In a skincare market filled with colourful packaging, celebrity endorsements, influencer campaigns, and promises of “natural” beauty, one Indian brand chose to do something very different.
It made skincare feel almost… clinical.
Simple packaging.
Straightforward communication.
Ingredient-focused products.
No unnecessary promises.
That brand was Minimalist.
Founded in Jaipur in 2020 by brothers Mohit and Rahul Yadav, Minimalist entered one of India’s most competitive consumer categories with a simple proposition: transparency in beauty.
And the results were remarkable.
According to Inc42, the company reached approximately ₹100 crore in revenue within eight months of inception. By FY23, its operating revenue had grown to approximately ₹184 crore. (Inc42 Media)
So, what made Minimalist different?
The answer wasn’t simply performance marketing.
It was the combination of strong positioning, consistent branding, customer education, and data-driven marketing.
1. Minimalist Didn’t Try to Look Like Everyone Else
Skincare is an extremely crowded category.
Many brands compete through:
- Celebrity endorsements
- Influencer marketing
- Attractive packaging
- Discounts
- “Natural” or “chemical-free” claims
- Aspirational beauty messaging
Minimalist took a different route.
Instead of making skincare complicated, it focused on ingredients and transparency.
The brand clearly communicated what went into its products and, importantly, the percentage of key ingredients.
This created a very specific identity.
Minimalist wasn’t trying to be the loudest skincare brand.
It was trying to be the most transparent one.
That is branding.
Because branding isn’t simply about choosing a colour palette.
It’s about deciding:
“What should people immediately associate with us?”
For Minimalist, that association became transparency, active ingredients, simplicity, and informed skincare choices.
2. The Brand Educated Before It Sold
One of Minimalist’s biggest challenges was also an opportunity.
Consumers often hear terms like:
“Chemical-free”
“Natural”
“Active ingredients”
“Clean beauty”
But many don’t know what these terms actually mean.
Minimalist used its digital presence to educate consumers about ingredients and skincare rather than simply pushing products.
Its founders have spoken about the importance of educating consumers, particularly around the misconception that “chemical” automatically means harmful. (YourStory.com)
This is an important marketing lesson.
Content doesn’t always have to say:
“Buy our product.”
Sometimes it should say:
“Here’s something you should know.”
When a brand consistently helps its audience make better decisions, it can build credibility before asking for a purchase.
And credibility becomes particularly valuable in categories like skincare, where consumers are putting products directly on their skin.
3. Social Media Became More Than an Advertising Channel
Minimalist also used social media to build awareness and communicate its identity.
Instead of treating social media only as a place to promote products, the brand used it as a platform for education and community-building. YourStory reported that social media played an important role in spreading Minimalist’s brand identity and creating awareness. (YourStory.com)
This created an important funnel:
Education→Awareness→Trust→Consideration→Purchase
And that’s where branding and performance marketing begin to overlap.
A person might first discover the brand through an educational post.
Later, they might see a product advertisement.
Then they might search for the product on Google.
They may read reviews, visit the website, compare ingredients, and eventually purchase.
The final conversion might be attributed to an advertisement.
But the decision was influenced by everything that happened before the click.
That’s why looking only at the last-click conversion can sometimes hide the real value of branding.
4. Performance Marketing Helped Turn Demand Into Scale
Performance marketing became an important part of Minimalist’s growth engine.
The advantage of performance marketing is that it allows brands to measure and optimise customer acquisition.
Instead of simply asking:
“Did people like our campaign?”
marketers can ask:
- How many people clicked?
- How many purchased?
- What was the customer acquisition cost?
- Which products converted best?
- Which audiences performed better?
- Which creatives generated stronger results?
- How much revenue came from the campaign?
Minimalist’s founder has discussed how the company’s marketing mix evolved over time. Initially, performance marketing represented a larger part of its marketing approach, while later the company increased its focus on brand-building. (Inc42 Media)
This shift is particularly interesting.
