Hair Care that Actually Cares

[Bobby_italy]

Hi guys, I like to keep things short and simple so I'll try to keep this thread as easy to follow as possible.

Niche: Hair Styling products

Differentiation: Formulated keeping in mind what ingredients favor healty hair growth and minimizing those that ruin hair follicles, WHILE still providing a superior experience than the competition BOTH in HOLD/SHINE(where needed) and DURABILITY.

Products available at Launch: Matte Paste(Clay Based), Shiny Pomade(Water Based so easily washable) and Volumizing Hair Powder

Potential future Products: Beard Balm, Sea Salt Spray, Hair Gel

Little History: About 3 years ago I wasn't satisfied with the products on the market so I ordered 300 € of "ingredients" and with the help of a friend who had a lab and some online Home Brewers communities I managed to create 2 nice "prototypes", I studied a lot about the formulation of those products and had 100s of case studies from the other home brewers to see what changes lead to certain results.
Now those formulas are very expensive to re-create, literally 5x what it costs for normal products, but based on those I was able to optimize extisting formulas from a chinese manufacturer, and make their products that much better(providing VALUE) at least in my opinion.

Today came the ultimate samples that I can comfortably say meet my expectation, I'll show you examples with the matte paste and the hair powder in the following post, tomorrow I'll put more effort into explaining the pomade.

Plan:
1) Set up an ecommerce, the brand idea has an occupied domain that would cost me 900€, but to begin with I'll pass on that;
2) Create a company, have to consider what kind, I already have all the pros and cons of my 2 main options;
3) Funding, I can get a pretty large order of ONE product with my actual funds, but due to MOQ to get the 3 products ready since the beginning I would need financial help from my family/bank;
4) Amazon FBM/FBA, test out both after this pandemic is over;
5) Wholesale, I contacted most of my competitors pretending to be interested in distribution of their products, what they ask for is MUCH higher than what I expected to ask as a price, if I asked the same price I would have along the lines of 50%-80% margin(depending on shipping and quantity);
6) Marketing, this should really be in point 1 but for clarity I'll put it here, I have a nice plan set up and I already contacted a bunch of influencers to promote me(just to know their rates) on top of PPC;

For the Branding, I'm debating wheter to have the manufacturer do everything or just do it on my own and apply on the jars manually, I have more protection if they don't know what Brand I'm actually selling right?
I'm a little concerned with the fact that the manufacturer may share my improved formulas with other costumers but how can I stop this? It's not like I can patent it.

Operational Time-Line: Create the Company about Mid May, Beginning of June so this pandemic can get more stable and have the first order come in at about that time.

 

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[Bobby_italy]

First Picture is the Matte Paste applied on Dry hair.
Main advantage above competitions is that mine is a little creamier so it is easier to apply and wash out while still maintaining the same hold without greasing the hair.
I won't bore you with the healthy hair effects right now.


Second Picture Hair volumizing Powder, I shot a close up because if you've ever used one you can understand that it's invisible!
Actually 99% of companies only carry one kind of those, but I "formulated" two, to differentiate one is slightly stronger hold and the other one is medium(the one used in the picture).
Sadly when used even tho I know one is more durable and keeps hair in place better, there's very little difference if any at all so I may just initially carry the stronger one.
I really don't see why anyone would choose one over the other for such a small difference.

My hair is in an amazing state to showcase the effectiveness of those products, I haven't cut it in 5 months(had a buzz cut), so it isn't layered or any of that jazz and not even touched, would you imagine having your hair look like this after 5 months on not touching it?
I swear it's nice, without products I look a little homeless tho ahahah.

If there's any barbers or hair enthusiasts in here I'll send them free samples once I get the first order delivered.

Little close up to showcase the clay from the front:

 

[TheWriter]

How is the situation in Italy?

 

[Bobby_italy]

How is the situation in Italy?

Honestly everyone is bored to death but I guess the numbers keep increasing because people don't get tested until it's super obvious they have corona virus, but I'm close to the initial red zone so I can't speak for the whole country, IMHO there are at least 4x the reported cases.
We spent 2 days with my dad on a project to build an armwrestling table:


It actually took a lot of work, we just need to find some leather to cover the elbow pads, the phono-isolation is SUPER soft and feels good on the elbow

 

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[sparechange]

Focusing on online is silly and a waste of time imo, people don't give a crap how much you market online. Why should someone buy your product vs another that is already occupying shelf space at the local salon?

