Ralph is joined by Lauren Schwartz, Head of Creative Strategy at Tier 11 and founder of The Loft 325, to dissect the pressing challenges facing beauty and wellness brands in 2025. From skyrocketing tariffs (up to 145%) to ever-tightening Meta ad restrictions, Lauren shares how smart brands are adapting—using compliant creative strategies that still drive conversions. You’ll hear how to future-proof your product messaging, the hidden costs every marketer should be aware of, and the exact tactics that Tier 11 uses to scale through chaos. Whether you’re running a 7-figure wellness brand or looking to enter the space, this episode delivers punchy, practical advice to keep your pipeline flowing despite the hurdles.

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 – Ralph Kicks Things Off: Welcome to the Wild World of Marketing
• 00:00:24 – What’s Hot Right Now: Why This Series Matters More Than Ever
• 00:01:26 – Tariff Shockwaves: How 145% Price Hikes Are Reshaping the Industry
• 00:05:22 – Turning Pain into Profit: Creative That Wins in a Crisis
• 00:08:57 – Founder-Led Content: Raw, Real, and Ridiculously Effective
• 00:19:05 – The Art of the Hold: Smart Retention Tactics That Actually Work
• 00:23:31 – Wrap-Up: Big Takeaways and Why This Matters to Your Bottom Line

LINKS AND RESOURCES:

• Scale Your Beauty Brand Without Wasted Spend
• ACTUAL Data Driven Creative
• Get Your nCAC Calculator Now!
• US-China Trade War Tariffs: An Up-to-Date Chart
• How US tariffs would hit beauty
• Tier 11 Jobs
• Perpetual Traffic on YouTube
• Tiereleven.com
• Mongoose Media
• Perpetual Traffic Survey
• Perpetual Traffic Website
• Follow Perpetual Traffic on Twitter
• Connect with Lauren on Instagram and Connect with Ralph on LinkedIn

Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to Perpetual Traffic? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review!

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READ THE TRANSCRIPT:

How To Tariff-Proof Your Beauty & Wellness Brand with Lauren Schwartz

Ralph: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Perpetual Traffic Podcast. This is your host, Ralph Burns, and the founder and CEO of Tier 11 Alongside.

Ralph: Lauren

Ralph: Schwartz, the other Lauren. That’s right. Not Lauren Petrillo.

Ralph: this is the second in a series of just me and her talking about beauty and wellness. I love these shows because today’s a little bit of a, shorter show, but I think it’s very topical, especially if, listing in and you’re not even in the beauty and wellness space, but you’re also interested in what’s going on in the world.

Ralph: As we’ve done a number of shows just on this like The most Googled phrase in the last three weeks is what we’re talking about today is tariffs or tariff, and the impact on the beauty and wellness space. And obviously you’ve got a tremendous amount of experience. [00:01:00] As a creative in that space, but also dealing with beauty and wellness brands.

Ralph: It’s obviously an area that we do extremely well. If you’re interested in learning more about that, you can always check that out over@tierelevenbeauty.com. It’s tier 11 with the actual number in it this time, as opposed to the tier 11. That is not the number, ’cause that guy just wants like a million dollars for that URL.

Ralph: so check that out or@yourelevenbeauty.com. The impact that you’re seeing just in general on beauty and wellness, and then how that sort of impacts creative, how that impacts how you position, like what are you seeing right now? what’s hot? Like, what’s the thing that people should be looking out for?

Ralph: Not necessarily just only in beauty and wellness, but also maybe even for all products.

Lauren: Yeah, so again, tariffs are obviously a, really big topic right now and before the show we were talking that it may not be impacting you right now, but it’s something that is going to impact you as you start to maybe repurchase or reorder or you know, things like that. [00:02:00] It’s more so that if you already have the product in stock, great, you don’t have to worry about it.

Lauren: But we’ve seen several brands who are needing to, refill, back stock inventory and now the tariff is 145% now. So it’s obviously gonna create this huge markup. So with any sort of product, whether that’s, apparel or whatever, you have to think within your beauty space.

