Week 3 Part B: Developing A Brand

     I do not have a business that I will be working with this semester, but I have thought a lot about how I would develop my own brand of lip products (once I've perfected the formula of course). Lip care is for everyone, and I believe that it should be crafted as such. There are two names that come to mind for my own brand that could appeal to a wide audience: The Balm Squad, which I believe would be less controversial than the latter, which is This Sh*t's the Balm...hehe. I've thought that having a neutral name with neutral design would make a wider audience happy. I think a lot about how men are scared to put on lip products in front of people because they think that they'll appear feminine which I think is completely absurd. We all have lips, and we all deserve to have a luscious smoochable pout! 

   

    Leaning more towards The Balm Squad the design of the packaging would utilize a matte black squeeze tube, twist tube, or tin. The brand name would be in a deep red and bold font to symbolize a bomb blast. To me, this helps a user easily remember the name of the product with the association between the physical product and name. It would be great to have a tagline to add a third way to remember the brand, but I have not thought of one of these yet. Honestly, the tagline for The Balm Squad could be something along the lines of the alternate title of "This Sh*t's The Bomb", but that is a very loose idea. 

    Starting a small business is a challenge because it's important to have ways to get your name out into the business world. I've thought a lot about how I would advertise my product to my target audience. One of the biggest social media outlets today is TikTok, and I think it would be the perfect place to demonstrate my product. The username would be The Balm Squad so that everyone who views the videos knows exactly who they're looking at. I would post short clips every day, 30 seconds maximum, demonstrating the products, explaining packaging, and sharing information about myself. Personally, I love to know more about the people behind small business and I think other people would too. I would post every day because the TikTok algorithm is confusing and shows the most random videos on everyone's For You page and I know that at least one video would get a descent amount of attention. 

    I've thought about the possibility of making and handing out business cards at a farmer's market or on the streets, but if I put myself in a stranger's perspective, I don't think that I would purchase a homemade lip product from someone I didn't know. Maybe once the business becomes more popular business cards could be created, but not to start. I would however utilize another social media platform. Instagram could or Pinterest could be utilized to further demonstrate the business, and these platforms give creators the freedom to make their feed aesthetically pleasing. I would make my feed and posts cohesive so that scrolling through the page would be easy on the eyes. With the product being dark themed, the Instagram and Pinterest would be as well. Not everything would be dark about the posts though. If it was a product photo, I would want the product itself to stand out, so there would be a lighter background to contrast with the dark product. What would be really cool would be to hire a variety of models to use the product to demonstrate the wide audience I want to appeal to. 

    Lastly, I would have a business website. My own platform to advertise and sell my products. In a marketing class that I have taken at MiraCosta I have learned about the three clicks rule. One click to the website, one to locate the product, and one click to buy. I want to keep it user friendly because the more time a consumer has to spend searching for a product the more likely they are to get frustrated and leave. Just as the other platforms, the website would have a darker theme: bold fonts and colors to ensure that the product pops. This is also important because the consistency of having this theme would help with the brand recognition. 

    I haven't worked on my products since I've moved down to California, but bringing up these business ideas really sparks the fire in my head to start up the process again. I just think it's so fun to play around with the formula to figure out what works best in each lip balm container. The consistency needs to be just right so that it can be long lasting and buttery on the lips, and I'm excited to continue tweaking the products until they are just right.