• New Zealand beauty brand MONDAY Haircare launched in Canada this week, with plans to launch in the UK and China.
• The brand first launched in Australian supermarkets in March 2020, and has become known for its eye-catching millennial pink packaging
• Founder Jaimee Lupton told Business Insider Australia how she took the brand global.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

New Zealand beauty brand MONDAY Haircare launched in Canada this week, less than a month after hitting shelves at Target and Ultra Beauty in the US, with launches in the UK and China soon to follow.

The company – founded by 28-year-old Jaimee Lupton – first launched into supermarkets in Australia in March 2020. Despite its arrival coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic, the $10 shampoo and conditioner sets, packaged in the now-famous baby pink pump bottles, reached cult status at warp speed.

“It was such an unpredictable time, but we sold six months’ worth of stock in six weeks,” Lupton told Business Insider Australia. “The response was overwhelmingly positive, and we took a quarter of the market share in 14 days.”

After a stint at Black Communications in Sydney, where she looked after the publicity for a list of luxury brands including Dom Perignon, Range Rover and Hermes, Lupton returned home frustrated by the hefty price tags on luxury items and a desire to start her own business.

“I was spending an extortionate amount of money on products each month. I’ve always believed that beauty products should work without costing a week’s salary, and there’s a lot of skincare brands that do that.” Lupton said.

“But when it came to haircare, there was such a big gap between brands available in the salon and what was available more readily in mass retailers.”

A lightbulb moment while grocery shopping with partner Nick Mowbray kicked off a three-year journey to get MONDAY Haircare on shelves.

When asked how the brand sought to achieve high quality at the lower price point expected in supermarkets, Lupton puts it down to the backing of well-established company Zuru and partnering with trusted industry leaders to produce at scale and streamline their processes. “That’s what helps keep costs down but quality high,” she said.

Equally important to the formula is the branding – more specifically, the increasingly iconic millennial pink packaging. Cutting through the noisy, saturated shelves in a supermarket is no mean feat, but the single-tone, minimal packaging of MONDAY products does so easily.

“When I would go into a supermarket, everything on the shelf seemed to be screaming at me – I wanted something that whispered.” explains Lupton.

“Our decision to use a single tone of pink was inspired by the sleek and minimal packaging we’ve come to expect from high-end hair care brands. MONDAY’s packaging is decidedly simple and uncomplicated – which mirrors our commitment to making good hair an uncomplicated endeavour.”

The $10-a-bottle price tag and sustainable packaging scored MONDAY a prime position in the shower caddies of industry heavyweights like Beck Wadworth, Kristen Fisher and Samantha Harris.

The most notable tick of approval though, was the one MONDAY received from supermodel Georgia Fowler.

Friends since they were young, Lupton explains that she and Georgia share a mutual trust and vision, and the partnership mimics their broader influencer strategy.

“I can say this honestly – she’s the kind of woman you want to be friends with,” she said. “That’s our approach with anyone who is involved with the brand, from a brand partner like Georgia, to our MONDAY Muses, to our team and the agencies we work with.”

Despite the continuing popularity of influencer-driven marketing, MONDAY instead relies on a more old-fashioned method of building brand awareness.

“The thing with MONDAY is that because we’re in really accessible “mass” retailers, a lot of people’s first exposure to the brand is in their supermarket – they see it and love the way our bottles look, and then they get it home and discover they really love the product too.” said Lupton.

“And then they come to us on Instagram.”

Intent on working with influencers whose values align with MONDAY’s as matter of priority, Lupton says her team takes care when it comes to seeking and engaging the brand partners. The brand’s newest muse is proof.

“We’ve just announced Meena Harris as a U.S. muse, who’s seriously impressive – yes she’s Kamala Harris’ niece, but she’s also a lawyer, former tech exec, now a founder and CEO, and has two books published,” said Lupton

It’s brand partnerships like the ones MONDAY has formed with Georgia and Meena that have helped grow international demand for the pink pump bottles.

The entrepreneur recently signed a $40 million deal with beauty-specific retail giants Ultra Beauty and Target in the US and Canada, with the NZ haircare brand hitting shelves overseas this week.

“I’ve always had lofty goals for the brand, and after such a successful launch, overseas expansion felt natural. For the business, the launch really puts us on the map and gains us huge reach and traction.”

Having achieved such mammoth success after just two years it begs the question: what comes next?

Lupton says the brand is set to launch in China in the coming months, and the UK by June.

“For now we’re focusing on a hair oil and dry shampoo, along with some innovations around our current product line – such as refills, so that people don’t need to buy new bottles every time they use up their supply of MONDAY,” said Lupton.

“Beauty used to be perceived as something that was vain or frivolous. But now the rest of the world is catching up – it’s part of people’s self-identity, self-worth and self-expression. It can be a really worthy pursuit.”

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