Lauren: Not only is it just the actual physical product, but it’s your ingredients. Your ingredients are definitely gonna be impacted to a higher price. Your packaging is gonna be, a higher price now, therefore making everything within your product just a higher price overall. So we may not be seeing it fully yet, but definitely I think as brands are starting to replenish their stock, I definitely think they’re gonna have to start.

Lauren: To either increase their prices or really start to understand how they’re going to focus and shift their messaging so that they’re letting their audience know, or customers know that we are gonna have [00:03:00] to start doing this sort of stuff. Like this is the reality of what’s happening right now.

Ralph: Right. Right, whether or not it stays as is or whether or not it’s just a ploy. We’ve certainly talked about this on previous shows. You and I have very strong opinions on this, uh, which we’ll leave out for at this point in time. But we are not fans of this ridiculous policy. So there you go. It’s absolutely insane because, I mean, I talk to dozens of businesses every single week among most of our, business development calls.

Ralph: You’re talking to clients like that, our tier 11 clients and also, you know, some of ones that are prospective tier 11 clients, like everybody’s talking about this, and I think the, the biggest thing is nobody really knows how to project out their budgets because they don’t know. The numbers keep changing, however.

Ralph: We had a client that, unfortunately realized that tariffs are gonna basically add $4 million to their bottom line and a much larger organization. However, they had already seen, like their first container come in that was in the [00:04:00] tariffs that haven’t even been impacted by the 145% increase. Like they were 10 to 25% and that’s what they were trying to project out.

Ralph: And now with 145%, they’re like, how am I gonna make this up? I mean, I have to pass that on to the consumer. That’s what idiot POTUS doesn’t understand. So I guess this is becoming a political show, but the point is it’s like the tariff isn’t paid by the country that you’re taring. It’s paid by the company importing it, and that cost is passed on to Hello, you and me.

Lauren: Yeah, exactly.

Ralph: they figure out a way around it. so that’s really the biggest thing. So it’s not like an immediate impact. And I think that’s a really good point is that you might not see it in your business yet, but maybe when you reorder. I was speaking with a prospect of client yesterday. They’re like, thank God, in January we ordered 70% of our inventory for the entire year.

Lauren: Yeah.

Ralph: So for our busiest season, because we have to load up and so impact o of tariffs on them minimal [00:05:00] in 2025. However, you’re a beauty and wellness brand and you need, mineral oil or whatever it happens to be, and it’s sourced in a country that’s tariffed, you’re gonna see increased prices and what are they gonna do at that point?

Ralph: Do you pass that on to the consumer? You eat that cost, like how do you do it? And that’s really sort of the question on a lot of businesses minds right now.

Lauren: Yeah, and I think again, like the biggest thing I think right now, especially within your creative, is that it may not necessarily be the actual like visual of your creative, but I do feel like. Being honest and understanding like where your consumer’s coming from, but then also as a business, I mean, you are still a business, there are still people behind it.

Lauren: There are still a lot of things that are, real. And so I think that leading with more, just honest type, angles and honest type copy, especially for your, customers is actually something that. Is good to address now. I mean, we’re all living it. We all [00:06:00] know what’s going on.

Lauren: We all know, the situation we could be in. And so, just some of the clients that we’ve been talking to have just kind of been, you know, like how can we address this in a way that’s not obviously gonna scare people away, but just be honest with them. You know, I’ve actually been seeing a lot of ads within the beauty and wellness space where they specifically say like. Tariffs, you know, a huge static image that calls it out. Specifically talking about yes, we know we have tariffs. obviously we don’t want to increase prices, but this is the reality of where we’re at at this point, so just some of like the messaging that you could, potentially address is, Like we’ve never marked up in three years. Now, we might potentially have to mark up our prices. Like I think just being more open and just again, acknowledging the fact that this is a situation we’re in, I think has more leverage in your creative than not talking about it because everybody knows what’s going on.

Lauren: So I think just the honest route and the honesty route is a much better way to address it than not addressing it at all.

Ralph: [00:07:00] Right. So how do you do that when it comes to creative, how do you visually represent a shift to address it, but then also position your product in the right way? Like, what’s your sense right now? Especially let’s use beauty and wellness as the example. ’cause obviously it’s part of the series here.

