Eskil's Progress Thread: Starting a Supplement Business from Scratch

[magneto]

Hey man, nice thread you've got going on here. Repped and subscribed!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Eskil]

Good news, bad news, but a blessing in disguise...

So, I finally received my shipment on Friday from the manufacturer!

But - they messed up my bottles and printing pretty bad - to the point where I don’t feel comfortable selling them. First off - they had used black caps instead of white as I had ordered. Not a huge deal of course, but a little attention to order detail wouldn't hurt. What was worse is that they used a 180cc bottle size instead of 250cc (again, different than what I had ordered). This is a real problem, because the labels I designed were for 250cc bottles, so naturally they will not fit right on smaller bottles. So they had shrunk my labels to fit, and even then they didn't fit right - so they ended up wrinkled on the backside and looking very unprofessional. Some of the print also becomes too hard to read at the shrunken size and it looks shitty.

I have since spoken with the manufacturer and they have acknowledged the mishap. I suggested that I could re-bottle everything myself if they will send me the proper bottle and cap sizes + new shrink bands for sealing. They agreed to this and will send me all these new materials this week. I will also get the labels taken care of myself by someone who can print them for me in good quality.

More interestingly though - sometimes things happen for a reason I think. Because that mishap actually turned out to be somewhat of a blessing in disguise! It was over the weekend while looking at all this again, that I discovered that the UPC code I have on the labels (from Cheap-UPC-Barcode.com) can't be used. I just posted about this in this thread. So I ordered a new UPC code today for $29.99 at Mozian.com. Looks like you can also buy two or more UPCs there for $19.99 each. I'm not affiliated with them in any way btw.

So now I will have to re-print my labels anyway, and I did some more tweaking to them to fit a slightly different label dimension.
My original label is 7.47 x 2.873 inches. But I think the new bottles and labels will be 7 x 3 so I will have a bit more room vertically, and less horizontally. I took care of this re-design last night and now just need to switch out the UPC code in my label PSD file.

 

[mrsilva]

Good luck my friend and thanks for sharing the progress with us!

Any peak on the new design?

 

[Eskil]

Since you asked, here is the current design I am going for:

Oh and I also updated my blog today with some of what I have learned:
Creating a Nutritional Supplement Brand | Profitapolis

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[1step]

Nice bottle, looks very professional. Is your company name still the same, I dont want to post it incase you are trying to keep it out of the thread, I didnt see it any where on the bottle, did you change it?

 

[Eskil]

Thanks, 1step. Yeah I will still use the original company name and it is now on the back side of the bottle. The company name was originally also meant to be the product name - but I changed my mind.

 

[Talisman]

It's getting agonizingly close now! Can't wait to hear about all the ways you're going to distribute, advertise and push it into the market. Are you going to share your sales figures (broadly, detailed?), breaking it down to sales channels? Sorry getting ahead of myself.. I just know selling the damn thing is the big battle for me.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mrsilva]

Looks better than the other designs that you had.

On the shelf I don't really stop to read the whole bottle and because you used a heart I would assume is a heart medicine and not a "multi-vitamin"

Did you keep the same logo design?

Good luck!

 

[Eskil]

It's getting agonizingly close now! Can't wait to hear about all the ways you're going to distribute, advertise and push it into the market. Are you going to share your sales figures (broadly, detailed?), breaking it down to sales channels? Sorry getting ahead of myself.. I just know selling the damn thing is the big battle for me.

I don't know yet if I will share sales figures here, but I will think about it. I will start off slow with sales channels and scale out if/as necessary

Looks better than the other designs that you had.
On the shelf I don't really stop to read the whole bottle and because you used a heart I would assume is a heart medicine and not a "multi-vitamin" Did you keep the same logo design?
Good luck!

Thanks. Yeah in a way it kind of is 'heart medicine' too, although not medically speaking but more in terms of its direct or indirect benefits. But that's not why I put the heart on there. The heart shape has (in food and drug products) a broad association with health, and so do green leaves. I will make another post soon about how I designed my entire label - back to front.

 

[million$$$smile]

I will make another post soon about how I designed my entire label - back to front.

You have done a really great job on creating this product so far, really impressed. Can't wait to read how the label was created, perhaps what software you used if you did it yourself...

Randall

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[1step]

Thanks, 1step. Yeah I will still use the original company name and it is now on the back side of the bottle. The company name was originally also meant to be the product name - but I changed my mind.

Did you do any sort of testing to make this decision? It seems as though with a new product in a new market this could be very important, and I wonder if you did any PPC testing or other form to decide on the name?

 

[Eskil]

Did you do any sort of testing to make this decision? It seems as though with a new product in a new market this could be very important, and I wonder if you did any PPC testing or other form to decide on the name?

You know, I admit I've been torn about this - and no, I didn't do any testing. After having read the book "22 Immutable Laws of Branding", and received some insight from others - I might place the company logo right above the product name - but in a smaller, subtle way.

 

[Eskil]

How I made my supplement label...

