Scaling a new type of beauty brand
Fiils does personal care the right way: holding its ingredients and impact above all. And working with And Rising gave its brand – and its ethos – the step up it needed to be heard.
Growing Fiils
The beauty industry, like fashion, has its wasteful side – more products, more brands and more packaging. ‘Fiils was born more out of my frustration with consistently removing plastic single-use bottles from my beauty and personal care routine,’ says Fiils founder Anna Priadka, who, after years in the sector, launched the refillable beauty brand in 2019. Fiils sends customers aluminum containers and refill pouches of its organic beauty products – once you’ve filled up the container, send the pouches back for free to be recycled. The concept is deceptively simple but, for it to work, it requires people to really participate and get on board the brand: it’s about a community not just customers.
‘You have to be mission led as a sustainable brand. It’s not just about a quick exit in five years.’
Anna Priadka, founder of Fiils
‘The first thing we noticed was “refillable beauty”. And none of us could name a brand dominant in the space. So, immediately that made our ears prick up,’ says Adrienne Little, partner at And Rising, an early-stage venture firm that offers creative capital to clean and conscious brands in return for equity (the firm is itself B Corp certified). From online sales marketing to branding and design, And Rising helps brands find the right audience and grow as sustainably as their products. ‘There’s a real opportunity to bake marketing and brand-thinking in before day one because it solves a market fit problem by asking: how is this product going to work in people’s lives? If you do that, your brand becomes an investment – accumulating compound value as time goes on. And And Rising will stand shoulder to shoulder and grow that investment right with you.’
Working with And Rising allowed Fiils to bring on an expert creative team that could fine-tune and direct its all-important brand message. While there are other companies that have been experimenting with refillables, unlike Fiils, none have made the concept so frictionless and none have managed to educate and inspire their audience as to why this business model is so essential. ‘This is where we want to really push further: brand awareness,’ says Biliguissa Balde, Fiils’ head of marketing and growth. ‘It’s all about conversations, growing our community and actually even talking to other brands, big corporations and acting collectively – because I don’t think that we can solve the entire problem just on our own.’
Sustainability isn’t just marketing
And Rising’s philosophy requires brands like Fiils to tackle the tensions between consumption and sustainability, rather than gloss over them. Jonathan Trimble, And Rising’s CEO, explains how to build a truly sustainable brand.
Treat environmental concerns in the business model, not just at the communications level.
‘The beauty industry, like most consumer industries, has to power growth through some fake innovation.But a clean and conscious product has to buck this trend.In the case of Fiils, what happens when you refill is that you’re kind of opting out of a market that’s constantly flashing new things at you.’
Make products that upgrade your current brand. One of the biggest mistakes sustainable brands make is to assume sustainability alone is a right to win.
‘Imagine that you’ve got to compete on the grounds that you’re not sustainable. Is this product actually going to work? If you want to scale, you basically have to be better than what’s on the market, irrespective of what your eco credentials are.’
Respect that your audience has more agency in the world than buying yet another beauty product. Encourage people to cut back on consumption.
‘Find ways for the audience to participate in something that isn’t just buying. With Fiils, I have to put my empties in the post. That’s not buying – it’s actively taking part in recycling. So when Fiils falls on my doormat, it says, “Welcome to the family.”’
A toolbox for BIG growth
adrienne@andrising.com
