Kim Walls and Leila Kashani – Social Media Reputation & Beauty Travels

As a follow up to an earlier interview, today on RadioAMB, Patty Schmucker is sitting down for a second time with Kim Walls of Lime Crime to discuss how brands can deal with negative press and social media issues while still coming out on top. Patty also speaks with Leila Kashani, self-proclaimed SHE-E-O & Director of FUN at Sphynx.
Transcript:
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K at American made Beauty Calm today’s
show is a new show because we really had
a very interesting guest on our show
just a couple of weeks ago and it was
had really really rave reviews the
number of people that listen to the show
and followed us and commented on social
of which 99% of everything that was said
was really amazing but there were a few
things that were said that weren’t so
amazing and so we thought it was
important for us to take a little bit of
a u-turn from our regular scheduled
programming to bring back kim walls of
lime crime and talk a little bit about
the subject of reputation management in
our feature segment will talk a little
about social media the pluses and minus
and what reputation management is all
about and learn a little bit about the
back story for line crime and in our
second segment we’ll talk about some
tips and tricks for reputation
management in our third section today we
will be introducing to you to a fun new
little brand that I saw at the Indy
Beauty Expo which is a new portable
Raider raise your device and Hillary
you’ll meet the CEO and director of fun
of that brand and finally in our last
segment today we’ll talk about new
innovation in beauty it’s the beginning
of the year it’s the time of year where
all sorts of new things are happening
and new ideas are being stimulated and
I’ll share with you some important
things to consider if you’re looking at
or considering jumping into the space
with a new brand so let’s get started
with our gasps – I want to thank Kim for
taking time from her busy schedule
Kim walls is the general manager of Lyme
crime
she’s a fourth-generation entrepreneur
and second-generation health and
wellness expert Kim welcome – thanks for
taking the time with us today thank you
so um we talked at the top of the hour
that this you know we had a wonderful
show with you and learned a little bit
about your background and also about
Lyme crime and put it out there and the
virtual world had wonderful wonderful
feedback and social media attraction but
a few things that came back that weren’t
so positive so let’s talk a little bit
about how important is reputation
management when you’re dealing with a
digital brand and so when you when you
think about it what are let’s talk a
little bit about Lyme crime and utilize
that as a case study on what do you talk
about what what don’t you talk about
okay
well as you know one crime was as we
discussed previously with some in 2008
in very early stages of social media and
so it grew up and it was one of the
first digitally native brands so it grew
up in the limelight every mistake that
every brand makes as they’re growing
whether it’s for getting the check a
label or not understanding something or
just not knowing right into something
these mistakes that Lemm crime made just
like every other company makes them
we’re done in the spotlight know the
brand didn’t have the chance to learn
and grow like a normal brand does it
reflects what’s going on in every aspect
of our culture which is that people are
existing socially and when doing that
when growing a brand I think the most in
my opinion the most important thing to
do is be honest and transparent and make
sure that you’re including your
customers on your journey
over-communicate versus under
communicate there are certainly ways to
communicate that are not appropriate the
one I’m saying over communicate I’m not
that’s not the person you wish would
never stop talking style it’s the make
sure that the messages you’re sharing
bring people into your world in a way
that allows them to be connected so that
they develop the right understanding
they have empathy and an toughen and I
would say that in a brand like with a
brand like lime crime it has a very very
passionate and loyal base and it means
something at the DNA level to people it
means something much more than just
products are just makeup the level of
attachment people have to something the
amount of love is married by by hate and
so where you have deep deep deep passion
and inspiration there’s always going to
the pendulum will swing just as hard the
other way so I think that knowing how to
handle the handle the tough stuff is an
important part of the overall customer
experience I would equate it to you know
dealing with a marriage or children or a
best friend but you have to be able to
get through the hard times together in a
really invested committed way in order
to get the
out of the best time right right and so
in this situation where they were having
problems with some of their fulfillment
which is what I hear some of that early
stuff was what would have been the best
way for that brand to have addressed it
