Yet another thrilling milestone for them was their recent opportunity to speak with the legendary Bobbi Brown, who offered the following advice for Karla, Dana, and Abby:
Karla Duncan:
Karla has such a great idea. Having been a speech therapist, she has had first hand experience in the industry and knows there is a need for these products. Karla has a clear understanding of how and where to express her ideas (trade shows, etc.) and has great networking skills she can put to use in these venues. She also has incredible follow through which is essential in order to maintain and build on the success of her products after they launch.
When I spoke to Karla and gave her advice she was like a sponge, open to learning everything she could from me. I talked to her about the importance of developing a press kit and press contacts. I told her that public relations is integral for the successful launch of a product. In other words, don't underestimate the power of word-of-mouth and buzz. I advised her to create products that were different from the competition, and to call out these points of difference in all of her communications to the press and consumers.
Karla's campaign is one that pulls on your heart strings and that's something that's going to strike a chord with consumers. I know she has sold me on her idea and I wish her the best of luck in her endeavor.
I was impressed with Dana and how ahead of the game she is in her planning to start her company. She is now at the point where she has to determine who she wants to target and just go for it! Also, she has done her homework and has a very good grasp on the market for natural products for babies. She recognizes the need for her products and I have no doubt that she's going to be wildly successful. When I launched my line I introduced the concept of brown-based lipsticks, which was a novel concept at the time. I thought I was going to sell 100 lipsticks in a month and I ended up selling 100 in a day! One piece of advice I gave Dana was to minimize her expenses by hiring people in her family to help get her business off the ground. I had my sister in law handling my expenses when I first started out!
Abby has an advantage because she has previous corporate marketing experience. Because of this she is great at networking and understands the necessity of public relations to launch her business. Something that really impressed me about Abby was that she really knows where she wants her business to go and is extremely organized about getting there; she sees the whole picture which is really significant for long term success. I told her to make sure she stays on this path and always follows her gut. My advice for Abby, as she is well on her way to success, is to stay true to the essence of who she is and what she is trying to accomplish with every product she puts out on the market. Also, she should always be aware of her competition and focus on her point of difference.