Ralph: So maybe start with that.

Lauren: Yeah, so it’s interesting. I have actually gotten served ads that specifically are focused on beauty and they still take what is working for them. So whether that’s a static ad and just talking about, the pricing, a relatable, honest copy could be like, yes, prices are up, but your skincare doesn’t have to suffer.

Lauren: things like that, like. We’re not raising prices, we’re raising standards. those type of things like, I think could be interesting to talk about. But then again, showcasing the statics that work for you. I’ve also seen UGC of, people in their warehouse, being completely honest and saying yes, like we’re all being affected by tariffs.

Lauren: This is why, you should still. Obviously get your skincare. These are why things, you know, [00:08:00] like it’s not a luxury anymore. It’s, what you need. And so just kind of switching your messaging of again, like, yes, we understand that this is happening, but how is it that we could shift our messaging of, not necessarily talking about luxury and the price, but more just like it’s essential.

Lauren: This is essential, wellness product that you still need in your everyday life, no matter if the price goes up or down.

Ralph: So positioning away from luxury and positioning more as this is something that is not just something if you have some extra cash, but it’s something that you need on a daily basis.

Lauren: Exactly. Yeah. it’s in a part of your essential, either self-care routine, skincare routine, diet routine, supple, whatever it is that, you know, you need that. It’s not positioning it as it’s just a nice to have. It’s more of a you, it’s an essential.

Ralph: Right. And in the creative, like video image, that kind of thing, what would be your recommendation there in order to help represent that or reinforce that, that concept?

Lauren: Yeah. So again, I still think just going with the [00:09:00] honest angle, you know, a lot of the ads that I’ve been seeing have been a lot of people who work at the brand. They’re just sharing the information that you know, it’s kind of a behind the scenes, like it’s very real, it’s very raw, it’s very organic.

Lauren: Talking about how this is what’s going on, this is what we’re seeing, but we’re here for you. We understand, like we know that this is happening. And again, I think that kind of raw, authentic content still does well, regardless of whether we’re in a tariff situation or not. Like that sort of just honest, relatable content just works really well.

Ralph: Which goes back to, some of the stuff that we’ve talked about in the first part of this series is having the right type of content creator that can relay the message in a genuine and relatable way. I guess I used relate to twice in that sentence, but the point is, is that like address the elephant that’s in the room.

Ralph: In this particular case, have you seen examples of UGC specifically talking about that as of yet, or at least, or [00:10:00] even, started in on projects where that is a part of like the overall messaging through the content creator.

Lauren: Yeah, actually, so, I did save one. I could share my screen. and this was from a clothing brand.

Ralph:

Lauren: yeah, I think it’s one of those things, again, people, again, if it’s authentic, it’s relatable, it’s not only does behind the scenes content work really well. But also, again, like they don’t know what’s happening. They don’t know what’s gonna happen. Like this could change tomorrow, this could change today.

Lauren: Like who knows? Like we’re all kind of up in the air. And I think just being honest and relatable and showcasing that is something that’s super authentic and you know, again, like so relatable. So I think like this sort of tactic is great. But then also like their messaging too, They’re being real, they’re being honest.

Lauren: But I also think that this sort of retention play is something that can be really good if you already have loyal customers. if they have back stock of something, like get the product now. Like we have no idea if we’re gonna be [00:11:00] able to reorder it. your prices could increase.

Lauren: Like all these things that you can kind of start to shift. In not only your messaging, but just your strategy overall. what’s gonna be the best strategy for you as a brand going forward? So I think this sort of content is just starting to pop up more and more as this starts to unfold.

Ralph: Right, right. And if you weren’t watching that, I mean, obviously you can watch it over at perpetual traffic.com/youtube over on our YouTube channel and subscribe to that as well. But it was basically, I assume those are the two founders.

Lauren: One was the social media manager and one was the head of product.

Ralph: Product. Okay. So like people that are high up, like understand this sort of thing obviously, and they were just standing in their warehouse.

Lauren: Yeah. Very simple, very authentic.