at that at that early stage in their
development now I can there are multiple
touch points I think so for it for any
brand you look at all the touch points
that you have with your consumer it’s
notes that go in packages it’s social
media its customer service whether it’s
chat email or phone calls it’s it’s
media and advertising there’s so many
different touch points and so having
unified messaging across those touch
points that is appropriately presented
for those touch points is really
critical in any kind of transition so I
I can I’m going to guess one of the
fulfillment issues you were talking
about other I mean there were several
really every every brand has its has its
stories but one in particular is there
was one year when Lime Crime grew triple
more than tripled in a very very short
period of time and was experiencing out
of stocks they didn’t have enough people
or enough experience or enough
coordination to be able to turn off the
mechanism by which people order need
time for the out of stock there are a
lot of the Ennis is true on most
websites if you have call it 500 people
ordering something at the same time then
the system’s most of them don’t actually
mark inventory as out of stock so the
transaction is complete so if you have
500 people put an item in their cart and
then go through a transaction all at the
same time the system literally doesn’t
know that 500 orders were just placed it
might have only had been showing
inventory for five pieces but the
inventory wasn’t actually checked out
until after the transaction then you
have 500 people well 495 people right
sample who has placed an order
paid but there’s no product to ship
right right and simple logistical stuff
that you then have to deal with in
minutes appropriately but in Lyme crimes
cases a few people so they didn’t to
think about you know five minutes per
person five hundred people it takes days
right right right right you have to find
better ways and faster ways more
efficient ways but mostly just do your
best to make sure that that kind of
stuff doesn’t happen and this is
something we spoke about on our previous
call as well is most of the of the
challenges come from logistical issues
and so if a brand is growing rapidly and
experiencing all the benefits of that
it’s really important to invest in the
people who will help make sure those
kinds of things don’t happen right
exactly and they have those investments
so specifically because I know that it
will be helpful for us in terms of
dealing with some of the socials because
you had some specific answers one of the
the things that came up was relative to
credibility or security around
transactions and credit card
transactions can you address that
sure so security all right we’ll start
off by saying this what people no
understand comprehend what your general
consumer population somebody who just
loves makeup in a sign of product has a
really minimal amount of knowledge and
understanding of how things work when it
comes to PCI compliance and security
breaches and really technical stuff
because they don’t need to know right
continue so here’s an example and this
happens all the time with almost all
security breaches that have breached
online for ecommerce sites the breach
will happen and then it won’t actually
be discovered for some amount of time
maybe it’s two days maybe it’s two
months but it can be years on a slow
leak and when the company then announces
that they had a security breach
they’re required by law to say when it
started mm-hmm so what happens again and
again and again is that the companies
come out with this information and they
say then
oh maybe on December 1st they’ll say
there’s been a security breach
since October 1st and all those other
information and what the consumer hears
is you knew mm-hmm about this breach for
3 months and you didn’t tell us you are
evil right and that’s just not the way
it works they didn’t know that whole
three months but they have to say that
they did so there are agencies that are
specialists in communicating about this
kind of information there are people but
mostly it’s just say it again and again
and repeat and be patient and staff
that’s for customer service and you
expect people expect people not to
understand right not because they’re not
smart but because that is not their
relevant experience and and be kind and
be patient and be ready be ready has the
customer service in place have the
answer is considered don’t try to figure
it out on the fly right right and that’s
a great point I mean because it again
and it’s all about that marriage where
you’ve got deep passionate connection to
experiences and brands and people you
want to be able to work through those
tough times so as much as there’s the
responsibilities on the side of the
brand to be transparent and to have
integrity in the relationship there’s
also on the other side is the consumer
engaging and giving people being willing
to learn and listen and understand that
there really is two sides to it you know
every story and and and being open to to
the facts to the other one that was
raised was some background stuff with
regards to the original founder and and
