Marketing Strategies Proven to Drive Results

0:00When you walk into Sephora and you see that orange box, it will stop you to at least spark your curiosity. And I was just really proud that what I kind of envisioned, you know, kind of in your mind and then in your mental iCloud, that that was the reality and it materialized. Hey, how's it going? I'm your host, Adam Levinter, back with a new episode of Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. We know developing any new product is tricky. And once you're happy with the product, you still have to find your brand identity. Well, today I'm joined by Jara Jameh. She'll break down the marketing strategy that has helped her brand take off from the second she launched into business.

0:38Her beauty empire, Amikole, celebrates melanin-rich skin with the products and tools she couldn't find anywhere else. Jara, welcome to Shopify Masters. Thank you. So as I understand it, Jara, you're the child of two entrepreneurs, right? Your parents are immigrants to the U.S. They've got this entrepreneurial background. What impact did your childhood have on who you become today as a founder? What a great question. Yes. Child of immigrants, my parents, my father actually came here first. So my dad came here earlier in 1980s and hustled his way after failing miserably in Paris, went back home, came to the United States and started kind of vending in the streets of New York City and then eventually working at a wholesale place and then would be starting his entrepreneur journey.

1:28But that's all important because I think we've always been operating in a mindset that we just had to do it. We had to figure it out. We had to pave the way. We had to understand the documents and how to kind of create a system for our families to thrive. My mom would come closer to the 1990s and she would, you know, begin her entrepreneurial journey, you know, working at a hair salon where she would still own the hair salon. but she would create, you know, livelihoods for herself, our family, but also women that were similar to her kind of establishing their footprint in New York City. But to answer your question specifically about like how that's affected me, I think I've always been just very used to the hustle and bustle.

2:13Like we built everything, you know, if you have to paint the shop, we're going to go buy the paint. If you had to get new chairs, you had to go into the convention stores and buy your chairs. So there's something about building and having that kind of a time they needed to create whatever you wanted to eventually have an output. So I think that learning and watching and absorbing that hustle, I think that's always been a part of me and still is. And also being so close to the customer. And you mentioned growing up in a salon and that's sort of sparking the passion for beauty and where you are now.

2:43You share this commonality with Michelle Phan, who founded Ipsy, also in the beauty space. I believe she also spent a lot of time in her answer mother salon. I forget who it was. But did you follow her story at all as you were building? Was she an inspiration to you? I mean, as you as you say, Michelle, I'm thinking of her beautiful, like soft, melancholic voice on YouTube. So yeah, not too close. I do think that I was very inspired as well. Because I mean, she's one of a pioneer in many a sense on the YouTube culture. And I think, you know, we'll talk about this, but my social media marketing career.

3:20You know, she being such a pioneer, I think I'd been close to her story and how beauty became almost a conduit and a place of escape for her in terms of dreaming and creating. So always appreciated her funny story. We actually were supposed to be on a panel together. I couldn't make it, unfortunately, but she definitely is like, you know, inspiration. And it's great to see like an immigrant story kind of come to fruition. Talk to me about that social media first approach to building a business. So she was early to this idea that people follow people before they follow companies. So build a following and then find a product or service to sell into that following.

3:58She was doing this on YouTube a long time ago. But for you, with respect to your following, was this always the strategy for you? Were you always going social media first, build a following, and then developing a business around that? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, just going back and kind of sitting down and have a little bit more retrospective just my life and, you know, how it all started. You know, the salon, my mom's business that's been there almost for 35 years now, it never was about her. You know, she fostered the space, you know, for people to feel safe and get paid fair wages and people in terms of customers coming back and getting that service.

4:35But it really was about the shop, the music, the foods at the time that were served there, the ambiance that she kind of created, right? So I think for me, it was always about community. I think I'm the host. I would love to be the hostess with the mostest. So even as a brand founder now, yes, I am the voice or the face of the brand for right now, but my North Star is really to create this kind of ecosystem where everyone is kind of sharing notes with each other and excited to be in this space or at the party together. So with that said, though, I think I was very just very internet savvy and just nascent.