Ralph: And good for them if all that stuff that was in the warehouse was stuff that they had ordered pre tariff.

Lauren: Yeah.

Ralph: So I’m like, they’re smart. They’re saying, Hey, maybe they’re not as impacted. Going back to my original or our original sort of point [00:12:00] here. This is always something that’s fascinated me because you guys get me to do this.

Ralph: Look, we did this before you came on as like the founder’s story, the founder coming on. I hate when I see commercials like it’s ohy, like the founder and the CEO o and he is not good on camera and it’s just, it’s a ego gratification thing, let’s set those crappy commercials on, you know, network TV aside.

Ralph: Is a founder story, is that an idea where you’re addressing it head on? Obviously there, you’ve got head of product, you know, you’ve got head of social media. Is that founder story part something that is relevant here? Would you recommend that to people who are listening who maybe are like, well, maybe I can just do that kind of thing, or, I’m not really even like the face of the brand right now, but maybe now’s the time to do it.

Lauren: Yeah. I mean, again, like I think. We’re all in this unknown phase, and the more relatable, authentic content you can talk about and produce, I think it’s gonna go so much further than just again, your normal sort [00:13:00] of content strategy. Because again, like we don’t know what’s gonna happen and people want to see the people behind the brand.

Lauren: You know, everybody, regardless of whether you, like it or not. Founder content. Always works. It will always work Behind the scenes. Content always works, especially in your paid strategy. I always say like, that sort of content resonates with your audience because people wanna see how relatable you actually are.

Lauren: They don’t just wanna know that you’re someone behind, this big business basically.

Ralph: Behind the curtain. Like

Lauren: Yeah.

Ralph: Wizard of Oz. Yeah, I think there’s a lot of founders and, owner operators that listen to this show. They are the marketing department in essence. how do you do that? Like, what’s your recommendation? Because I remember when you guys, whenever I’m traveling like, oh dude, BTS, I’m like, what the hell’s BTS?

Ralph: It’s behind the scenes stuff. by the way, I was on the last trip, I think Allison was pissed at me ’cause I didn’t do any BTS. So, if you’ve never done this before. And you are a founder and you’re listening, or maybe you’re the director of [00:14:00] marketing, you’re like, Hey, we should insert this into our organic social here.

Ralph: What would your recommendation be? Is it just that simple, like the example that we showed, or would there be other things like you’re addressing it head on, in their case they’re giving a discount. So that’s sort of a separate question, but like what kind of content should you maybe focus on if you are in that position?

Lauren: Yeah, I mean, again, anytime we talk to founders and we talk to them about doing any sort of founder content, I always say again, like, set up your camera. I. And just talk I mean at some point you have to just get comfortable talking in front of the camera and it’s never gonna be perfect.

Lauren: And again, I think that’s why it works so well is because it’s so relatable. But you just need to kind of get past that. I’m nervous, I don’t wanna do it. I feel silly doing this. Like I just always tell them, just set up a camera, start talking and. If you find things that you want to discuss, maybe stop and then go back.

Lauren: Like again. That’s why you have editors, that’s why you can edit. Like you can cut [00:15:00] out whatever you want. You can make it as shorter or long as you wanna talk about. But again, at the end of the day, that real authentic content of you just sitting down at your desk and talking about what’s the reality of your situation, goes such a long way as opposed to making this high end great, , video of your content, like the relatable content.

Lauren: Always outperforms. I think any sort of high-end content when it comes to founder stories or founder, videos.

Ralph: So if you’re in a, the beauty and wellness space, would it be like. there’s a couple of tips I can give to founders having done a lot of founder content. But, is it maybe going through, Hey, this is a good time for me to stock. Like, if your pitch for your product, for example, is it’s all natural or it’s organic, or it’s, you know, sourced in these exotic locations.

Ralph: You can even maybe go through like your list of ingredients maybe and say, Hey, this might be impacted, but this isn’t, and this is the largest part of like where we’re, so you’re selling and being transparent about the product itself, but also sort of explaining this is kind of how [00:16:00] it works behind the scenes.