I can almost guarantee you will burn and waste a ton of money on Amazon, especially on pay per click, horrible strategy. Take your plan, throw it in the garbage and light it on fire.

When all the corona stuff is done start hustling your hair care products to local salons, start engaging with people in the community showcasing why your product is superior to others, selling a product like this is all about showing others WHY it's a great product, it will also be easier to convert someone into a paying customer provided your product works great for them.

A product like this is not exactly about marketing, this game is all about sales. The best person to learn would be the guy that was formerly homeless and made one of or the most successful hair care products in the world (John Paul Dejora) He is one of the few people on the planet that was HOMELESS and became a ''self made billionaire''

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPtKLdV6mGE


If I were you I would religiously study John Paul Dejora and find out why and how this guy is successful, and do my best to emulate his success.

Also ordering some crap from China is, I'm not sure what the word is, so I'll make one up, a reverse value skew. I think, and I may be wrong.... Italian people are very proud of their culture & country, if you can create a product in Italy, you'd have another value skew. People would be happy to buy your product (you can market it for free, Italian made product)

The only thing I like about your plan is wholesaling

 

[Bobby_italy]

Focusing on online is silly and a waste of time imo, people don't give a crap how much you market online. Why should someone buy your product vs another that is already occupying shelf space at the local salon?

I can almost guarantee you will burn and waste a ton of money on Amazon, especially on pay per click, horrible strategy. Take your plan, throw it in the garbage and light it on fire.

When all the corona stuff is done start hustling your hair care products to local salons, start engaging with people in the community showcasing why your product is superior to others, selling a product like this is all about showing others WHY it's a great product, it will also be easier to convert someone into a paying customer provided your product works great for them.

A product like this is not exactly about marketing, this game is all about sales. The best person to learn would be the guy that was formerly homeless and made one of or the most successful hair care products in the world (John Paul Dejora) He is one of the few people on the planet that was HOMELESS and became a ''self made billionaire''

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPtKLdV6mGE


If I were you I would religiously study John Paul Dejora and find out why and how this guy is successful, and do my best to emulate his success.

Also ordering some crap from China is, I'm not sure what the word is, so I'll make one up, a reverse value skew. I think, and I may be wrong.... Italian people are very proud of their culture & country, if you can create a product in Italy, you'd have another value skew. People would be happy to buy your product (you can market it for free, Italian made product)

The only thing I like about your plan is wholesaling

Hey man thanks for sharing that video, btw the producing in Italy part I considered heavily... the real problem is all of my competitors bar one just slap on the made in Italy on chinese products, there is very little regulation about the matter and some of those only sell on amazon don't even have a website.
Also producing in Italy kills every possibility of a profit, it would require at least 50/60k upfront investment and employees, without actually knowing if the product can sell, I'd like to start selling it first and if the revenue justifies it look into investing to start producing here.
The product in itself I can 100% guarantee is better than the competition from MADE IN ITALY products, I'm sitting and besides my pc there are two pomades one from china one from italy, the one from China smells better, is easier to apply and even looks better.
I will start with the partial made in Italy which means --> labeling, from my research I can't write 100% made in Italy but everything else is a gray area and costumers have no idea what's the difference.
IF everything goes well I have all the intentions to produce here, it's just a mess to start producing without first having solid proof that it can be profitable.

 

[sparechange]

I don'

Hey man thanks for sharing that video, btw the producing in Italy part I considered heavily... the real problem is all of my competitors bar one just slap on the made in Italy on chinese products, there is very little regulation about the matter and some of those only sell on amazon don't even have a website.
Also producing in Italy kills every possibility of a profit, it would require at least 50/60k upfront investment and employees, without actually knowing if the product can sell, I'd like to start selling it first and if the revenue justifies it look into investing to start producing here.
The product in itself I can 100% guarantee is better than the competition from MADE IN ITALY products, I'm sitting and besides my pc there are two pomades one from china one from italy, the one from China smells better, is easier to apply and even looks better.
I will start with the partial made in Italy which means --> labeling, from my research I can't write 100% made in Italy but everything else is a gray area and costumers have no idea what's the difference.
IF everything goes well I have all the intentions to produce here, it's just a mess to start producing without first having solid proof that it can be profitable.

50k? Are you sure, I think you can make shampoos at home.

