion emerged: in the skincare category, customers recognise a brand not by the bottle colour or shape. Recognition is built on a distinctive mark. Most Russian brands don’t have one — just a font. This became the starting point for the logo work.
From the reference analysis, another conclusion emerged: in the skincare category, customers recognise a brand not by the bottle colour or shape. Recognition is built on a distinctive mark. Most Russian brands don’t have one — just a font. This became the starting point for the logo work.
Positioning: Five Brand Coordinates
From the analysis, the platform came together. Aspects is skincare for women who know what they put on their skin. Without empty promises, without eco-manipulation, without pharmacy seriousness.
What the brand fundamentally does not do: does not play on the pharmacy field, does not use eco-claims without basis, does not engage with Korean cosmetics — not because it’s bad, but because that position is already taken.
What the brand fundamentally does not do: does not play on the pharmacy field, does not use eco-claims without basis, does not engage with Korean cosmetics — not because it’s bad, but because that position is already taken.
Positioning: Five Brand Coordinates
From the analysis, the platform came together. Aspects is skincare for women who know what they put on their skin. Without empty promises, without eco-manipulation, without pharmacy seriousness.
What the brand fundamentally does not do: does not play on the pharmacy field, does not use eco-claims without basis, does not engage with Korean cosmetics — not because it’s bad, but because that position is already taken.
What the brand fundamentally does not do: does not play on the pharmacy field, does not use eco-claims without basis, does not engage with Korean cosmetics — not because it’s bad, but because that position is already taken.
Naming: Five Options and Three Meanings
Five name options were prepared according to the brief. Selection criteria: international sound, connection to beauty or skincare, registrability as a trademark, easy pronunciation in Russian.
The client chose Aspects.
Why does this name work better than the others? It works on three levels simultaneously.
First: appearance, facial features. What skincare works with.
Second: point of view, a particular perspective. The brand offers its own view of beauty — not through fashion, not through body positivity, not through pharmacy clichés. It allows the brand to say to the customer: 'you deserve care simply because, regardless of achievements'.
Third: minute details, nuances. Attention to ingredients, to texture, to what most people don’t notice.
Three meanings, one word. Such a name needs no explanation — it explains itself at every level of communication.
The client chose Aspects.
Why does this name work better than the others? It works on three levels simultaneously.
First: appearance, facial features. What skincare works with.
Second: point of view, a particular perspective. The brand offers its own view of beauty — not through fashion, not through body positivity, not through pharmacy clichés. It allows the brand to say to the customer: 'you deserve care simply because, regardless of achievements'.
Third: minute details, nuances. Attention to ingredients, to texture, to what most people don’t notice.
Three meanings, one word. Such a name needs no explanation — it explains itself at every level of communication.
A separate discovery — the fragrance names within the lines. The team proposed drawing inspiration from musical compositions. The result: 'Smells like cookies', 'Vanilla storm', 'See you in Florence'. These are not just product names — they are little stories that customers remember faster than ingredient lists.
Logo: From Iterations to the Mark
The logo in this category carries a double burden. It must be readable on a 30ml bottle and simultaneously memorable in a marketplace listing among two hundred other products.
The final solution came through typography. Lowercase 'aspects' plus the 'æ' mark above the first syllable. 'Æ' is a Danish-Norwegian ligature — the joining of two letters into a single symbol. No Russian skincare brand uses it.
The final solution came through typography. Lowercase 'aspects' plus the 'æ' mark above the first syllable. 'Æ' is a Danish-Norwegian ligature — the joining of two letters into a single symbol. No Russian skincare brand uses it.
The mark works on two levels.
Visually: a unique element that makes the logo recognisable even at small sizes.
Conceptually: a ligature as a connection — a metaphor for the brand itself, where minimalism meets expertise, and simplicity meets attention to detail.
Visually: a unique element that makes the logo recognisable even at small sizes.
Conceptually: a ligature as a connection — a metaphor for the brand itself, where minimalism meets expertise, and simplicity meets attention to detail.
Result
The Aspects brand received a ready-made platform for marketplace entry: approved name, subscript, logo, and colour system. The naming with triple meaning provides communication flexibility — the brand can talk about ingredient details, about beauty as a point of view, about care as a ritual — and remain itself in each of these conversations.
Want to build a similar system for a new brand?
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Q&A
In this project, from brief to approved name took about three weeks, including competitor analysis and several iterations. If positioning is already established, the cycle is shorter.
The choice is made not on 'like/dislike' but on criteria: how well the name fits the positioning, how it reads on a marketplace, whether it can be registered as a trademark. A name without a position is just a word.
A name without a position is just a word. In a saturated category, a good name is one that occupies a specific place in the customer’s mind. If you don’t know where competitors are standing, you cannot understand where your place is. That is why, in the Aspects case study, analysis came first.
Project Team:
- AspectsClient
- Ekaterina SichkarFounder of the creative agency SICHKAR GROUP
- Valeria KuzmaCEO
- Viktoria LymarHead of Branding & Design
- Vladislav SkorobogatovSenior Designer
- Anna StefkinaSenior Designer
- Anastasia ProkuratovaDesigner
- Ekaterina FilippovaDesigner
- Ivan VlasovDesigner
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