The ability of community-led model development

This month’s Indie Insights explores how founder-led engagement can translate into product innovation, model advocacy, and long-term development, and Cristal Hernandez, founding father of Cristal Cosmetics, exemplifies this strategy.

With transparency on the core of her model, Hernandez has invited her prospects into practically each stage of the method, from product growth to packaging choices. What started as a startup launched with solely $700 in seed cash has grown right into a community-driven enterprise with a passionate buyer base that not solely follows the model but additionally helps form it.

We spoke to Hernandez at NYSCC Suppliers’ Day 2025, the place she not solely exhibited her model within the Indie 360° Pavilion however was additionally a featured panelist on “The Energy of Heritage: How Latina Founders are Reworking Magnificence with Tradition and Components.” In our dialog, she shared how Cristal Cosmetics continues to prioritize connection over conversion, and why significant group engagement can outperform conventional advertising and marketing.

CDU: Your model has seen unbelievable development fueled by your group — are you able to stroll us by the way you first began constructing and interesting that group from the bottom up?

CH: Once I first began, I had no cash for conventional advertising and marketing, simply $700, an MBA, and a dream. I leaned closely on social media, displaying my viewers each step of my journey: the wins, the struggles, even the tears.

I didn’t attempt to “promote” them one thing, I invited them to be a part of the method. They noticed me packing orders in my mother’s storage, formulating merchandise, and studying as I went.

I prefer to assume that that transparency constructed belief and made them really feel like they weren’t simply shopping for a product, they have been investing in a narrative they have been a part of.

CDU: What are a few of the distinctive or sudden methods you’re leveraging your group for product suggestions and innovation?

CH: I contain my group earlier than a product even hits the market. I’ll ask for his or her opinions on packaging, allow them to check formulation early, and even title merchandise after them. Typically I’ll hop on dwell movies to indicate prototypes and get their real-time reactions.

It’s not simply suggestions, it’s co-creation. They really feel like they’re serving to construct the model as a result of they’re.

CDU: How do you stability listening to your group’s enter whereas nonetheless staying true to your model’s imaginative and prescient and long-term technique?

CH: It’s a stability of respect and management. I deeply worth what my group desires, however I even have a transparent long-term imaginative and prescient for the place Cristal Cosmetics goes.

I hear fastidiously, even to suggestions that’s arduous to listen to, however I filter it by the lens of my model’s mission: inexpensive luxurious that builds confidence. Not each development or request is sensible for us, and that’s okay.

I at all times need my prospects to really feel heard, but it surely’s my job to information the model ahead thoughtfully.

CDU: Neighborhood engagement can take loads of time and power — what practices or platforms have been simplest for you in creating significant, scalable interactions?

CH: Displaying up persistently, particularly because the founder, has been the best observe for constructing actual, lasting group.

It’s not nearly displaying as much as promote, it’s about displaying as much as join. I speak to my viewers about their day, their life, as a result of group isn’t constructed on transactions, it’s constructed on relationships. Even when I’m solely dwell as soon as every week, I make it depend by being current and making it about them.

We’ve been utilizing social media because the begin, Fb, Instagram, and now TikTok, and all of them nonetheless play a serious function in our development. TikTok Store has made the gross sales course of seamless, however the actual worth comes from the engagement.

And since I can’t be dwell 24/7, my workforce steps in as an extension of me. Whether or not they’re packing orders dwell, or giving a tour of the warehouse, they’re serving to pull again the curtain so our prospects really feel included within the journey.

When individuals see the center behind the model and really feel like they’re a part of the story, that’s when true group, and loyalty, is constructed.

CDU: In what methods has your community-driven strategy helped foster model loyalty and repeat enterprise in comparison with extra conventional advertising and marketing strategies?

CH: Our prospects aren’t simply shopping for merchandise, they’re rooting for the model prefer it’s theirs, as a result of it’s. That emotional connection goes deeper than any advert marketing campaign.

When individuals really feel personally invested, they arrive again, they inform their mates, and so they develop with you. Conventional advertising and marketing talks at prospects. Our community-driven strategy talks with them and that’s why our retention and repeat buyer charges are so sturdy.

CDU: For indie magnificence founders simply beginning to construct their very own communities, what are some key classes or methods you’ll advocate based mostly in your expertise?

CH: Don’t attempt to be good, be actual. Individuals connect with the journey greater than the polished closing product. Doc the whole lot, present up persistently, and make your viewers really feel like they’re a part of your development.

Additionally, construct a model with a transparent why behind it, one thing individuals can imagine in. And bear in mind: community-building is gradual at first. However in case you nurture it, it turns into essentially the most highly effective advertising and marketing engine you’ll ever have.not solely follows the model but additionally