Ralph: Like if you see a price increase for us it’s because of these reasons, and that doesn’t necessarily mean abandon the brand

Lauren: some of these like skincare products, like the ingredients are sourced in different areas, and so the reason why they’re sourced in these areas is because, you know, it’s. better there, it’s higher quality. Like all of these things, like, again, those are things that you can discuss with your audience and let them know this is why it costs this much, you know?

Lauren: And we want to still deliver a high value of a product for you. But this is the reality of kind of where we’re at. So if we do have to increase prices, it’s because of this. But this product has all these benefits, again, like just calling those things out, still highlighting.

Lauren: Your brand still highlighting the product and then again, highlighting all the ingredients that are in the, product. Again, makes it still a great selling point, but then also just clarifies like why this product costs, what it costs,

Ralph: Yeah. And for founders who are scared, there is a [00:17:00] great app. It’s called the Teleprompter app.

Ralph: It is so good.

Ralph: I use it sometimes just because I’m like, I wanna make sure I hit on these bullet points and it’s like the red, we’ll leave a link in the show notes ’cause it’s so amazing and you can, you know, just use it like, like your hand, like right in front of you or whatever it happens to be.

Ralph: We do it on a stand. So if I get something from our social team, little tip, like I’ll bullet out what I wanna say and then I’ll give it like some space and you can. Make it faster or slower,

Lauren: Yeah.

Ralph: can script out the whole thing and you can make it come across really naturally. So that’s like the little hack that I use is like, I didn’t go to acting school, but

Ralph: we, we do a lot of this stuff and I think maybe now’s the time.

Ralph: If you are a social media manager, product manager, founder, CEO, to get in front of the camera and address your audience in really real terms like this, and I think that’s a really solid strategy. Agree or [00:18:00] disagree?

Lauren: Yeah, I definitely agree. Yeah, I think it’s something that is, again, I think it’ll go a lot. further than just still trying to, again, avoid the elephant in the room. So I think as long as you just come out and just say like, this is where we’re at, I think more people will understand and I think it’ll just resonate.

Lauren: And I think it’ll be better in case you do have to increase your prices, like. You. They already know what’s coming. They already know what’s happening. And this is kind of like where we’re at,

Ralph: Right. Yeah. , You’re prepping not only new customers, new clients, but also, your list. I mean, those are the people that are obviously, that are increasing your LTV and your, a OV to a certain degree. So, I mean, definitely do that. And one big tip, if you’re doing this, if you’re like, oh my God, I’ve never done a video before, hold it high.

Ralph: If you go low, it makes you look like you got like the Turkey chin. Like even if you’re skinny, it like, it’s horrible. So get it up over your eyes. Little tip for you there. So, anything more to add? ’cause I think this is [00:19:00] super helpful for a lot of people. Was an uncertain environment here.

Ralph: , Any last words here?

Lauren: I think one last thing I would just recommend is just again, your, customers that you already have. Just making sure that you are retaining them. I think a retention and LTV strategy is still super important and if there’s any way to kind of, upsell or cross sell some things, you know, bundle things together.

Lauren: Like how can you continuously focus on just the people you do already have and how can you just continue to keep that loyalty there? Because again, I, think right now we’re still kind of, in the unknown and new consumers are struggling a little bit more than older consumers in, terms of like how they’re purchasing and how they’re buying.

Lauren: So I would definitely say like, really focused on your loyalty and retention, when it comes to your paid strategy.

Ralph: Would you recommend as a caveat to that, a discount now to stock up in case of a later date? ‘

Lauren: Yeah, definitely. I do think having [00:20:00] some sort of sales strategy is, great again, because We don’t know what the future’s gonna hold. Like who knows if the prices could increase significantly. So if you do really like the product, you really want to continue to purchase it. let’s say for skincare for instance, or you know, makeup or health or wellness, if you know that it’s gonna possibly go up, stock up, you could still have it, you’re still gonna use it So yeah, I definitely think that that would work.

