5 Ways To Launch a Successful Modern Consumer Brand (From Two Female Founded Success Stories)
By: Tasmin Singh, Enterprise Customer Success Manager
It's always start-up season, especially with the rise of entrepreneurship in the post-pandemic world. But how do you launch and scale a successful start-up in a world that seems to be in constant flux?
I recently had a conversation with Lindsey Andrews , CEO & Co-Founder of Minibar Delivery , a liquor, beer, and wine delivery service, and Jie Charles , VP, DTC at LOLA , a subscription service for high-quality period and sexual wellness essentials, to hear how these two female-founded (and women-led) companies launched successfully and continue to drive unprecedented growth (even DURING the pandemic)!
Explore our 5 ways to launch a successful modern consumer brand from the example set by two badass female-founded brands.
1. Identify a Gap In Your Market
Maybe it's thanks to the popularization of shows like Shark Tank, but we’ve all, at one point, fancied ourselves an inventor.
Founders of Minibar Delivery and LOLA certainly seemed to hack the inventor ideation process. Their secret? Identifying a gap in their market by finding a personal need that had not been satisfied.
? Back in 2013, Lindsey Andrews, co-founder of Minibar Delivery was brainstorming business ideas with her friend (and co-founder) Lara Crystal in her Brookline apartment (isn’t that how it always starts)? The two friends wanted some white wine to go with their ideation, but didn’t want to interrupt their conversation to fetch a drink. After scouring the web, they realized that affordable, non-bulk alcohol delivery simply did not exist. They’d stumbled onto a gap in the market that they wanted to fill.
? LOLA Co-founder Jordana was at law school, studying (as law students, I imagine, do a lot of) and started her period. The worst part? She had run out of tampons. She thought, wouldn’t it be great if she didn’t have to add “buy feminine products” on her long list of to-do’s?
When Jordana started looking into feminine products, she also realized she had no idea what her tampons were made of as she’d come to learn that the femine product industry is actually a heavily unregulated space.
Jordana wanted to start a business that would put the trust back in tampons, by building high quality products that would contribute to holistic health.?
2. Embrace the Uncomfortable
Back in 2013, Lindsey Andrews, co-founder of Minibar Delivery was brainstorming business ideas with her friend (and co-founder) Lara Crystal in her Brookline apartment (isn’t that how it always starts)? The two friends wanted some white wine to go with their ideation, but didn’t want to interrupt their conversation to fetch a drink. After scouring the web, they realized that affordable, non-bulk alcohol delivery simply did not exist. They’d stumbled onto a gap in the market that they wanted to fill.
LOLA Co-founder Jordana was at law school, studying (as law students, I imagine, do a lot of) and started her period. The worst part? She had run out of tampons. She thought, wouldn’t it be great if she didn’t have to add “buy feminine products” on her long list of to-do’s?
When Jordana started looking into feminine products, she also realized she had no idea what her tampons were made of as she’d come to learn that the femine product industry is actually a heavily unregulated space.
Jordana wanted to start a business that would put the trust back in tampons, by building high quality products that would contribute to holistic health.
Before the team at Minibar Delivery could launch their full service (delivering alcohol to consumers), they needed a product. For Minibar Delivery, this meant partnering with larger to? mom and pop liquor stores to explain their service to add to their online repository of liquor, beer and wine providers.
Sounds simple, right? It wasn’t.? Because the sales process (that is, selling the Minibar story to potential customers) did not come naturally to Lindsey. She simply didn’t count “sales-pro” in her arsenal of professional skills, and much preferred to avoid the topic altogether. Not to mention that many of her smaller potential clients were skeptical and she had to navigate her fear of sales while also navigating local liquor regulations which can vary vastly by region.
While uncomfortable with the reality of having to sell her brand, she persisted. She practiced her pitch. It got better with each meeting, anand Minibar’s number of partnerships skyrocketed.
3. Always Embrace Feedback
Knowing the ever-evolving landscape of customer needs, the team at LOLA is in constant ideation mode. They work closely with their customers, not only requesting constant feedback into what products or services their customers should be offering, but actually actioning on it. They remain agile because they have a constant pulse on their subscriber base.?
Because of the close relationship they built with their customers, they noticed an immediate shift in consumer preferences and behavior when the pandemic started:
In response to these consumer needs, and to a society-wide shift in interest towards greater transparency, LOLA evolved their business model, enabling features like:
4. Know Your (True) Audience
In the early days, LOLA’s marketing team was confused; they thought they had hacked the cost-conscious customer acquisition formula, but soon realized that their efforts didn’t actually yield the highest value customers. They ran deals, giveaways, and discounts, but that only acquired short-term, low-value clientele. They simply weren’t focusing on the right customers.
When they went back to the drawing board, to rethink and refresh their strategy, they changed their perspective and refocused on LOLA’s value proposition.They homed in on their true audience and remembered that
LOLA is all about value, about quality. Products are sourced ethically and carefully. That comes at a higher cost.?
They reenvisioned their marketing strategy based on the new understanding that their highest value customer would be willing to pay more, for the quality they provide.?
5. Data is Dynamite
The Minibar Delivery team also focused on the data story. They knew that wine customers come back with greater frequency than spirits and beer. As a result, they’ve built out more of their lifecycle marketing, adding push and text to the mix, as well as remarketing via their website and other sites.?
From their user data, they also diagnosed that the high value customers who had left their service, left primarily due to pregnancy and moving. People were aging out of their “I live in New York and order spirits at 3 a.m.” phase and moving to the suburbs to start a family. As a result, Minibar Delivery is exploring moving into other areas, expanding to meet the needs of their mobile market.?
Female-Founded Brands
Everyone loves a good start-up story. Even better, a success and scaling start-up story. What makes the story of LOLA and Minibar Delivery so compelling is, of course, their evolution, innovation and ideation. But also that fact that they are female-founded. They are in the minority in terms of start-ups backed by VCs and fit the tradition of statistically significant success.?
I’m hopeful that, by telling the story of these successful start-ups, we can continue to push for the equality, equity and recognition in the investor community that these brands, businesses and badass women really deserve. And maybe spark some new ideas?
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Want to learn more? Watch the webinar Female-Founded: How LOLA and Minibar Delivery Disrupted Their Categories and Built Loyal Audiences, now on-demand