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Question about production and product completion
I have lurked around the forum for a number of months which has been exceptionally helpful. Thank you all for developing such a great online community!
With all of your help and the hundreds of posts I have read, I am working on developing a shampoo and will complete the formula soon. I still want to perfect the formula which will probably take another few months and then another few months to complete stability testing.
The next step will be production, bottle filling, label application, and packaging. I plan to have 3,000 units produced by a manufacturer likely in the USA or Mexico and planned to hire a graphic artist to create the label, packaging, and have already selected the bottle I’d like to use. Do you all suggest I try to develop the label and packaging myself or contact the manufacturer and work with them and their suppliers? If it makes any difference, I am on a beer budget
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11 Replies
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My suggestion would be to work with the contract manufacturer (CM) for product development, packaging materials and labeling. The CMs usually have strong network of suppliers and can get you everything at a reasonable cost. First step would be to contact manufacturer, discuss your requirements and ask for a quote.
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I work with many start-ups and the question you should ask is “Do I have more time than money?” or “Do I have more money than time?”
If you are properly funded, you can go through the CM for all functions such as Formulation, Testing, Packaging, Graphics, etc. It is certainly the least stressful avenue to go down.
However, many start-ups are on a tight budget. First ensure that you have at least the minimum amount needed. There are aspects which are essentially fixed costs (materials, manufacturing, etc.) You will see that in this Industry, many price breaks are tied into the size of the job. I have seen so many start-ups fail due to poor or unrealistic funding. Buy more bottles, get better pricing is an example. If you have an adequate, but still tight, you can take on some of the tasks which the CM would provide, such as purchasing the packaging yourself, using a Consultant Formulator and other tasks. Essentially you would act as the Project Manager. This can be stressful, especially for someone learning as they go. As you get more experience, it does get easier.
Now, I mentioned poor funding as a danger area for a start-up. Another is not having an adequate Sales, Marketing and Business infrastructure in place. As a Consultant I would love to be able to say “Make a great product and it will sell itself”, but that is incorrect. You can have the best product ever, but if you use the “Field of Dreams” Marketing strategy (if you make it, they WILL buy it) you will fail. Many great product don’t ever succeed due to poor Marketing. Very many middle of the road products have been successful due primarily to great marketing.
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Hey jay,
As as stated by micro, Time and effort is needed for success in this industry. Followed by the people you know.
Let’s talk though, i work at a manufacturing company and help with brand creation.
I love shaking up the market with new products this is why I’m on this board, to learn and keep up with trends
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From bitter experience, I strongly advise investing in test marketing.
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Test marketing? On product creation i have some samples created and give them to friends to review. Ofcourse I tell them I want to hear the bad stuff, works out for me but ofcourse the proper way is recommended.
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Oh … My … Dog. Please listen carefully.
In years gone by I was a UK importer. I continually discovered items in China that I was convinced (and so were my family and friends, like yours) would be great sellers. And failed totally because I DID NOT DO TEST MARKETING.
Here is an actual recent case in our industry. One of my MBA students started a company to sell salves. She found a great designer and a formulator and paid for the development. The result was packaged in little round tins, not terribly expensive. There were various lip balms with different flavours, the package looked great, I tried it, my wife tried it, we thought the product was great.
She found a company to do the production and made 5,000 units.
Being the smart person she is, she got Walmart to accept it and stock it.
LATER: Hardly any sales. She had not realised that to get a new product to sell to the public needs a lot of MARKETING SPEND. Walmart said to her “Where are your demonstrators? Why don’t you have someone in-store helping sell this product? We’re not making money!”
3 months later: Walmart asked her to remove the products from the store due to lack of interest. Shortly after that the shelf life expired and the whole batch had to be got rid of for almost nothing.
= Look =
I could go on quoting you more examples, some of my own disasters. But this is getting to be like a book. I will conclude:
BEFORE producing or investing a pile of money you MUST test market to see if the product will sell. This is not something I can teach you here but it generally involves establishing a consumer profile then testing the product on those consumers and doing the math. It involves pretty girls going house to house. It involves test advertising spend. For Dog’s sake get someone in marketing to help you before you make big mistakes. -
@Belassi you are completely right, I’m only 23 and been in the industry 5 years. We actually scream when we here Walmart and will never work with them again. However we have gotten half decent products in big chain stores and they sell like hot cakes.
I always believe if there is effort behind something and passion while there is a market already there, you have a position in the game.
Nowadays it’s a lot easier to introduce products to chain stores if you are aiming for B2B Sales (get on ‘rangeme’ people), one day I wanted a go at sales and actually had Albertsons contact me back and request samples, yes, I know they only requested samples, yes the market is saturated, but don’t think there is no room to play. If you are in the right niche, ecommerce all the way, just know your expenses will be mainly marketing.
At the end IT IS ALL MARKETING. Automate insta posts, shopify site creation, contact influencers, sleep with a reliable content creator so she’s giving you good content and your chances of success heighten, just know, effort and time is always needed. Money too but honestly outsourcing a lot of stuff is so cheap nowadays.
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Excellent points everyone. Sabahi, why do you say it is easier to introduce products to chain stores vs eCommerce?
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Hey jay, keyword introduce. Majority of chainstores have a vendor relations contact at the bottoms of their website. For example, a brand we’re working on is showing a lot of interest from vitam shops and the such, which is really unusual but I put 2 and 2 together.
I went to GNC’s website scrolled down and all I had to do was send a box of a few samples, a letter about my company and pricing details. Done deal. On to the next.
now I’m not saying you will get sales, but product introduction to buyers is the first step. Also utilize rangeme.com its new and will be big. Brings vendors and buyers together, online.
Also, create a business plan. From experience its best to have a guide on what’s next so you don’t waste time or get stuck.
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@sabahi thank you! Had not heard of that. Just joined.
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Anytime, I’m glad to help.
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