Ralph: on discounts just in general in the beauty and wellness space. Like obviously it really depends the cost of goods sold and the infrastructure of the company and everything else, cause everyone has like that 10% off thing that pops up on their site. Like what’s a discount in your opinion, in that space that I. People are like, oh, that’s not a crappy discount. That’s a really good discount, but not so big. ’cause you still have to, you know, you need profit at the end of the day. where’s that sweet spot in beauty and wellness?

Ralph: Or is it just a hard question to ask?

Lauren: I always think that 20% off, especially for like makeup products, like that’s a, great discount. Like if I saw 20% [00:21:00] off from a makeup product, I’d be like, yeah, sold. Get me like 10 of those, you know? Same with like supplements. I would say like 30%, again, 30% off a supplement is a, great price, but again, you’re not.

Lauren: pricing yourself or discounting yourself so high that it, just seems like you’re, I don’t, I don’t wanna say cheap, but it just is kind of that sweet spot of like, these are good, percentages off that still make it feel relevant, still gives you like a, good price that you’re paying, but not like cheapening the brand.

Ralph: Right, I mean, whenever I’m on, any sort of call where people ask me that question, I say, don’t ever discount as much as you possibly can,

Ralph: especially for a new, customer. Only at last resort, like maybe it’s like your third retargeting ad to, they’ve added to cart. You can’t get them over the hump.

Ralph: And that’s a very small percentage of people overall. But if at all, like sell it for what you sell it for, don’t discount too much. in this case, 20, 30%. Are you talking about new customers? Are you talking really about like sending your list? Like, Hey, [00:22:00] this is our special to you guys because you’re loyal.

Lauren: yes. Yeah. I wouldn’t say top of funnel or like your, new prospects. I would say more of like your, again, like retention, loyalty, retargeting bottom of funnel. Like those are the people you want to start hitting with some discounts.

Ralph: Make them feel special. Make them feel we’re in this together.

Lauren: Yeah, exactly.

Ralph: Like it’s okay to show some cracks, like that

Ralph: makes you real.

Lauren: Yes, exactly. Yeah.

Ralph: don’t ever position yourself as like I’ve got everything and there’s nothing wrong with my product.

Ralph: Every product has faults and used to call this, I was in the pharmaceutical industry for years and years, calling on doctors for decades, and it was like. Always have fair balance. And when I first heard that term, I’m like, fair balance. What? What do you mean? Like, tell ’em some of the side effects at the end.

Ralph: ’cause otherwise, even if it’s like, you know, a rash and 0.01%, just make sure you know, your patients with rheumatoid arthritis don’t take this. It’s like it’s okay to show some cracks here and be a little bit more transparent. [00:23:00] You end up selling more because it’s genuine, organic and that’s what works in creative.

Lauren: Yeah. I mean, you always see those commercials where it’s like, take this pill, but here’s the 20 side effects that could go on. So you’re like, okay, eventually maybe this could happen, but at least I know. So,

Ralph: I love the guy who talks really fast at the end with all the things that you could get. This could cause heart disease and just all the things, emphysema, you know,

Ralph: renal failure. yeah. And he talks really, really fast. So anyway. Well this is awesome. I think, a lot of people are gonna get a lot from this, even if you’re not a beauty and wellness brand, but ways in which to, you know, tariff proof your business as much as possible.

Ralph: And this is obviously something that we’re gonna. Continue to discuss here on the show, ongoing as this situation evolves or devolves or hopefully goes away.

Ralph: of course, if you want our help.

Ralph: Head on over to tier 11 beauty.com. You actually get Lauren Schwartz, like as your strategist. Like she’s the one, she is it. So if you’re liking these [00:24:00] shows and you want our help, whether you’re a beauty and wellness brand or not, check us out@tiereleven.com of course. So, amazing to have you on the show.

Ralph: We’re gonna have you on a couple more here as this series continues and evolves and, super appreciate you coming on today. wherever you listen to podcasts, make sure that you do leave us a rating and a review. We’re seeing comments now on Spotify, which is great., So wherever you listen to podcasts, please leave us a rating or review that helps us get to a wider audience, of course. And obviously all the show notes will be over@perpetualtraffic.com.

Ralph: So on behalf of my amazing guest host Lauren Schwartz, until next show, see ya.