Your January marketing roundup is here 💌
Plus, an interview with Muihood, a fan-made jingle and colours of the year
Hello and welcome to the refreshed Marketing Memo for Small Biz! 👋
This year I’m keeping things sharper and easier to explore, with handy links throughout so you can click what catches your eye and get your monthly dose of marketing news and inspiration.
Inside the January issue…
This month’s big interview: Charlotte Yau, founder of skincare brand Muihood, dives into cultural storytelling, content and IRL experiences.
What’s popping in marketing: Curated industry news, trends to watch, new social updates, and standout campaigns.
Food for thought: One marketing tip, hack or idea to consider for your business.
Kim’s corner: The latest news, events and projects from my consultancy.
Let’s get into it!
Kim x
What’s popping in January
Industry news, trends to watch, latest social updates, and buzzy marketing campaigns – all in one place.
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Planning your next campaign? TikTok’s 2026 regional marketing calendars for SMBs are worth a look.
Pinterest’s 2026 Palette highlights the colours shaping the year ahead, spanning everything from bold Wasabi greens to warm Persimmon tones. (2026 has more to offer than Pantone’s Cloud Dancer…)
Instagram rolls out algorithm control option to all English-speaking users. You can fine-tune what shows up in your Reels feed by selecting the topics you’re interested in (and remove the ones you’re not...)
LinkedIn articles are increasingly being cited in AI-generated responses, which could make the platform an even more powerful channel for thought leadership, discoverability and brand authority in 2026.
TikTok quietly launched a microdrama app called PineDrama. The app serves bite-sized TV shows made up of one-minute episodes. Think TikTok, but every scroll leads to the next chapter of a fictional story.
Also, TikTok’s new US joint venture has made changes to its privacy policy that include expanding the type of location data the company can collect from its 200 million US users. Let’s keep an eye on this as it develops.
Meta is pausing teen access to its AI characters across all apps globally, while YouTube is rolling out tools that let creators make Shorts using their own AI likenesses.
The graphic trends you’ll want to bookmark for 2026.
How a fan-made jingle turned Dr Pepper into the talk of TikTok. I personally like this jingle 🙂
KitKat made a formula 1–shaped chocolate bar… (2026 is already unhinged)
One of my favourite French fashion brands named the founder’s grandmother as its first-ever brand ambassador. It’s brilliant. Don’t miss the terms of her commitment in the caption. Super witty, charming and on-brand.
Move over Rhode phone case, Huda beauty’s pop socket is the newest beauty merch to go viral…
Food for thought
After years of working in marketing, I see one pattern all the time. When someone says “our marketing isn’t working,” the issue usually started long before marketing ever entered the chat. It’s rarely the platform or the algorithm. More often it’s unclear priorities, shifting goals or too many voices pulling in different directions...
The default reaction is to add more content, more tools, more tactics, but nothing really changes. In my experience, REAL progress rarely comes from doing more. It comes from slowing down, getting clearer on the foundations and aligning on what actually matters. That’s why strategy is so powerful. It makes everything else easier to navigate!
Tip: Before adding anything new to your marketing plan, pause and write down your top priorities for the next 3 months. If an idea doesn't support those goals, it's probably a distraction.
Kim’s Corner
Plot twist: I’m featured in the book “Career Comedown” by Stefanie Sword-Williams
This is a must-read for anyone questioning their career, their definition of success or what comes next. If you’ve ever asked yourself what to do when work just isn’t working for you anymore… this book’s for you!
Stefanie, the founder of F*ck Being Humble, explores three distinct pathways forward: 1) staying in your current role but reshaping it to suit you, 2) taking a different turn and reinventing yourself professionally, or 3) stepping away from the idea of work as the centre of your identity altogether.
I’m featured in the “Stick” chapter, where I share how I shifted my services after coming back to London from Los Angeles in order to adapt to a new demand. Shop the book!
Startup support IRL
I’m excited to be speaking at the StartUps Bootcamp in Tower Hamlets on January 31st, hosted by Enterprise Nation and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It’s a free, full-day, in-person event for early-stage founders and small business owners who’ve been trading for around 12 to 24 months. I’ll be hosting a session on social media. If you’re local and building something, check this out.
And if you're looking for a marketing expert to speak at your event or host a workshop, get in touch!
Time for this month’s big interview! I’m excited to chat with Charlotte Yau, the founder of skincare brand Muihood.
We met a few years ago through Babes on Waves and The Stack World and I was immediately drawn to Charlotte’s modern take on skincare, rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, brought to life through gorgeous products and a carefully crafted brand identity. I’ve followed her journey, including her time in Bangkok, and in this interview we chat cultural storytelling, content and IRL experiences and what she’s planning for Muihood in 2026. Enjoy!
Hey Char! Tell us about yourself.
Hi! I’m British-Chinese, spent the last year living in Bangkok, and have a cat named Bao. Before Muihood, I was in tech marketing, but I found myself increasingly drawn to wellness and wanting to create something that actually felt meaningful. I also run a consultancy helping beauty and wellness founders with brand strategy and go-to-market.
Muihood is rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but feels so modern. What was the original spark that made you think this needs to exist right now?
Entering my mid-20s, I was tired of the obsession with quick fixes. Everything in beauty was about the next miracle ingredient, the next thing to buy to bio hack yourself. It felt relentless and completely disconnected from how bodies actually work.