Ok, so I promised I would make a more detailed run-down of how I designed my own supplement label. Keep in mind, I have never designed any product packaging before, so bear with me here, lol. I did it myself because I have always enjoyed graphical work a lot (been working with image editors and pixeled design since the Amiga in 1990).

Please note: This post is for those who want to learn the thinking process behind designing your own label. So, I’m posting this mostly to share with you guys HOW I did this, and I’m not looking for input and criticism so much at this point as to WHY I chose so and so. If you think my label sucks - or that I should change this, that, or this…well then, that’s gonna just have to be for now.

How did I do it?
I designed everything from scratch in Photoshop. As a starting point, I looked at several supplement and vitamin bottles for inspiration. I decided that for my product, I wanted a 250cc / 250ml bottle size. Yes, this bottle is bigger than necessary but part of this is to convey value. So I measured existing labels on same sized bottles, e.g. “One a Day†vitamins, and found that they commonly use a 7.48 x 2.87 inch size. Knowing at least 300 DPI resolution is required for a good print, I created a blank document in Photoshop with those specs. When I was done, this would then be exported out as PDF, since that is what the printers (at the manufacturer’s) asked that I provide.

Theme and branding
A few months back, I had started out with a bunch of concept designs that I thought would look good. But after lots of feedback both here and from other people – I realized, most people thought those designs were ugly as sin and looked unprofessional, lol. So back to the drawing board I went. I also decided against doing a split-test of designs as I had said would do then. I thought: F*ck it – I’m not gonna waste time on all that now. Let’s get SOMETHING made and out the door. I can worry about details later!
So then I just decided on a totally new design concept of: CLEAN lines + no photo-like imagery + vector graphics + use of shadows + relatively few colors. The new label would try to communicate what the product is about: helping to improve long term health. A few green leaves, a heart, and some airy clouds would do! I didn’t need fancy swirls and all colors of the rainbow for this.

The colors may be a bit cliché, but if you look at most product lines in a range of categories – they are often used time and time again because:
1) People’s association with them
2) They work

I didn’t want to try to re-invent some wild new color scheme just for the sake of it. I want my product to SELL, and sell, because – people can know by looking at the bottle that this must be a product with health benefits. Hence the use of some calm blues, a fresh green, a mellow beige (for info), and a popping red for emphasizing how natural this product is.

I have also mentioned before that I still want my product label to be able to stand out if it ever goes on a store shelf. I believe I have still accomplished this – mainly by the use of the stark contrast black lines around the big cloud, then with the big bold lettering, and of course the prominent heart and green leaves.

Speaking of lettering, I am a big believer in legibility. Some products out there have names using fonts or colors that you can hardly make out from a far. Think shelf appeal! If you have to squint to read the name – people will also squint for reasons to pull their wallet out. I think customers should be able to read your product name on a label even 15-20 feet away. That goes for online too. Think of when your product image is shown as a thumbnail or shrunken down in some search result – if you still can read the logo at 60x60 pixels in size, it should work! (I tested mine at that low of a size by shrinking it in Photoshop…) ;-)

The image below kind of sums up the rest of my design choices, but here is a summary of other key elements of my supplement label:

* Be clear on what the supplement is for. What’s in it? What does it do? How does it work? Spell it out!

* Brief, list-like, benefit-driven description. Mine has them in short on the front, and more detailed on the back. Now…this may be different for some other types of supplements. Mine is a bit different by nature since it is a “multi†type supplement with multiple ingredients AND benefits.

* Establish trust and authority. Is the product safe and has been manufactured by a ‘proper’ manufacturer? Of course is has! Mention any certification that your manufacturer has. Any logos or symbols you can use here should be used, but don’t lie or abuse such symbolism! By symbolism I also mean use of the American flag. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, there is an increased sense of patriotism now in these troubled economic times with the job market still being bad. People LOVE supporting “American made†anything. If you live in another country – you might have a gut feeling of whether you should use patriotism like this. I know that for supplements – “Made in USA†would be a stronger selling point in other countries as well – than if they had “Made in Norway†on them and I bought it there.

* Transparency and full disclosure of ingredients. Not only is this required by the FDA – but it’s also nice to have on there (even if this wasn’t legally required). The way I did mine was to try to make it a bit more interesting as well, by making the “Supplement Facts†label in theme with the colors of the clouds. I thought it looked more neat than if I had stuck with the standard white label.

* As long as you have room to fit it in - include anything that can help convince the buyer that the product is: A) Safe, B) As natural as possible (if applicable), C) Can give the benefits that it claims. This includes selling points such as “No glutenâ€, “No food coloring†etc. Anything like that could be useful for people checking the labels to convince themselves. For instance, if you are using capsules that are made from a non-gelatin substance (i.e. no animal by-product), then you can also say that it is vegetarian or vegan. Make sure with your manufacturer what is and isn’t used in ALL stages of manufacturing so that you do not make any mistakes here though. Your manufacturer will send you the info you need here, but double-check with them what you can and cannot say in relation to what is IN your supplement and/or encapsulating it. I also included a choking hazard for children under the age of 2 as I’ve seen this on several other capsule type products.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[1step]

Is there anyway you can include a larger version of the label? Having a hard time reading it

Do you have to change the Lot # and Batch for each order or is that the location your company automatically prints that info?

