As Three Ships Unveils A Refresh, Its Founders Divulge Three Important Steps They Took To Make It Successful

As clinical nudges out clean in the pantheon of beauty product attributes shoppers hunt for, Three Ships is leaning into its natural positioning as part of a brand refinement that aims to distinguish it from competitors and at retail.

The skincare brand’s natural standard requires having all of its ingredients derived from plants or minerals and avoiding a restricted ingredient list with over 1,900 ingredients. Pushing for Canada, where it’s based in Toronto, and the United States to outline a legal definition of natural, it has B Corp and Environmental Working Group certifications to adhere to standards besides its internal standard.

Three Ships co-founder Connie Lo says the brand is “making natural mean something” and “working to turn our high standards into the industry standard.”

Three Ships’ refinement also includes new rectangular secondary packaging with brighter colors. Previously, it discovered its predominantly white secondary packaging was getting lost on shelves, its cylindrical boxes made it hard to fit in information, and they were difficult for stores to stack in storage. The brand moved to organize its color families by skin concern versus product type as it had in the past to enable its customers to find the best routine for their skin type.

Three Ships has rebranded before. It was founded as Niu Body and became Three Ships in 2020 due in part to a trademark issue and the shifting demographics of its customers, who gravitated to a maturer look. Since they have extensive experience with brand revisions, we asked Lo and her Three Ships co-founder Laura Thompson for advice on how brands should approach a  refresh or rebuild. 

“We understand that this is a big undertaking for a lot of companies,” says Thompson. “You worry that you’re going to lose your current audience, they’re not going to recognize you on shelf, you’re going to add complexity into retailers and they’re going to resent you for that or not want to go along for the rides, and it’s obviously very expensive, but I will say that, if you take a really measured approach and you make sure that you’re solving a real need within the business, it can be a great jumping off point for the brand and be a really positive thing in the long term.”

Invest in a good partner

Three Ships tapped Front Row Group for its latest refinement. Lo and Thompson chose the e-commerce and marketing agency because of its roster of beauty clients like Glow Recipe and Versed and because they appreciated it wasn’t afraid to push back. Lo says, “It was really great to have someone that was willing to stand up for what they believed using data to inform their decisions.” 

Thompson notes that an external agency can evaluate a business with a fresh set of eyes. While she and Lo consider Niu Body’s transformation to Three Ships successful, they think they could have been more selective with their partner for it. “We corrected it this time, which was picking an agency that had experience within the industry, specifically because skincare is so different than many other consumer categories,” says Thompson. “You really want someone that understands the space.”

Lo and Thompson underscore the importance of not skimping during the rebranding process. They initially tried to do it themselves, making small changes here and there, but ultimately concluded they had to enact larger changes and increase their spending on them. Three Ships raised $2.5 million in funding in May, a portion of which went toward the refurbishment. The brand didn’t disclose the exact amount.

Lo says, “Something that we’ve learned as founders is there are some areas that you can do yourself more scrappily, but, in our opinion, this kind of undertaking is something that is worth investing in.”

think long term about the Positioning focus 

Front Row Group laid out different positioning possibilities, including a focus on the hero ingredient or formula, hero use case, unique format, key benefit, compelling claim, founder story and brand mission or fight, and advised Three Ships to pick at least one. Lo and Thompson pondered the positioning possibilities that made sense for their brand and elected to fight for natural products. Once they settled on that, Three Ships’ copy and visual identity fell into place.

Lo and Thompson suggest brands elect for positioning that they judge will be relevant years ahead. “Think long-term about how you want the brand to look,” says Thompson. “Not just this year, but what’s really going to resonate with you and your audience in five to 10 years. What’s going to endure over time?”

Communicate about the changes clearly 

Three Ships teased its refresh in social media posts and gradually transitioned its feed to feature its new packaging. Additionally, Thompson hosted an hour-long live session on social media to delve into what the brand had done a few days before it was revealed publicly. About 1,500 people tuned in.

Thompson says, “This is something that was really important to make them feel like they were coming along this journey with us and that they knew first before anyone else did…Not only did we use it as a sales boost, but also it really strengthened our commitment with our customers and our relationship with them and helped them to understand why we made these changes instead of them coming up with those stories on their own.”

Retail partners and investors were filled in as well. Three Ships is carried in nearly 1,000 doors at retailers such as Whole Foods, Credo, Indigo, The Bay, Holt Renfrew, The Detox Market and Beauty Heroes. Among its investors are Thrive Venture Fund, Martin McCourt, former CEO of Dyson, Tara Bosch, founder of SmartSweets, and Arati Sharma, founder of Backbone Angels.

Front Row Group held calls with stakeholders to get their takes on the refresh as it was being hashed out. “We want to ensure that our buyers and our key partners felt included, but also not only included in knowing the steps along the way, but actually getting their feedback as part of this whole process,” says Lo. “I thought that was so special, too, because the buyers need to be invested in the vision you have.”

Tailoring communication to individual stakeholders was critical. Three Ships has 16 full-time employees and kept them up to date on the revisions with recurring meetings. The brand tracked what every employee was handling and when they were handling it with the software Asana.

Three Ships kept buyers in the loop with email updates and provided timelines on when they should anticipate execution of the refresh. The brand checked in with investors about why it was a worthy investment.

Lo says, “It doesn’t matter if you have the best research and the brand looks beautiful, if they don’t feel like they’re included along the way, I think that’s a huge miss.”