some some early things that she did in
her life that would she first came to
the US and not really understanding as
far as costuming and things like that
can you address that a little bit more
sure yeah so our founder is from Russia
and she when she first came to this
country as
teenager she had a lot to learn about
our culture she’s never been out of
Russia until she got here and in this
particular case that you’re mentioning
her understanding of Halloween was it at
the time when you dress up like a
monster and being a Russian Jewish
descent the biggest monster in her life
and in her world was Adolf Hitler and so
she wore a little mustache and a couple
of other pieces that that indicated in
the adult Hitler costume and the
Americans with their full full full
cultural relevance to knowledge and
understanding the ages just never never
just best an untouchable you just go
there she didn’t have that information
and so she had to learn it that was
actually long before she founded Lime
Crime and it was something that once she
understood the full implications of what
she’d done she was a really really
apologetic for she apologized publicly
many many times and you know she has
many people just descent working in the
company she founded and is not in any
way you know she’s she’s she’s a good
person right and and that was just a
really unfortunate situation that social
media kind of grabbed on to and took out
of context and made up a lot of things
about in it and I and that is one of the
pieces that is also part of this
reputation management is that we there
are all sorts of different the Internet
allows you to pull all sorts of
information and to put it in today when
number one it isn’t it it was long
before she owned the brand but second of
all is like you said out of context
and so is this something that you like
prepare the staff for and and everyone
really understands where that came from
as part of the reputation management
strategy that you use as a company
well basically no because
if you know something’s going to go
wrong do it in the first place so this
is the kindest all of these situations
are things where it’s critical to have
experience at the table to rely on
experts to be able to act very very
quickly hmm
responsive quickly but not in a
knee-jerk way thoughtful way so that
requires training experience and experts
and when those and and it’s so the part
where it’s important to be prepared is
to make sure various people know who to
call immediately the plan isn’t to have
a plan the plan is to figure out how to
make a plan fast it’s a good great point
how to make a plan fast because you
don’t really know what is is there and
you have to have an ability to process
and figure out what’s the appropriate
thing to do since you’ve been part of
the company and you joined them in 2014
right so just a three year period of
time at that point how how old was lime
crying at that point six years okay so
and when you come in as a new leader and
part of your as a general manager and
also being involved with looking at how
to develop a story around the brand what
are some of the things that you’ve done
in your leadership role specifically for
this company around those stories and
taking the brand to a new level you know
I’m going to probably going to give you
an answer that wouldn’t be what you’d
expect I’m hiring people that was really
the sort of the first and most important
thing to do was to and it started with
customer service because that’s the
first touch point with the with the
consumer so just going back a little bit
I would say that the electron has a very
strong brand identity and so that really
needed no no attention at all but what
did need attention was what still does
it is a work in progress and may always
be a work in progress is figuring out
all the different ways to communicate
the best elements of the breath
it’s the vegan products or the
cruelty-free position or you know all
the charity work that is done finding
more and more ways to communicate that
goodness hmm is is important and so at
the end of the day it’s figuring out
what are the main things we want to
communicate where do we want to
communicate them and then how right how
do you execute and that execution pretty
much comes down to people and systems so
create the main thing that I’ve done
over the past few years is implement
systems and people to take what we take
that nugget of greatness that’s there
and give it a platform to grow right
right in when you when you talk about
systems and people obviously one of them
like I said first of all hiring but
being able to develop that strategy on
how to think quickly and respond
appropriately to various different
things what were some of the other
systems that for a young company weren’t
there that you thought really needed to
be implemented reminding people not to
act independently is a big deal so for
example a comment comes in on customer
service if there’s no if it’s a negative
comment and it’s not a known negative
comment with you know a variation of
with a context to write from and
response not just trying to wing it but
actually coming back to a broader team