 

[Eskil]

Is there anyway you can include a larger version of the label? Having a hard time reading it

Do you have to change the Lot # and Batch for each order or is that the location your company automatically prints that info?

I'll see if I can post a larger one. For now, I thought this smaller one (forum width) would serve as a rough guideline.

For larger batches, the company will print the lot+exp. With this small batch I am including them myself on the label.

 

[1step]

I'll see if I can post a larger one. For now, I thought this smaller one (forum width) would serve as a rough guideline.

Actually it is a good size, the problem is when us non-INSIDERS view it sometimes an ad appears on that post shrinking the size of the image significantly, last time an ad was on that post and it was very small, now without an ad it is alot better. Awesome work

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mayana]

This is awesome work! I'm excited to watch your progress - thank you so much for sharing it

 

[Eskil]

Thanks 1step and mayana.

My new 250 cc bottles, white caps, and shrink bands arrived on Wednesday, yay...

Yesterday I also made final revisions to the label - double and triple-checking everything to be sure, will get it printed through a friend who owns a high-quality (photo quality) printer. Hoping now to start selling next week.

 

[OnePerCent]

I'm not interested in supplement business but I like the way Eskil is delivering his own journal.
Just subscribed.
How can I miss the thread of a good WickedFire member?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Eskil]

I'm not interested in supplement business but I like the way Eskil is delivering his own journal.
Just subscribed.
How can I miss the thread of a good WickedFire member?

Hehe, maybe I should have used my Wickedfire avatar

 

[OnePerCent]

Hehe, maybe I should have used my Wickedfire avatar

:smxB:
It's your twitter and your blog name

 

[HD_edacity]

Hey,Eskil
I had an idea for a custom ingredient supplemental but ended up giving that up because of health Canada's regulations and decided to just take an existing product from a manufacture and re-brand it. I just got a quote back for a bottle of 120 capsules, its gonna be $16/per for 144 and around $11/per for a order of 500 (with labeling designed by me not including shipping). I'm thinking this is kind of high especially considering that i'm on a shoestring budget and only want to order ~25 which will probably cost even more. Should I try and negotiate it down or this price industry standard?

Cheers, HD

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[1step]

its gonna be $16/per for 144 and around $11/per for a order of 500

Thats really expensive, I wouldnt use that company. Without knowing the ingredient its hard to say but None of the supplements I have seen have been that expensive. Also, we are both based in the US so Im not sure how that effects things. By what I have seen though, very expensive

 

[Eskil]

Hey HD;
Yeah like 1step pointed out - that sounds high. But then again, costs could be lower for us here in the US. Was this a Canadian private labeling company that quoted you that price?

See if you can contact some more manufacturers and compare prices. If it's an existing formula like you said, you should try to get something in the $5 - $8 range. Unless of course, this is a specialty type supplement that generally sells at a higher price point. Look at similar supplements and see what you can expect to sell it for. Then consider this with a wholesale price in mind, and your own margin when selling direct.

 

[HD_edacity]

Thanks for the input guys and Eskil cant wait hear how your progress is going!

When I first contacted them I thought they were wholly Canadian but it turns out they are an american company that just has a Canadian branch. Something else I found odd was that the FOB on the quote is from Pittsburgh, no idea why they wouldn't ship from within Canada. My plan is to see what price point I can get for a small quantity and if its too high I'll move on to other suppliers from there. (Under their brand the supplement sells for around ~$34).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Eskil]

Yeah I will post another update here soon. I decided to make a change in the label, which means I need to do another re-print of it. I'm on track though and excited to start selling soon.

@HD_edacity; Yeah it's always good to check around for pricing and terms from several companies. Some will be able to do label printing in-house, while some not.

 

[OnePerCent]

@Eskil
Have you already designed your sale/landing pages?

 

[Eskil]

@Eskil
Have you already designed your sale/landing pages?

Yes I have. It's about 90% complete, but lacks a couple more things + a checkout. It also needs to be made responsive.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[SeanyHang]

This thread has been a damn-good read. About 2 years ago I really wanted to get into the supplement industry (before a shoulder injury), when I was a meathead and quite the supplement junkie.

I worked at GNC for about a year and have seen SO many different types of multi's pass through - I really dig your redesigned cap - compared to 80% of the other brands that stock the shelves, yours will definitely "pop" more. Can I ask how much you intend to sell these for?

Also get us updated bro! I'm dying to hear what you've been up to!

++Speed

 

[CryptO]

I also keep checking this thread out because I was considering something similar last year.

I made a thread about pills that slow time which was basically about the same thing as what you (Eskil) are actually executing.

Good luck with this!