Need to Know
15 : 02 : 23

UK – Thix is a new haircare brand hoping to shake up the haircare market with its optimistic approach to hair loss. Although 80% of men and 50% of women will experience hair loss, according to Thix, for common reasons such as genetics, stress and illness, hair loss products and supplements tend to be marketed with little approachability.

The brand – a combination of ‘thick’ and ‘fix’ – promises science not miracles. Its shampoo, conditioner and styling paste are made with naturally formulated ingredients that slow loss and keep hair strong and healthy.

Thix’s branding by Otherway is in a bold, all-caps design, inspired by retro health and beauty packaging. It uses a green and white colour palette in a nod to the eucalyptus and mint scent in each of its products, all of which come in easily recyclable aluminium bottles and jars.

The market for hair loss products and supplements is worth an estimated £21.5bn ($23.6bn €24.4bn) globally (source: The Insight Partners). Increasingly, consumers are receptive to brands that take a bold stance on health and wellbeing taboos – favouring products that are pragmatic, but still enjoyable to use.

France – Luxury fashion house Chloé is rolling out a new circularity programme, laying the foundations for better traceability and easier resale powered by digital ID tags.

Announced in October 2022, Chloé is putting its new Chloé Vertical circularity programme to work with the spring/summer 2023 collection. Products are paired with scannable digital IDs, providing customers with information about the manufacturing process, product care tips, repair recommendations and a certificate of authenticity.

What makes Chloé Vertical stand out from other circularity programmes is the Instant Resale feature, an industry-first, according to the brand. Enabled by a partnership with resale platform Vestiaire Collective, it lets Chloé customers scan and instantly sell items thanks to unique ownership numbers – skipping the usual authentication process. Starting with a year-long pilot in the US, the UK and Europe, Chloé plans to embed the digital IDs into all products by 2025.

Authentication is a major pain point for luxury resale – incurring a delay and additional costs. Implementing safe and convenient instant purchase for preloved pieces has the potential to take the booming resale market to the next level.

UK – Britons spent over 27 hours per month watching TikTok on average in 2022, according to a new report published by We Are Social and Meltwater. Compared to YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, which have all seen the time spent by their users decrease year on year, TikTok’s usage has remained steady. The China-born business was also the UK’s most-downloaded mobile app in 2022.

The report highlights how users’ primary reasons for adopting social media are changing, with filling spare time (37%) now the second reason behind keeping in touch with friends and family (53%), followed by reading news stories (27%).

TikTok’s ability to entertain and retain an audience for 27 hours per month on average shows that entertainment should be at the top of the list of any content and ad strategy. Official figures from the company even revealed that on-platform ads now reach more than a billion users over the age of 18 globally.

Anti-provocation Platforms which put users’ cravings for genuine entertainment and authenticity first will keep challenging traditional social media spaces, especially those initially created to connect people. ‘Brands need to make sure they understand the behaviours of online communities – wherever they are gathered – so that they can speak to them in a relevant and effective way,’ said Jim Coleman, We Are Social’s UK CEO, in a statement.