or management team and saying hey this
is new or something like if you get five
negative comments all on the same thing
then that that becomes an alert that
becomes something that you bring back to
whatever is the appropriate team whether
it’s product development or marketing or
PR what-have-you so giving people
milestones and metrics framework so that
they have an idea of when to act alone
when to bring other people in who are
the right people to bring in at any
given time and it’s literally sitting
down figuring it out writing it down and
getting agreement everybody or at least
almost everybody that this is the right
you know this is what we’re going to do
and get
not cross-functional agreement between
people is super critical people can’t be
acting alone right right yeah absolutely
and so we’re going to wrap up this
section when we come back we’re going to
talk a little bit more about some of the
tips that brands can follow in growing
in a virtual community and when to do
nothing so stay with us and we will be
right back with Kim wall of walls of
line crime
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life dotnet hi there this is patty
Schmucker and you’re listening to radio
am beyond healthy life net I am here
with a general manager of line crime and
we’ve been talking about reputation
management as a virtual digital native
brand learning how to work in the
virtual world and develop a community is
really important and I know Kim in our
last segment you talked and used Lime
Crime specifically as a case study of
circumstances that happened in their
history and how you’ve been able to
utilize those experiences to develop
your team and to overcome of some of
those things as they occur um when you
are when a company is new beginning
starting and particularly now you’re
talking about the idea that many of
these companies are starting out in the
spotlight being an in social media right
away can you think about some things
that early-stage companies can do in
terms of structure that helps them to be
more transparent and organized to in the
early stages of their company yes so
transparency organization specific to
social media it’s generally it’s
typically in these types of companies
the founder who are the ones who are
establishing that early bridge that
early connection and it’s important to
remember that consumers when they’re
most passionate are really thinking
about a brand like it’s a person and
that one way communication doesn’t work
you can’t talk out to them and when they
speak to you you have
to be back and so getting support pretty
early making sure to stay engaged so
that it’s not a one-way conversation
building that relationship trait
remembering that each can each person
who’s commenting is a is a person nice
and a story and a history and a
perspective and and in the same way you
said in the earlier segment like
remembering to just be kind of empathy
and give the benefit of the doubt those
building these type of relationships
that will allow for that should problems
arise later should PR issues happen
later that starts from the very very
very beginning by taking the approach of
a two-way conversation through the
social media tool and I know in order to
be able to do that it seems like there
is more and more efficient tools
listening tools and things like that
that are coming about to make that a
little bit easier because it seems as a
business owner myself a really daunting
task to be able to run the business on a
day to day basis and and still be in a
situation in which you’re having this
engagement all of the time are there
particular tools that you like that
you’ve put in place that would help
early-stage companies to understand how
to properly engage in that two-way
conversation certainly are there really
are there tons and tons and tons of them
and that depends very much on the level
of the company so as much as I might
talk about data and process and strategy
those are not the things that start a
brand and those are not the things that
keep a brand alive there’s a difference
between a brandon of business brand is
not meaningful if it doesn’t produce
revenue to your profit to keep growing
but I actually who’s going to go against
everything I’ve just said in those very
early stages the authenticity and the
sort of truth and the point of view of
the brand is much more important than
anything else
because having a relationship with
consumers is the hardest part hands down
absolutely hands down competitively
everything else is easy because you can
pay for it
you can ask somebody to do it the magic
that happens when a brand is in its
nascent stages there’s there’s no
explanation for that and so my point is
don’t spend money on a bunch of tools
and a bunch of analytics and and worry
too too terribly much about the metrics
where first about authenticity and
delivering something meaningful to the
consumer if you don’t have something you
should never be in the position of
trying to figure out what to say you
don’t have something meaningful to say
probably better to not say anything
based on your like what you were saying
before with what it’s best not that so