10 Shampoo Recipes You Can Make at Home

10 Shampoo Recipes You Can Make at Home: Consider this instructable your ultimate guide to making homemade shampoo! Here are ten easy shampoo recipes you can use to find the perfect formula for your hair. The benefits are that you can use all natural ingredients, avoid all of the fillers …

www.instructables.com

There is a ton of recipes online that you could personally tweak.

 

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[Bobby_italy]

I don'



50k? Are you sure, I think you can make shampoos at home.

10 Shampoo Recipes You Can Make at Home

10 Shampoo Recipes You Can Make at Home: Consider this instructable your ultimate guide to making homemade shampoo! Here are ten easy shampoo recipes you can use to find the perfect formula for your hair. The benefits are that you can use all natural ingredients, avoid all of the fillers …

www.instructables.com

There is a ton of recipes online that you could personally tweak.

Man I'm fully aware of all that stuff, but it takes massive time investments and also for the kind of hair products that I'm getting manufactured it's not that easy, because you're also mixing water with oil for example so you need to take into account a lot of stuff.
Also those aren't professional and to produce 1000 pieces it would take me 1 month, I never count the hours I spend inside of the business but even at minimum italian wage I wouldn't be breaking even.

Trust me when I say machinery is needed or else I'd just be another bath tub soap maker that you can find on ETSY...

Quick math:
-1000 pieces, 10 minutes a piece: 166 hours or 21 working days, not taking into account that mistakes can be made and I could ruin a whole batch etc..
-Raw materials are expensive when you buy in Low Quantity so just for those I'd be spending around 2€ per piece,
-Jars I'd be looking at around 1€ per piece, if imported, if local like 2€,
-I would have to get certifications etc.. you need a VERY clean working space, I don't want to find random stuff inside a jar or I'm going to be pretty upset, wouldn't you?
-Labeling around 0,20€ per piece.

So one piece could cost me about 3,50€/5€ without counting the time invested, if we add that in-->10€/hour x 166 h = 1660€, total ranging between 5€/6,50€.
Also there would be a lot of problems with storing the raw materials some of which can't be exposed to light etc.. so I'd have to devote a room just to that.

From China shipped and taxes paid it comes at around 1,50/2€ per piece, zero work on my side. we talking 3X times the cost and to small salons I'm selling at 6€ according to my actual plan, if I were to produce them I would be completely unable to be competitive.
Hell one of my competitors is selling FAKE made in Italy at 7€ a piece.

 

[sparechange]

Interested to see the progress

 

[Bobby_italy]

I'll do my best not to disappoint anyone on the forum and in real life.
Meanwhile I created a youtube channel to share some videos I have which are super fun and just let people enjoy my weird personality more since I'm kind of inactive on both insta/fb but have thousands of people.
I'm uploading all the pranks etc.. that I have on the phone before sharing it and just putting the best videos for my closest friends.
If you wanna check it out I'll send a link in PM, it has zero entrepeneurial value just to pass some time while being in isolation rather than worrying.

 

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[Bobby_italy]

Oh the irony, STORY TIME:
Since I had a ton of free time on my hands (thanks korona) I started a YT channel because I'm kinda crazy and I make people laugh so why not?
Got some subs and tested some stuff(like ads from which i got 100+ views) with the help of Andy.
I taught I'm having fun with clash royale, it's the only game I play, I can spam it easier(real reason), I dropped an idiotic videos but I was banned since 1 year from the biggest italian group of the game... because I BMd the admin after beating him.

So I ask nicely to a mod that knew me who liked my channel, admin said "haha no problem I was mad sorry for banning you" small talk for 2 minutes and BOOOM SHAKALAKA, he owns a company that's like the biggest in italy for wholesaling Barbering products, he doesn't deal with hair care but redirects all of his clients to ONE other company and they do the same in return, I showed him all my work and he's willing to help me with distribution for a "commission" IF he likes my products, so within my first order IF everything goes well I should have a pretty big distribution channel.

Also YT is doing fine after 5 days I'm close to 1k views and 22 subs(like 10% of views from ads tho, useless in my niche imo) Goal is to hit 100 subs within 20 days and go from there.
I have already 20 videos up and most of them are hilarious.

 

[Determined2012]

Man I'm fully aware of all that stuff, but it takes massive time investments and also for the kind of hair products that I'm getting manufactured it's not that easy, because you're also mixing water with oil for example so you need to take into account a lot of stuff.
Also those aren't professional and to produce 1000 pieces it would take me 1 month, I never count the hours I spend inside of the business but even at minimum italian wage I wouldn't be breaking even.

