Nektor Sunscreen
Nektor Sunscreen is an all-natural and sustainable suncare product line with its roots in surfing and beach lifestyle. Founded in 2016 to fill the space and lack of natural suncare products on the market.
My Role
Co-Founder
Marketing & Branding
Graphic, Web, Visual Designer
User Research
User Testing
Product Development
Timeline
2016-2019
Problem
Any surfer, outdoorsy person, or water sports enthusiast knows how brutal the sun can be. When spending countless hours in the ocean and at the beach, sunscreen is considered essential. The problem is most sunscreens are chemical based and are actually harmful to us humans, the fragile reef systems, and other ocean environments.
When looking at all of the products on the market, we knew there had to be a better way, a product that could be made with all-natural ingredients, be sustainable and actually work for the long hours in the ocean and elements. The goal with Nektor was to create just that.
Process
Before we could launch our product or create the brand image, we had to hone in on our target market and user base. Our user base was quite broad, ranging in age from 5-75, surfers, watermen and women, the beachgoers, active lifestyle, and outdoorsy people. Early on, we involved consumers, friends, and associates in the product development process.
The process looked like this:
Ideation to create a better product in the market place
Perform comprehensive competitor evaluation
Research and development of formulations for products
User interviews, user testing, and user research
Rinse and repeat the former two bullet points until we found product formulations that worked and our user base was satisfied
Finalize product formulations and develop product packaging
Develop brand image and style, design and build e-commerce platform and growth strategies
Launch brand and fail and win and learn as we grow
Challenges
Launching a new Brand and Product
Starting a new company is not easy. It takes a lot of money, time, effort, and failures to get a product off the ground. The unique scenario for us was to create both a great physical and digital (e-commerce website) product.
User and Market research
One of the biggest challenges for us was the countless hours, days, weeks, and months of research before we could finalize our product. We tested our product on hundreds of people and even before we launched our website we went through multiple rounds of user interviews.
Brand Image and Social Media / Online Presence
Creating a great brand image takes work and consistency. Consistency in logo, imagery, packaging, messaging and etc. We knew we had to have a loyal social media following for us to succeed.
Competitor Evaluation
After our original ideation of the product, brand, and name, we knew we had to get to work figuring out who our competitors were and how could differentiate ourselves in the market. We had two main competitors in our space of surf and lifestyle brands.
Raw Elements
Raw Elements was the first in the industry as an all-natural suncare line using only zinc oxide as their sunscreen and UVA/UVB protection.
Strengths
First in the surf lifestyle space as an all-natural sun care line
Pretty solid online and in-store presence and growing
Weaknesses
Most of the users we talked to did not like the greasy texture and feel of the product
Unattractive branding and packaging (at that time/mid-2016)
SunBum
SunBum is the biggest player in this space, but their products are chemical-based. They did however launch a “natural” line a few years down the road.
Strengths
Large Company with Tens of Millions in Revenue
Top-level athletes and brand ambassadors
Great branding and marketing
Huge Social media and online presence
Weaknesses
Lack of natural sun care products (at the time)
Non Sustainable products
Paying a lot of money to Athletes and ambassadors to promote the brand
User Research & Testing
The first step to creating any good or great product is to know your audience and target consumer and user base. With that in mind, we started our main stretch of user research and testing in July 2016 and finished in November 2016. The user testing and interviews lasted the entire 3-year span of the company.
User Research
The main goal was to make sure that there was a need for our product and that people would buy and use our product. I looked at Qualitative and Quantitative data to see if there was a need for a product like this in the market place. Analyzing other companies gave me great insight on how to proceed forward with our solutions to the problem at hand.
User Interviews
I conducted over 50 user interviews to understand our users’ needs, wants, concerns, and frustrations with the current products on the market.
User Testing
With my user research and the first round of interviews done, it was time to test out our product with our users. The user testing phase lasted for 4 months and went through 6 different iterations of the formulas of our product before our users were satisfied. User interviews and testing were also done for our brand image, digital website, and social media platforms. I continued to repeat this process during my time with our company to ensure user satisfaction.
Site map and user flow
The main focus for our online platform was to have an easy to use and simple website. We really focused on an MVP and the main jobs to be done;
Customer/user add products to cart and checkout
Learn more about us
Contact us for any questions, comments, concerns in regards to orders, our products, etc.
View our stockist’s locations to find our products near them.