the basic may be the tools in Instagram
are really sophisticated the tools and
Facebook’s very sophisticated you can
look at your penetration how many how
many what percent of your followers are
seeing your posts what happens if you
boost opposed to what happens if if you
anything they’re free google analytics
really really important very very
important that is one okay there you go
that’s the one right if I were to say to
a young company there is one tool that
you need to understand and use and start
thinking of as your best friends it
would be Google Analytics right and that
makes sense so when is it in social and
you and there is no matter what you do
it seems like there’s a situation in
which you get negative feedback tell us
what are the situations in which the
best strategy is to do nothing
situations where people are being late
in this opinion right where people are
being blatantly racist or blatantly
hateful hmm I think that those types of
comments should be deleted delete it
delete and do nothing
hmm any other situations doing that
thing usually isn’t isn’t the right
thing right if you get too dependent you
know there’s a certain percent if you
have a couple percent of your base that
is upset about something you definitely
need to do something but if it’s just a
few people watching wait watching wait
watch and wait
and if you’ve done something wrong if it
is a product and you have a product
issue certainly you do something
immediately make plan
stop plan and do something if it just be
the great thing about something then
unless it’s a very large significant
percent of the base when you do nothing
what people do they want to vent about
it right why and you make a great
distinction there too in terms of the
the what you just watch and wait and
then what you actually delete because I
know that there some school of thought
that you never want to delete anything
because then you’re not allowing for
your community to have an authentic
voice but it sounds that it sounds like
people ranting about various different
things is okay but hateful and racist
things those are things that you would
actually delete well in my case yes and
I think it might be different for
different brands and different people
but if I see tip getting beat up in the
park I as a human I’m going to be the
first person over there nothing right so
it depends it depends on what kind of
brand you are right right
alright great well Kim thanks I mean
these have been real pearls of wisdom
for someone who has really is really
leading the way in terms of creating a
dative digital native brand we really
appreciate you taking the time to come
and share your thoughts with us so
thanks again for being with us you’re
welcome thank you
thanks for the opportunity it’s fun to
be able to help people learn right great
well I have a safe trip to India and
we’ll look forward to another
opportunity to learn more about your
story in the future all right thank you
bye-bye all right well when we come back
we will talk a little bit more with a
another brand Lila Cassini will be with
us she is the CEO and director of fun of
a new innovative brand that I found just
this year so stay with us we’ll be right
back
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radio your way healthy life net hey
there welcome back this is patty
Schmucker and you’re listening to radio
am beyond healthy life net and we this
is the time of year where all sorts of
new things are happening and we get an
opportunity to see new things coming to
the marketplace earlier this year we
went to the Indy Beauty Expo that
happened here in Los Angeles and there I
had a chance to meet Layla Cassini who
is the CEO and director of fun of Sphinx
which is a new device that’s come to
market so welcome Leah I’m thrilled to
have you with us today so tell us a
little bit about about about what your
product is so things would go on because
I’m the queen of miss boss ah what I
call myself I’m constantly shaving in
the shower and getting out and realizing
the Sun hits my legs or my underarms or
reflect somewhere and then there it is
voila on the spot the queen of missed
spots is what you said okay I was I
didn’t quite catch that a queen of
missed spots okay here it kept happening
and no longer was it a Miss spot but it
was just you know the way that I was
living my life so busy didn’t have time
to keep up with my shaving routine
mm-hmm and so I thought you know I have
to come up with a solution and I was
working at a toy company and I was
presenting to target one day and I had a
huge presentation
and I realize none of the buyers will
paying attention to my presentation
mm-hmm staring at my unshaven underarms
what a girl what a great epiphany huh
and so a tell our audience exactly what
it is it’s a portable razor it includes
a little mini spray bottle a pre-shave
bar and a razor all in one in a compact
circle little contraption it looks like
a something that would fit perfectly
within your makeup bag hmm your compact
case rather than a traditional razor so
I wanted it to be something that you
were excited to show off your friends
that looks cute and fun and playful you
know stepping away from what we