Trust me when I say machinery is needed or else I'd just be another bath tub soap maker that you can find on ETSY...

Quick math:
-1000 pieces, 10 minutes a piece: 166 hours or 21 working days, not taking into account that mistakes can be made and I could ruin a whole batch etc..
-Raw materials are expensive when you buy in Low Quantity so just for those I'd be spending around 2€ per piece,
-Jars I'd be looking at around 1€ per piece, if imported, if local like 2€,
-I would have to get certifications etc.. you need a VERY clean working space, I don't want to find random stuff inside a jar or I'm going to be pretty upset, wouldn't you?
-Labeling around 0,20€ per piece.

So one piece could cost me about 3,50€/5€ without counting the time invested, if we add that in-->10€/hour x 166 h = 1660€, total ranging between 5€/6,50€.
Also there would be a lot of problems with storing the raw materials some of which can't be exposed to light etc.. so I'd have to devote a room just to that.

From China shipped and taxes paid it comes at around 1,50/2€ per piece, zero work on my side. we talking 3X times the cost and to small salons I'm selling at 6€ according to my actual plan, if I were to produce them I would be completely unable to be competitive.
Hell one of my competitors is selling FAKE made in Italy at 7€ a piece.

The people over at shark tank would love this, just because of the fact that you know your numbers! Lol

 

[Bobby_italy]

Today marks a week on youtube, I'm learning exponentially fast and the quality of the videos is going up, I'm going to try and make viral videos.
I have some crazy ideas and I hope they'll work out, got a professional video maker to produce a very high quality video with drones etc... of something epic that I won't share rn.

Little update: 1k views total, 30 subs, just uploaded the first "viral" video, will update soon.

Would anyone be interested in a youtube thread so I don't clog this one?

I was also thinking about starting a series about the products I talk about in this topic.

 

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[skintinnate]

Focusing on online is silly and a waste of time imo, people don't give a crap how much you market online. Why should someone buy your product vs another that is already occupying shelf space at the local salon?

I can almost guarantee you will burn and waste a ton of money on Amazon, especially on pay per click, horrible strategy. Take your plan, throw it in the garbage and light it on fire.

When all the corona stuff is done start hustling your hair care products to local salons, start engaging with people in the community showcasing why your product is superior to others, selling a product like this is all about showing others WHY it's a great product, it will also be easier to convert someone into a paying customer provided your product works great for them.

A product like this is not exactly about marketing, this game is all about sales. The best person to learn would be the guy that was formerly homeless and made one of or the most successful hair care products in the world (John Paul Dejora) He is one of the few people on the planet that was HOMELESS and became a ''self made billionaire''

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPtKLdV6mGE


If I were you I would religiously study John Paul Dejora and find out why and how this guy is successful, and do my best to emulate his success.

Also ordering some crap from China is, I'm not sure what the word is, so I'll make one up, a reverse value skew. I think, and I may be wrong.... Italian people are very proud of their culture & country, if you can create a product in Italy, you'd have another value skew. People would be happy to buy your product (you can market it for free, Italian made product)

The only thing I like about your plan is wholesaling

Why do you say the online route would be useless?
Because I was about to comment he could try selling directly through an Ecommerce store from IG/FB Ads etc. while building a brand

 

[sparechange]

Why do you say the online route would be useless?
Because I was about to comment he could try selling directly through an Ecommerce store from IG/FB Ads etc. while building a brand

Look at John Paul Dejora, he is a self made billionaire that sold b2b, no marketing, facebook, youtube or instagram. He went business to business and did straight up sales. Look into his story, its absolutely fascinating and inspiring. The way he grew his company was 100% hustling. He wasn't sitting on his a$$ posting online about his product.

Why bother trying to reinvent the wheel? Noone gives a crap about seeing some hair care products on facebook, instagram or youtube. The best way to sell this type of product is in person, through salons & stores, yes you can have online sales after actually acquiring customers, but getting customers from the digital world is much harder than selling in person (my own experience) how do you portray value through the online world? You can't, this is a product a customer needs to see with their own eyes, sample it, touch, smell and try it on themselves.

People think (and I have made this mistake in the past) that you can put some product up online, pay for ads and watch the money roll in. It doesn't work like that, you need to be out in the physical world showcasing your product, at least for this type of product.

