My story on how I was able to launch Hero Cosmetics successfully with only one sku and pass that critical $1MM in 1 year mark.
All ideas come from somewhere. How I stumbled upon acne patches as a concept and idea.
I was living in Seoul, South Korea as an expat and suffering from some persistent acne due to environmental changes, stress, pollution, etc. I have sensitive and dry skin and the normal salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide products always left my skin dry, irritated and red. In Seoul, I realized a lot of Koreans were treating their acne with pimple patches and I decided to try one. I was shocked and amazed at how well it worked for me and then immediately wondered why I was learning about pimple patches just then.
I started to research whether acne patches were available in the US and whether there was an opportunity for me to bring it to market. What I found was that there weren’t many beauty-oriented acne patch products and the hydrocolloid acne patch products that did exist were sold in drugstores in the bandage aisle.
This research showed me that there was no current solution addressing the needs in the beauty category and I felt that if I could bring a product to market that was branded properly for the right category with marketing support, it could be a hit. Thus, Mighty Patch was born.
It all starts with the product. How I came up with our hit product Mighty Patch.
Needless to say, if you’re launching a business that you want to be successful, you need to have a great product. Your product and formula inside the packaging obviously is important but the outer packaging matters significantly as well. I’ve had retailers tell me that the reason why Mighty Patch does so well in store is because the packaging stands out. Things that were important for me:
- The name — when I looked at competitors on the market, they had boring names. “XYZ Pimple Absorbing Bandage Stickers” or “XYZ Acne Dots”. I didn’t feel like anything on the market addressed the emotions you have when you have an emergency pimple. I wanted the name to evoke something emotional, something that saved the day. When we came up with Mighty Patch, I knew it was the right name because it’s catchy and stands out.
- The packaging. My thesis was that if I made this product a beauty product, then it would meet unfulfilled demand. I wanted the packaging to stand out on shelf, to look different, but still be modern. I didn’t want it to look like a lot of acne 1.0 brands out there. The initial design of our box with it’s use of color and the big bold name “Mighty Patch” really helped it stand out on online retailers and on shelf. So, be sure to knock it out of the park with your branding and design because it will pay dividends.
Get people to know about your product. How I secured press.
Now, you have a product and a channel where you are selling so how will you let people know it exists? Our first year, all our marketing was via earned media — press and influencers were the top two channels I leveraged.
- For press, I did it myself for the first 6 months and until we got some traction. I used a service called LaunchGrowJoy where you pay a monthly fee for access to a lot of the editors at various publications and pitch requests for stories they’re writing. They tell you how to write a pitch and how to respond. They walk you through how to do your own PR and it was well worth what we paid when I got us into Into the Gloss, Hello Giggles, Business Insider, etc.
- After we got our initial traction which really helped us drive revenue, I turned PR over to a professional PR consultant who upped our PR game.
- Definitely focus on digital short leads and consider commerce oriented sites like Business Insider, Buzzfeed, Yahoo, New York Magazine to drive sales in the beginning.
Find distribution. How I got Mighty Patch into retail within 3 months of launch.
When we first launched Hero Cosmetics with our one product, Mighty Patch, I had some existing retailer relationships from a previous life. I created a pitch email with key points of why our product was great and different, the problem it solved, included a photo and cold pitched every retail buyer I knew. Then, I cold pitched every retail buyer I didn’t know. How do you get someone’s email to cold pitch? You can usually guess someone’s email because the email formats are one of a few iterations — first name @ company, first name last name @ company, etc. Keep sending emails until they land in front of the right person. Get used to pitching because as a founder that’ll be your #1 job in the beginning — pitching to potential consumers, retailers, investors, etc, and it’s a important skill to have.
We were really fortunate because Anthropologie (part of the Urban Outfitters family) took a chance on us and decided to bring us into 80 stores as a test. Within a week, the sales velocity was so strong they decided to roll us out nationally. As they say, all it takes is one and Anthropologie was the perfect retailer to get us started and to build credibility and legitimacy in the marketplace. I’ll never forget the first time I saw our product in store — it was a proud moment.
PR also helps with getting into retail. I subscribe to a “show demand and retailers will come” philosophy. A lot of our retailers were inbound meaning they came to us after reading a press article or seeing us on Instagram. If you can show that your product is meeting demand, it makes it a lot easier for a buyer to take you on.
Some other things I learned about retail:
- Never take a “no” as a “no”. Take a “no” as a “no, not right now.” I’ve had retailers who said no to me in the very beginning only to change their minds a year later after seeing all the traction we were getting in the market. Sometimes it’s just about timing so be patient and play the long game.
- Getting in retail doors is only half of the battle. Once you’re in, you have to prove you can sell through which is why having a great product with great packaging and branding is so important.
- Go to trade shows for your category/industry. I credit Foundermade and Indie Beauty for a lot of our retailers because that’s where they discovered us and it was where the relationship began.
tl;dr Summary
Just execute the basics of marketing really well:
- Have a stellar product with great packaging and branding
- Hustle and pitch PR people and retailers to build demand and distribution; building demand first helps with distribution later
- Have a DIY mentality until you can afford to bring in experts