I grew up with TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) remedies, mugwort foot soaks, gua sha, eating with the seasons. These weren’t trends in my household, they were just how we looked after ourselves. I wanted to translate that wisdom for people who didn’t grow up with it, without stripping away what makes it meaningful.
Who do you feel Muihood is really for today? Has that audience shifted since you launched?
When we launched, I thought our core customer would be women who already knew TCM, maybe they grew up with it too, or had dabbled in acupuncture. But actually, we’ve attracted a lot of people who are brand new to it. They’re exhausted by mainstream wellness messaging and looking for something that makes more sense to their bodies.
The shift I’ve noticed is that people are coming to us with deeper questions. They’re not just asking “what’s this product for”, they’re asking about menstrual cycle care, seasonal transitions, why their feet are always cold. They want to understand their bodies, and they’re buying products that actually help them do that.
Traditional Chinese Medicine has over 3,000 years of history but also a lot of misconceptions. How do you decide what to simplify vs what should stay sacred in your storytelling?
I focus on making TCM relatable to what people are actually experiencing day to day. So instead of leading with “you’re yin deficient,” I’ll talk about why exposing your stomach to the cold, crop tops, iced drinks, blasting AC, can actually make your cramps worse. In TCM, cold causes stagnation, and stagnation causes pain. Start with the symptom they recognise, then connect it to the TCM reasoning.
The philosophy stays intact, that health is cyclical, that we’re connected to nature, that prevention matters more than cure. But we speak to them in a way that they can resonate and understand to connect better with their bodies.
What do you wish more beauty founders understood about cultural storytelling versus cultural borrowing?
The difference between storytelling and borrowing is whether you lived it. When culture is your heritage, not your inspiration, every product carries deeper truth. We don’t borrow from TCM, we share it. I grew up with these remedies, learned from practitioners, and understand TCM as a complete system.
I think a lot of founders see something “trending” and want to capitalise on it without doing the work to understand where it comes from. If you’re using gua sha in your marketing but can’t explain what qi is, that’s a problem.
Many beauty brands are doubling down on IRL experiences and community-first activations. How do you see Muihood showing up offline in 2026?
TCM is inherently communal, it was passed down through generations, shared in kitchens and bathrooms, taught by practitioners in person. I want to bring that back.
We’ve already started hosting events where our community can experience TCM together, learning ear seeding techniques, exploring how to adapt their routines seasonally. In 2026, I want more of that. Workshops, practitioner partnerships, maybe pop-ups that feel more like an education space than a retail moment.
Is there a marketing campaign or piece of content you didn’t expect much from but ended up driving big results?
Some of our most powerful content has been simple educational posts, explaining why drinking cold water isn’t ideal in TCM. People share them because they’re finally getting answers to things they’ve wondered about their bodies for years.
You spent time in Bangkok. How did that market respond to Muihood? Did you sell products there and did customers interact with them differently versus the UK?
I didn’t actively sell in Bangkok. Muihood’s core market is still the UK. But being in Thailand, surrounded by a culture that also values traditional medicine and holistic approaches, reinforced everything I believe and what we’re building. Thai Traditional Medicine has a lot of overlap with TCM philosophy, the understanding that health is seasonal, that the body needs balance.
What I noticed is that conversations about wellness there felt less trend-driven and more matter-of-fact. It’s not a lifestyle choice, it’s just life. After my trip to China last year, I saw this even more clearly. On XHS, young people are sharing moxibustion routines, herbal brews, cupping on their lunch breaks, not as some wellness trend moment, just as part of how they take care of themselves. That’s the normality I want to bring to the UK.
Any exciting things in the works for 2026?!
The biggest personal shift is that I’m going back to university to study acupuncture and become a licensed TCM practitioner. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’ve built a brand rooted in TCM, but I want to deepen my knowledge properly, not just as a founder talking about these practices, but as someone qualified to practice them and connect IRL with our community.
TCM is having a real moment in the UK, and I want to be part of shaping how it’s understood, not just as a trend, but as a legitimate approach to health. Training as a practitioner feels like the most meaningful way I can do that.
Morning ritual or evening ritual?
Evening.
Most underrated skincare trend?
Eating your skincare! Drinking jujube and goji berry tea.
One herb/plant everyone should know about?
Mugwort. It’s genuinely transformative for circulation, sleep and period pain.
Word(s) you’re tired of seeing in beauty marketing?
Bio-hacking and clean.
Favourite social platform right now?
TikTok & XHS.
A campaign you wish you’d created?
DOCUMENTS’ year of the horse perfume campaign. They didn’t treat the zodiac as a decorative motif or lean on obvious visual symbols, they framed the horse as a spiritual totem rooted in nomadic culture. It’s cultural storytelling done right. That’s the level of depth I want every Muihood campaign to have.
Proudest moment with Muihood so far?
Running our IRL events and spending time with our customers.
Best advice you’ve received as a founder?
Stop asking for permission. Just do the thing and iterate.
Muihood in 2026 in one word?
Momentum!
💛💛💛
Follow Muihood on Instagram and Tiktok and check out their website.
Want to collaborate with me in 2026? From marketing consultancy to event collaborations and brand partnerships, I’m open to new projects. Get in touch and let’s explore what we can collaborate together!