What is building a brand? Having a consistent post schedule on instagram? Replying to people via social media? How do you differentiate yourself from the hundreds of other ''brands''?

The best way to grow a business like this is mass produce and monopolize the market, similar to coca colas strategy, if you study the Coke & Pepsi war, the reason why Coke dominated Pepsi was because they absolutely crushed them in how their products are sold, look at Mcdonalds, do you see Pepsi? Why is that?

A similar strategy should be employed, but take out the McDonalds and add in a hair salon. Do you see where I'm going with this? Again, whats the goal here, making a few hundred dollars online? Or creating an Unscripted life?

In my experience, the reason why alot of new entrepreneur's fail, is because of their strategy on how to go about business.

There are people in the world that sell socks, pet rocks, and other silly things & make millions. Yet if you challenged the average bloke to do the same, the vast majority of people will fail because they think about how to grow the business completely wrong.

Disclaimer, maybe I'm crazy, but I'd try to emulate the strategy of someone that has already done this business successfully already, not join the ranks of online money chasers fighting over fb ads and instagram posts.

 

[Bobby_italy]

Why do you say the online route would be useless?
Because I was about to comment he could try selling directly through an Ecommerce store from IG/FB Ads etc. while building a brand

I think he's a little out of touch with the latest big names that made a fortune through instagram and youtube/facebook.
If you see a brand has 100k insta followers and your 20 year old you're probably there because you clicked on the tag from someone with great hair who used their product.
For reference: HANZ DE FUKO(youtube game), SLIKHAAR(YT), BLUMAAN(YT but mainly through a FB group), SLICKGORILLA(instagram), I could go on for at least 20 names.
In the meantime even those that worked like you advice started running their own social campains, see reuzel etc...
If John were to start again today I GUARANTEE you he'd find his way on those platforms.

Also I completely agree on the in-store part, that's included in my "wholesaling" project, I have about 10k hair salons/related shops within 250 km radius from me, I'm OBVIOUSLY going to hustle and approach every single one of those but I think once you buy a product(that's probably overcharged) from a salon you just search for it on amazon right after, people aren't dumb they won't pay 20€ for a product they can get for 12€ shipped to their door.

A friend of mine is the best barber in the city(100k inhabitants), there's always at least 5 people waiting because his boss wants to milk every cent out of him and doesn't accept scheduling.

If everything goes well I could help the kid open his own place that could also be my "headquarters", he doesn't have the balls to do it by himself but I've already spoken to him and he's thought about the thing for years, he also has "the look" you know scissors tattos etc.. very good at small talking and making you feel welcome, awesome kid.
I was thinking about starting with him so in the beginning we don't have to close down if he has any problems and we don't have the capital to hire another kid, I've cut hair to friends and family for years but I'd obviously follow a course(lasts 2 weeks for 500€) before doing it professionally.

Also my biggest competitor in the area just did some sketchy shit where they COMPLETELY rebranded, I don't understand, they changed name/products/designs and it looks like they changed their target, first they were barber specific now they look more generic(?).

No more posts until I get my first order in, I guess about 3 months from now.

Take care and stay at home guys.

 

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[sparechange]

One of my previous competitors did not even advertise on social media, no facebook, no instagram, no youtube, twitter, nothing.

Yet stole 6 figures in sales from me. There are alot of business's that do not even have an online presence and are doing insane numbers in the real world.

 

[Bobby_italy]

Little update: Randomly came across a job offer from UPPERCUT (a very big name in the industry) in sales so I registered to the site and applied, got no response so far but one of their competitors for some reason messaged me, they're not exactly selling my "type" of products but it's in a similar niche(still men care) but it's a smaller italian company that has it's own products + distribution rights for a big brand here.

I really didn't expect this, they want to meet up and see if I could be a good fit, tbh I don't care about the money at all but I think I could learn a lot of stuff even if they're not exactly selling hair clay/wax.
It should be very flexible kind of entrapeneurial job, I'll get more details soon.
What I have learnt from now they care more about looks and status than my actual selling skills(I have no experience).
This little company had a 54% rise in revenue last year so they must be doing something right.

 

[DeletedUser0287]

Focusing on online is silly and a waste of time imo, people don't give a crap how much you market online. Why should someone buy your product vs another that is already occupying shelf space at the local salon?