traditionally see raises to look like
mm-hmm and so and it’s so cute it’s a
surround little device and either but
what I remembered about it is that you
had the spray bottle in it and you sort
of put the spray bottle in and then you
twist or turn it and up pops the bar
that you can use to moisten or you know
lubricate the skin right exactly
yeah so it’s like a twist style almost
like what you imagine your soul to have
you can twist em sex you know stick it
up mm-hmm
twist from section to section and all of
the functions are replaceable and resold
will so you can replace the razors when
they go dull you can replace the shea
butter and the shea butter actually is
moisturizing mm-hmm
once you shave that area and you have a
little bit of residue left on your skin
you can rub it in just like you would
moisturizer right and so um the what is
it was it retail for $14.99 $14.99 and
where can somebody buy it right now it’s
at Ulta Urban Outfitters Free People and
on our website shop sinks calm and spell
it at th y & x
okay so you put shop sth Y&X; calm okay
great great
and so how you you got the idea and I
love the inspiration in terms of your
hairy pits but the the how difficult was
it I mean you in your particular cases
not just it’s not a liquid
this was manufacturing and all of that
kind of stuff what was what was the
process to be able to actually bring
this to market several different
factories so I got soap manufacturing
factory that actually sees what I wanted
to design thousands of prototypes
you know the soap was the shea butter
was really hard to create if I had to
find something that wouldn’t melt in the
Sun that wouldn’t leave your skin sticky
that wouldn’t clog her you know cause
razor burn and cause the blade evens in
the detail of you know a single blade
doesn’t clog as much as I can through
your four blade that you use at home
along with the three or four blade is
something you have the opportunity at
home to tap it to a sink or the shower
wall to get the hair out but when you’re
on the go you can’t do that so there was
a lot of detail in the design which took
a long time I even had it you know some
holes on the side of the products for
the razor’s can drive faster to avoid
rusting so a long and painful process
but the outcome was worth it and is this
something that um did you go into it
knowing that it was going to take you
two years and having the resources to be
able to tube with stand that I
definitely did not projected to take
that long I thought I would be out in
the market six months after I started
mm-hmm that definitely was not the case
when actually ended up happening was I
had a bunch of prototypes created and I
gave them to a few friends and one of my
prototypes ended up on the front desk at
work and her boss saw it and asked if
she could have it and so my friend
called me and said I’m so sorry my first
week on the job I don’t have your
prototype anymore my boss ticket and I
don’t
I can’t figure out a right polite way to
ask for it back a couple of days go by I
hear nothing back from her and then it
you know on April 1st I get an email
from uLTA Beauty asking me if they can
meet with me and I thought it was a
prank because April 1st available right
right right
my favorite day of the year I thought
first her someone’s coming back to get
me but it actually was also beauty and
they were interested and so my timeline
you know at that point I was already a
year and a half in but because they
wanted to talk order and I had to go way
faster and move way quicker and and so I
think I would have even taken me two and
a half years had I not had to you know
get the bulbs rolling process all right
well that was definitely the universe
the universe calling you and saying this
is a right solution right time did it
was it helpful for you in terms of
funding the company and raising the
capital to be able to do the project
that you had a interest from ulta yeah
that definitely was helpful I think my
biggest lesson was whatever you project
as a budget double it and then double it
again mm-hmm so you know I worked
creating stories before this and I I had
an idea of how much plastic and
materials cost but there’s just so much
unexpected from patents and trademarks
and things that you just don’t think
about sourcing and manufacturing just
it’s a lot more expensive than you can
imagine and you know one thing goes
wrong is growing away everything is
starting all over again
right right but it definitely gave me
the guts to continue saying that right
well and you’re you’re fortunate in that
you know the way that the circumstance
is turned around all of a sudden you
have a big buyer that’s interested and
so you know you’ve got some sense of
guarantee with regards to the revenue
did you did when they made an interest
in you did they bring you out was your
first order for just online or did they
bring you in the stores
they brought me in stores up the
nationwide okay great but you know
investment in the machines that build
the product is around like sixty to a
hundred thousand dollars nothing no
order size could even if it was you know
for everything one of their stores it
