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July 17, 2025

From Decline to Scale: How a Premium Skincare Brand Rebuilt Growth with SEGA

At the beginning of January, the founder of a premium skincare brand reached out in a state of urgency.

Revenue had been declining month after month. Advertising spend was increasing, but returns were shrinking. Confidence was low, and trust in external partners had already been damaged after a previous agency engagement resulted in nothing but sunk costs.

The situation was paradoxical.
The brand had genuinely excellent products, built around reducing the signs of aging, with strong formulation and clear differentiation. However, the price point was above average, which meant the brand could not rely on impulse buying or aggressive discounting to survive.

The problem was not the product.
It was the system around it.

The Real Issues Beneath the Surface

Before SEGA, the brand was facing several compounding problems:

  1. Paid advertising was consuming a large portion of revenue without delivering consistent returns
  2. The funnel was fragmented and inefficient, with major leaks in the purchase journey
  3. Offers were not structured to support a premium buying decision
  4. Retention was almost non-existent, forcing the brand to constantly “buy” customers again
  5. Past agency work focused on traffic and tactics, not systems

Each new campaign felt like starting from zero.

This is exactly the type of scenario SEGA was designed for.

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Months 2–5

Phase 1: Diagnosis Before Action

Rather than launching campaigns immediately, the first two months were intentionally dedicated to diagnosis and foundation work.

Every layer of the business was audited:

  1. The full purchase journey from first touch to checkout
  2. Funnel structure and message consistency
  3. Offer positioning and value communication
  4. Post-purchase experience and retention mechanics
  5. Traffic sources and cost efficiency

The goal was not to sell more quickly, but to understand why selling was difficult in the first place.

During this phase, fixes began to be applied quietly in the background. Friction was removed. Messaging was clarified. The funnel was simplified and rebuilt with intention. Retention mechanisms were designed but not yet aggressively pushed.

Nothing flashy happened at this stage.
And that was exactly the point.

Phase 2: Building the Ecosystem

From month two to month four, the foundation was completed.

At this stage, the brand finally had a real ecosystem:

  1. A funnel that made sense for a premium product
  2. Offers aligned with customer psychology, not discounts
  3. Clear segmentation and communication logic
  4. Retention pathways that rewarded repeat behavior

For the first time, marketing actions were no longer isolated efforts. Everything connected.

Instead of asking “What campaign should we run next?”, the question became “How do we feed the system we’ve built?”

Phase 3: Multichannel, With Structure

Once the ecosystem was stable, SEGA moved into amplification.

Traffic was no longer treated as a gamble.
It became fuel.

A structured multichannel approach was introduced, allowing the brand to receive traffic from multiple touchpoints without overwhelming the funnel. Because the system was now capable of converting and retaining customers, traffic started to compound rather than leak.

The results did not come from one viral campaign or one clever ad.
They came from consistency.

The system worked because it was designed to work.

The Breakthrough

As the year progressed, the compounding effect became clear.

With predictable performance and increasing confidence, the brand was finally able to allocate a significant budget for Q4. Unlike previous years, this time the infrastructure was ready.

The outcome was transformational.

For the first time in its history, the brand broke into six figures in revenue during Q4, not as a one-off spike, but as the result of a system that had been quietly built and refined over months.

The Final Step: Independence

In December, SEGA completed its final responsibility.

Everything was handed back to the founder:

  1. Playbooks

  2. Tools and software stack

  3. Documented processes

  4. A fully built knowledge base

The brand was no longer dependent on external execution.
It had clarity, structure, and ownership.

The SEGA Difference

This case was not about hacks, ads, or shortcuts.

It was about patience, systems, and long-term thinking.

SEGA exists for brands that do not want temporary spikes, but sustainable growth they can actually maintain. Brands that are willing to slow down long enough to fix what is broken, so they can finally scale without burning out.

Sometimes, the most powerful move is not doing more.
It is building something that finally works.

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At the beginning of the year, the founder of a premium skincare brand was facing a difficult reality. Despite strong products and a clear mission, revenue was declining month after month. Advertising spend was increasing, returns were shrinking, and a previous agency engagement had only amplified the losses. What followed was not a quick fix or a short-term spike, but a structured transformation through the SEGA program. By rebuilding the foundation, redesigning the funnel, and aligning acquisition, retention, and storytelling into a single ecosystem, the brand shifted from survival mode to sustainable growth. By the end of the year, the system was fully operational,the team was empowered to run it independently, and the brand crossed a revenue milestone it had never reached before.

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Mrs. Mellanin & SEGA — From $25K Flatlines to a Thriving Skincare Brand

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