I can almost guarantee you will burn and waste a ton of money on Amazon, especially on pay per click, horrible strategy. Take your plan, throw it in the garbage and light it on fire.

When all the corona stuff is done start hustling your hair care products to local salons, start engaging with people in the community showcasing why your product is superior to others, selling a product like this is all about showing others WHY it's a great product, it will also be easier to convert someone into a paying customer provided your product works great for them.

A product like this is not exactly about marketing, this game is all about sales. The best person to learn would be the guy that was formerly homeless and made one of or the most successful hair care products in the world (John Paul Dejora) He is one of the few people on the planet that was HOMELESS and became a ''self made billionaire''

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPtKLdV6mGE


If I were you I would religiously study John Paul Dejora and find out why and how this guy is successful, and do my best to emulate his success.

Also ordering some crap from China is, I'm not sure what the word is, so I'll make one up, a reverse value skew. I think, and I may be wrong.... Italian people are very proud of their culture & country, if you can create a product in Italy, you'd have another value skew. People would be happy to buy your product (you can market it for free, Italian made product)

The only thing I like about your plan is wholesaling

Wait what? Not about marketing? A product like this is 100% marketing and brand identity which then leads to sales.

 

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[sparechange]

Wait what? Not about marketing? A product like this is 100% marketing and brand identity which then leads to sales.

I'd say its not about marketing at all, look at spanx, Sarah Blakely mentioned having a $0 budget for marketing yet grew a multi billion dollar company by word of mouth, same with Paul afaik, Lululemon aswell at the start had no marketing campaigns... Even MJ grew his books by word of mouth.

Why not learn something from these people? Marketing is just a bonus, but should not be the focus.

If the OP has a good product he doesn't need to advertise, because 1 sale = 3, and the three turns into 30 and so on.

 

[Bobby_italy]

I'd say its not about marketing at all, look at spanx, Sarah Blakely mentioned having a $0 budget for marketing yet grew a multi billion dollar company by word of mouth, same with Paul afaik, Lululemon aswell at the start had no marketing campaigns... Even MJ grew his books by word of mouth.

Why not learn something from these people? Marketing is just a bonus, but should not be the focus.

If the OP has a good product he doesn't need to advertise, because 1 sale = 3, and the three turns into 30 and so on.

let's just say that marketing is good but it isn't the ONLY way, I see a lot of local salons(like little franchises) who have their own products that they sell for OUTRAGEOUS prices like 25/30€ a piece of dubious origin private labeled product, they know it's not the best but the labels melt in with their brand and it looks good so their only marketing is in-shop sales.
BUT those people would sell exactly 0 on amazon or ecommerce in general because in the grand picture they're no one and their brand isn't widely recognized.
The only one I can think of making it in ecommerce with stupid prices is MORRIS MOTLEY, his products are good I'll give him that but there's no way in hell he has more than 2$ MAYBE 3$ expense per product.
He was super lucky that some of his "sponsored" youtube videos blew up and got millions of views, he became the FERRARI of men hair products during that time.

It really blows my mind how someone can mark up 2000%+ and still make that kind of sales, the thing is that hair products are not a watch or a phone, people don't see them when you're around so it's not even a status item, the effect of his products is also not unique in any way, because honesly everything has already been "invented".
Nice case study to figure out.

 

[DeletedUser0287]

I'd say its not about marketing at all, look at spanx, Sarah Blakely mentioned having a $0 budget for marketing yet grew a multi billion dollar company by word of mouth, same with Paul afaik, Lululemon aswell at the start had no marketing campaigns... Even MJ grew his books by word of mouth.

Why not learn something from these people? Marketing is just a bonus, but should not be the focus.

If the OP has a good product he doesn't need to advertise, because 1 sale = 3, and the three turns into 30 and so on.

I don't know what you consider marketing, but Seth Godin (literally 10/10 marketer) talks about the Ps of Marketing: Product, Pricing, Promotion, Positioning, Publicity, Packaging, Pass-along, Permission.

Just because marketing doesn't cost money, doesn't mean it isn't marketing. All the examples you stated are pretty much marketing examples. Marketing is an umbrella term and pretty much everyone has done one of the Ps whether intentional or not.

 

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[sparechange]

I don't know what you consider marketing, but Seth Godin (literally 10/10 marketer) talks about the Ps of Marketing: Product, Pricing, Promotion, Positioning, Publicity, Packaging, Pass-along, Permission.