wasn’t going to take it doesn’t help
that much they just help get the brand
out there and it’s really good i had to
i woke up in illinois with panic attacks
for a good months wondering if i was
making the right decision and you know
my husband kept saying don’t worry
opportunities are going to show up in
the hardships are going to get easier
now telling the story it’s easy to
remember the opportunities that i got
and try not to remember the hardship
that i had but there was plenty of times
where i was having a hard time getting
out of bed and keep going because of
some of the bumps in the road right but
and that but it that’s really part of
this journey as well I mean that’s what
part of the story is that all new brands
have those rough rough times so what was
it that got you out of bed I you know I
really think I married a mini Tony
Robbins that’s helpful I was ready to
quit several times she kept pushing me
and and reassuring me that it was worth
it and then when you have you know
retailers like Alton and other brands
showing interest and excitement around
the market in general like a lot of my
friends were finally something like this
I needed something like this and that
was reassuring and kept me going for
sure mm-hmm
and and and I think that that’s an
important part of the part of working
with a new product or brand or any kind
of new adventure is have a support
system and you are fortunate to be able
to have a husband but it sounds like
you’re more more than just your husband
you’ve got a really great support system
around you people my husband didn’t
understand why women you know portable
razors he’s like I don’t understand
because he shaves in the shower or he
sees it I thought he shaved in front of
the things and there’s a mirror above
and if you see every air
right for them it’s different so he we
didn’t understand it but these are the
excitement of the people around me you
kind of you always have people who are
skeptical and you just have to close
your eyes to them and go with your gut
sometimes and try to surround yourself
with the people who are enthusiastic
about it so you stay motivated great
well thank you thanks for taking a few
minutes to tell us I thought it was one
of the cutest things that I saw at the
show and I was really excited to be able
to share your story so again tell them
where what’s the name of the product and
where they can find it the party is
called sinks and you can find it at Ulta
three people anthropology Urban
Outfitters or website shop thanks comm
great thanks again for being with us
thanks so much you’re welcome all right
we’re going to take our final break and
when we come back we’ll talk about some
of the things that’s if you’re thinking
about bringing a new brand of market
what are some of those things that you
should be thinking about so you don’t
find yourself in a situation with
running into things that you didn’t
expect stay with us we’ll be right back
[Music]
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[Music]
welcome back for our last segment today
it’s really been a great show I love
being able to do these spontaneous shows
and in this segment I want to talk a
little bit about bringing new brands to
market this is a really exciting time in
the industry when it would beauty
wellness health why because we know more
about the human body than we’ve ever
known before we know about how cells
function how it how they digest take in
food how they digested how they expel
how they work and so we have the
capacity through that understanding to
be able to create delivery systems and
both topical and ingestible beauty that
truly is is creating responses from the
body that are amazing I’m almost 60
years old I’ll break my 60th birthday
this year and I’ll tell you my skin is
going through a revolution I just feel
that the various different things that
I’m using I of course have the luxury of
experimenting with all sorts of
different products I have on my desk
right now six brands one of them four of
them from America one from Australia and
another one from China and to be able to
see the new technology that’s taking
place in beauty is is quite exciting and
so the so that’s the one thing is that
we know more about the body but we also
have some specialization that’s taken
place in our understanding of cosmetic
chemistry delivery systems of natural
and organic ingredients and white papers
and statistical analysis that has been
done to be able to demonstrate what
these various different things do and
how they respond on and in the body and
so it is a whole Renaissance in beauty
and if you’re using a product that’s
more than five or six years old maybe
ten years old
you’re really using old technology and
it’s time to look at some of these new
innovative brands that aren’t caught up
with their formulas that they’ve had for
decades and are willing to bring you on
new and interesting brands and some of
the places that we’re seeing these new
and innovative brands come to market is
Indy Beauty Expo is a place that
actually is designed for new and
innovative brands Indy Beauty Expo
happens in Los Angeles Dallas and New
York every year and this year 2018 will
