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Earlier this yr, Lindsay McCormick had the sort of downside that the majority entrepreneurs would like to have, however it was a problem simply the identical. She’d constructed a multimillion-dollar firm, Chew, with merchandise that disrupted the sleepy tooth care business and an excellent model story. Chew was now increasing into different areas of non-public care. McCormick and her crew had to determine the way to rebrand.
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McCormick launched Chew in 2018 with $6,000 in financial savings and a first-of-its-kind product–toothpaste tablets–designed to assist maintain used toothpaste tubes out of landfills. The direct-to-consumer firm has grown steadily, including extra merchandise together with mouthwash, toothbrushes, and a whitening gel. An look on Shark Tank, when she turned down a cope with Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary, didn’t harm.
Final month, Chew launched one other modern product: the primary 100% plastic-free deodorant with compostable refills. Because of how she and her crew had created a compelling model story, the answer to the way to market their new product was proper in entrance of them.
Telling a Nice Model Story
McCormick had the concept for Chew when she was touring rather a lot for her job as a TV producer. At dwelling, she was utilizing as many pure merchandise as potential and attempting to dwell a zero-waste life-style, however whereas she was on the street she seen what number of toothpaste tubes she was tossing out. She determined to discover a extra sustainable resolution.
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She started speaking to dentists, studying about chemistry, and mixing up the pure components she purchased at Complete Meals and on-line to make toothpaste tablets in her kitchen. McCormick started promoting them on Etsy and on a Shopify website. Her boyfriend–now her enterprise partner–designed labels and a web site. As soon as a video they’d made went viral on Fb, gross sales skyrocketed. McCormick went from just a few thousand {dollars} in revenues total to $200,000 in gross sales the week after the video went dwell.
Past growing an excellent new product, McCormick additionally created a model story that has classes for different client manufacturers, particularly mission-driven ones. Listed here are 4 key classes from Chew’s branding.
Seize Your Model’s Imaginative and prescient in its Title
Attracting patrons in a crowded market is hard. Developing with a reputation that’s easy-to-remember, catchy, and captures your model’s id is a problem that many manufacturers fail. Chew’s identify hits all these buttons. It additionally centered the model in its business. And whereas that presents the model with a problem because it expands, it’s nonetheless value reaching for a reputation that does the identical on your firm.
Clarify Your Mission in Easy Phrases
Even probably the most environmentally aware shoppers don’t need to be given a lecture on local weather change whereas they’re procuring. They do need to know your model’s mission and values, nevertheless. Discover easy-to-understand however compelling methods to showcase your mission on your property web page or packaging, and go away the deeper dives for different pages in your website, weblog posts or movies. Chew encapsulated the necessity for its first product with a single statistic on its web site, reporting that about one billion toothpaste tubes wind up in landfills yearly. Having a transparent metric or comparability might be an effective way to sign instantly what issues to your organization. Simply don’t make the error of promoting your mission a lot that customers don’t know what’s nice about your merchandise. That may work for firms who’re first with a mission-driven concept, such because the Purchase One Give One mannequin that Tom’s Sneakers popularized, however these circumstances are exceptions.
Design to Promote
Eco-friendly manufacturers typically accept somber colours or uninspired design. That’s a mistake. “You may have probably the most sustainable product on the earth, but when nobody buys it, it isn’t going to assist something,” mentioned McCormick. Whether or not its pictures that captures the spirit of journey for a model like Patagonia or the colour and playfulness that characterizes sock firm Bombas’ advertising and marketing, design is a vital aspect of your model story. Design ought to subtly replicate your organization’s values in addition to appeal to your goal shoppers. Chew’s website and packaging has a crisp, fashionable and millennial-pleasing design that’s proper consistent with its mission of a cleaner planet sooner or later.
Be Clear with Your Clients
McCormick mentioned one other key to Chew’s model story was how the corporate communicated with its prospects from the start. When prospects had a query on social media, McCormick and her crew made positive to offer detailed solutions. “If you’re an eco-friendly firm you get prospects who need to know all the pieces,” she mentioned. “If somebody’s asking why it prices extra, we break down the prices of uncooked supplies for a standard toothpaste versus ours: we use glass as an alternative of plastic, and we’re made within the U.S. the place we pay dwelling wages versus abroad. By way of training and transparency we have been in a position to maintain the story digestible for individuals.”
Rebranding for the Subsequent Chapter
When confronted with rebranding Chew to sign its shifting into deodorant–and extra areas of non-public care within the future–McCormick and her crew caught to their model worth of transparency with prospects via the method. “A rebrand is all the time dangerous, it is loads of work internally and I needed to make certain our prospects felt like they have been a part of our journey,” she mentioned.
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Chew’s product line may be rising, however its core mission of sustainability wasn’t altering in any respect. McCormick constructed on that foundation–without giving up the corporate’s name–to rebrand Chew as “As a result of It’s the Earth.”
“Re-branding Chew as an acronym for ‘As a result of It is The Earth’ was actually necessary to replicate our firm going from oral care into private care,” mentioned McCormick. “Our first product outdoors of oral care is our deodorant which is the primary to be each plastic-free and have compostable refills. Again in 2018, our toothpaste tablets helped push the oral care business in a extra sustainable route and we need to do the identical in private care.”
Simply as Chew marketed its authentic toothpaste tablets with a quantity that made its function clear, the brand new deodorant, the corporate mentioned, will assist combat the 15 million kilos of plastic deodorant packaging that leads to our landfills and oceans yearly.