Just because marketing doesn't cost money, doesn't mean it isn't marketing. All the examples you stated are pretty much marketing examples. Marketing is an umbrella term and pretty much everyone has done one of the Ps whether intentional or not.

Lulu & Spanx are not exactly ''marketing''

They are providing a productacracy by exploiting women's insecurities to make they're body look good, which then creates word of mouth sales.

Op wants to do PPC on Amazon, this isn't a winning strategy and hes doing the money chasing venue rather than learning from the people that have already created billion dollar companies from scratch.

Yeh ok sure they would spam out Instagram posts and whatever today, but my point is the people that have already been successful did it without focusing online. It's just a bonus as I mentioned before. There's a lot of hidden potential with talking with real people, in the real world, and creating connections, instead of spamming out ads online (lol Amazon PPC) where there's already tons of bozos out there doing the same thing.

 

[BlackMagician]

Look at John Paul Dejora, he is a self made billionaire that sold b2b, no marketing, facebook, youtube or instagram. He went business to business and did straight up sales. Look into his story, its absolutely fascinating and inspiring. The way he grew his company was 100% hustling. He wasn't sitting on his a$$ posting online about his product.

Why bother trying to reinvent the wheel? Noone gives a crap about seeing some hair care products on facebook, instagram or youtube. The best way to sell this type of product is in person, through salons & stores, yes you can have online sales after actually acquiring customers, but getting customers from the digital world is much harder than selling in person (my own experience) how do you portray value through the online world? You can't, this is a product a customer needs to see with their own eyes, sample it, touch, smell and try it on themselves.

People think (and I have made this mistake in the past) that you can put some product up online, pay for ads and watch the money roll in. It doesn't work like that, you need to be out in the physical world showcasing your product, at least for this type of product.

What is building a brand? Having a consistent post schedule on instagram? Replying to people via social media? How do you differentiate yourself from the hundreds of other ''brands''?

The best way to grow a business like this is mass produce and monopolize the market, similar to coca colas strategy, if you study the Coke & Pepsi war, the reason why Coke dominated Pepsi was because they absolutely crushed them in how their products are sold, look at Mcdonalds, do you see Pepsi? Why is that?

A similar strategy should be employed, but take out the McDonalds and add in a hair salon. Do you see where I'm going with this? Again, whats the goal here, making a few hundred dollars online? Or creating an Unscripted life?

In my experience, the reason why alot of new entrepreneur's fail, is because of their strategy on how to go about business.

There are people in the world that sell socks, pet rocks, and other silly things & make millions. Yet if you challenged the average bloke to do the same, the vast majority of people will fail because they think about how to grow the business completely wrong.

Disclaimer, maybe I'm crazy, but I'd try to emulate the strategy of someone that has already done this business successfully already, not join the ranks of online money chasers fighting over fb ads and instagram posts.

Hats-off to you @sparechange. Loved your way of doing business.

Right now I am working on finding need in Hair related market. It's about hair protection, not hair styling. I will share what I have been thinking and doing and would love to get your inputs in that.

In my progress thread obviously. Thanks again for such a eye-opening post.

 

[Mutant]

...the thing is that hair products are not a watch or a phone, people don't see them when you're around so it's not even a status item...

Hah. Oh boy. Let me introduce you to the hashtags #shelfie & #topshelfie
Sure, it's mainly a female thing, & men might not be into beauty brands as status symbols as such, but don't be thinking that a bathroom filled with only aesthetically packaged products isn't some kind of flex for anyone.
Plus I hear men often like to impress women when they have them round to their place.

For every top shelf - there's a bottom shelf < don't be those brands.

To be fair - doesn't sound like you're going to be! But yes, hair & beauty brands can absolutely be status symbols.

Example conversation (yes, based on real life):

A: Wow, your skin looks amazing - what do you use?

B: Thanks, I've been using Vintner's Daughter.

A: *now knows that B not only has great skin, but expensive skin*


It's like responding to a "you got here fast!" comment with "yeah, my Bugatti really goes some". You don't always have to be seen with whatever product to reap the status points.

 

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[pappaishere]

Hey @Bobby_italy come procede?

Hai iniziato il tuo percorso ? Hai fatto le prime mosse per il tuo prodotto dei capelli ?

Sono curioso di saperlo! Soprattutto in una situazione strana e incerta come quella del covid...