also be going to London and then there’s
the traditional shows for the beauty
industry is Essie Chicago Midwest and
the New York show those are all places
that take place where you can see new
and innovative brands but the first
quarter of the year is where we see a
lot of new innovation come into the
marketplace and I love it because in my
business I am constantly having
companies come to me and wanting to be
able to bring new products to market
but there are some critical things you
heard Lila from Kashani Sphynx who has
brought this new razor to market and she
said in her interview with us whatever
your budget is double it and then
Triplett I’ve got a little bit of a
different advice get involved with
someone who has the capacity to help you
to understand upfront there is there are
a lot of experts like performance
branding services american-made Beauty
that can help you we have a subscription
that you can participate in to learn
what are the critical things that brands
need to understand to play effectively
in the beauty space this is a very
crowded market it’s gotten more and more
crowded but it’s also a wonderful time
for innovation and things that are
happening in the marketplace that there
is opportunities in every category to be
able to create new technology and bring
new things to market but it is crowded
and you need to have resources we had
the president of the courser group on
earlier this year and one of the things
he said is
money is good but smarts is even better
and so being smart about how you are
going to be entering the marketplace and
having an idea in advance what are the
critical things that you need to know
and what those things are going to cost
you is really important and so here’s
some of the high high points that I term
I talk to brands about when they’re
talking to me about entering the
marketplace the first is is that you
need to be able to have a recognizable
brand and you need to be able to own
that and so as it is market is crowded
one of the parts of creating a
recognizable brand is that there is a
brand name that you can own and finding
a brand name that you can own becomes
really difficult in a market place where
almost every name in the world is taken
the the.com
even if you can find something that’s
not trademarked the dot-com for that is
being squatted on by someone so there’s
a lot of work that goes into creating a
name for a product and something that
can be very distinctive and you can own
and so the first very critical thing is
the brand that you are going to create
the identity that you’re going to create
and that you can own it and then when I
say own it it can be trademark protected
over and over again I see new brands go
to market go to the Indy Beauty Expo go
to these various different places and
exhibit their product with no trademark
protection whatsoever the problem with
that is that when someone else sees it
and they see that there is no marks on
the packaging that shows that
intellectual protection has been legal
protection has been created that means
that that brand name or mark can be
copied so that somebody else can use it
that they can go out and trademark it so
very first thing make sure that you
understand what it means to trademark
your product that you get an ownable
name and that you protect it right from
the very beginning it’s very very
important obviously having something
that’s distinctive something you don’t
want another me to product you
know how many products come across my
desk that are bar soap a body wash a
lotion a shampoo and a conditioner I
could choke at the number of these
products that I see every day unless
you’ve got something that’s different
don’t go in those categories go make
something that really is unique and
different and then understand what it’s
really going to cost you to bring that
product to market so you can do all
sorts of research for example on very
innovative and wonderful ingredients to
a product but in order to be able to
manufacture that you have to understand
what it’s going to cost to bring that
unique ingredient into the product and
manufacture it so most for example most
ingredients that would go into a an
initial order of say five thousand
pieces of a shampoo would maybe use
three to five pounds of a particular
ingredient but those but that particular
ingredient the manufacturer must order
fifty pounds in order to get you your
three pounds to make your first batch
that makes that ingredient cost
prohibitive for a new brand to include
this and many many other things are what
we talked about in our beauty industry
market access program which is the
educational arm of american-made beauty
and where we really help brands to
understand what is the true cost of
entering the marketplace is there an
opportunity today to make a successful
brand in the beauty industry
absolutely but as a Harlan Kirschner
says the money is good but smart is even
better so get smart with us and thanks
for listening to american-made Beauty
where we work with brands to help them
be effective in the marketplace because
we think pretty is pretty important in
all things in beauty
[Music]
you
[Music]