It demonstrates that performance marketing and branding aren’t competitors.
They can play different roles at different stages of a company’s growth.
5. The Smart Move: Don’t Depend on Performance Forever
Performance marketing is excellent for acquiring customers.
But there is a problem.
If a business constantly needs to pay to convince every new customer to buy, customer acquisition can become expensive.
Strong brands gradually create something more valuable:
Demand that exists beyond the advertisement.
When people start searching for your brand by name, recommending your products, following your content, talking about your products, and returning for another purchase, the relationship becomes bigger than a single ad campaign.
Minimalist’s journey demonstrates this transition.
The company has said that its combined marketing expenditure across branding and performance marketing was around 28%, while the share allocated specifically to performance marketing was gradually reducing as branding activities increased. (Inc42 Media)
That’s a powerful lesson for growing businesses:
Use performance marketing to accelerate growth, but use branding to make that growth sustainable.
6. Customers Became Part of the Marketing
Another interesting part of Minimalist’s strategy was its focus on genuine customer experiences and stories.
Rather than relying entirely on paid influencer marketing, the company has discussed using customer narratives and experiences as part of its communication strategy. (Inc42 Media)
Think about what happens when a customer genuinely recommends a skincare product to a friend.
The brand doesn’t have to pay for that conversation.
The customer becomes the distribution channel.
This is one of the most powerful outcomes of good branding:
Customers start doing some of the marketing for you.
7. The Numbers Show Why the Strategy Worked
Minimalist’s growth provides a useful case study in how a focused D2C brand can scale.
According to Inc42:
- Minimalist was founded in October 2020.
- The company reported reaching approximately ₹100 crore in revenue within eight months.
- It raised ₹110 crore in Series A funding in July 2021.
- Its FY23 operating revenue reached approximately ₹184 crore. (Inc42 Media)
In 2025, Hindustan Unilever agreed to acquire Minimalist in a deal reported at around ₹3,000 crore, further highlighting the value that had been built around the brand. (YourStory.com)
The important takeaway isn’t simply the size of the numbers.
It’s how the brand got there.
What Businesses Can Learn From Minimalist
Minimalist’s story offers several lessons for businesses of all sizes.
1. Find your differentiation
You don’t need to be everything to everyone.
Minimalist found a strong territory around transparency and ingredient-focused skincare.
2. Make your positioning obvious
Your audience should understand what makes you different without having to investigate for ten minutes.
3. Educate your audience
Useful content can create trust long before the customer is ready to purchase.
4. Use performance marketing intelligently
Ads can help you reach the right people faster, test messaging, generate conversions, and scale what works.
5. Don’t confuse clicks with brand growth
A campaign can have a great CTR and still fail to create long-term customer value.
Look beyond immediate campaign metrics.
6. Build something people remember
A strong visual identity, consistent messaging, distinctive positioning, and recognisable communication can make your brand easier to recall.
7. Let branding and performance work together
Branding creates preference.
Performance marketing captures demand.
Customer experience creates retention.
And together, they create sustainable growth.
The Bigger Lesson
Minimalist’s success isn’t simply a story about skincare.
It’s a story about clarity.
The brand understood who it wanted to speak to, what it wanted to stand for, and how it wanted to communicate.
Then it used digital marketing and performance-driven thinking to reach and convert its audience.
That combination is what makes the case study particularly relevant for modern businesses.
Because in today’s market, you don’t have to choose between:
“Let’s build a beautiful brand.”
and
“Let’s generate measurable results.”
You need both.
Your brand should be memorable enough to create preference.
Your marketing should be measurable enough to create accountability.
And your strategy should connect the two.
At BrandVerve, we believe that’s where real growth happens.
Branding makes people remember you.
Performance marketing makes it easier for them to find you.
A strong strategy makes them choose you.
The goal isn’t just to run more campaigns.
It’s to build a brand worth choosing.