5:14But I think I've always just loved talking to people and kind of imagining this kind of friendship. I was a pen paler. I would always be a writer in so many cents. So I think naturally, social media created a space for me to talk to people and connect with people. And it's wild, I'm talking to an older woman, 54 years old, that lives in Senegal, that lived in Paris, and we're connecting over beauty, over the Bella Roche-Posay kind of soap or that P50 toner. And then I think a little bit later on, Into the Gloss being a platform that just had a lot of space for beauty concierge. So I was the Reddit reader.

5:53I was the kind of commenter in trying to find my tribe on the internet. So it felt very natural to me. And then also lack of resources, the internet was free, right? I'm just putting out there like, this is what I have right now. And I think at the end of the day, it's about the customer. So how do I create a relationship with the customer to then, you know, gain trust with the customer, gain, you know, momentum with the customer, and then furthermore, hopefully convert her or him into a customer. That's so interesting. And, you know, this whole idea of building know, like, and trust is in the zeitgeist today.

6:25But this goes all the way back, in my opinion, to sort of 1929 Dale Carnegie stuff, right? Like, how do you win friends and influence people? It's a very important book that I read. But that whole idea that you got to go relationship first, and this applies not only to sort of building relationships one to one, but building companies, to me, that's such an important principle. So I love that you mentioned that. Your idea of using the internet to get feedback, talk to the customer, learn from that feedback. You interviewed, as I understand it, 400 plus people that you connected with on Instagram.

7:03Was this like an intentional product market fit exercise? No, not intentional. You know, I hate to go back. Oh, that was genius. And really, I think I, again, lack of resources. I come from the world of L 'Oreal, you know, to as well, where we had the kind of source of truth, this kind of spaceship of truth that was like NPD reports, Nielsen data, et cetera. And I said, like, I don't have$150 ,000 to tap into these reports. So what is my end group? You know, how do I get enough learning to understand like, okay, maybe, you know, if I even convert 10 % of this pool that I would have somewhat of an audience to be able to kind of sell a product to.

7:44And am I on the right track? You know, I don't want to just come out here, give you another product and make it about me? How do I make something that would service you truly? So I think that, again, throughout my career, I did a little bit of PR, social media marketing. I just kind of had this like black book, you know, whether that was beauty editors at the time, people that I've worked with, you know, it's so interesting how like the New York City circuit is as well. Like I had been an intern at Teen Vogue and now those interns that I kind of co-interned with are now editor-in-chiefs that like, you know, at the cut, Lindsay people or working at Glossier.

8:20So it's so interesting to have your tribe and grow up with your tribe. So don't forget to look left and right. Those are the people that are going to be your peers eventually. But going back to them and asking them like, you know, what's working for you, what's not. And at the end of the 400 women that I surveyed, I knew exactly what I wanted. I knew exactly what they wanted. I knew what skews, what kind of makeup style that I was kind of leaning into. I knew that they were hacking their makeup systems and maybe using this brand for that and this brand for this, but there wasn't essentially like a home for them to kind of have like a makeup uniform that they could add into their routine.

8:55So it was important. It wasn't on purpose. Again, I think it was a lack of resource and just trying to be scrappy. Did the first version of Amicole, did that brand strategy that you first articulated in V1, let's say, is that still hold true today, in your opinion? Yeah, I'm really proud that the one of Amicole and our product offering is still the same, you know, it's still the same. I think the mad the hardest part is scaling that. And by scaling, I mean, like multiple channels, like, is our, our selling kind of technique true to dot com, like Amicole.com versus on Amazon versus on Sephora. I think that's the challenge.

9:33But essentially, like I kid, I would love, you know, the company to kind of be like the blue jeans, the perfect blue jeans of makeup, right? Kind of finding that beautiful uniform that you can grab and kind of feel foolproof about and not really need like a pro makeup artist to teach you how to do X, Y, Z. You're kind of grabbing these essentials and adding it to your arsenal to kind of create the best version of self and optimal version of skin. So that is still true for us, luckily. And we'll have an occasional pop of color and that's what it is. Sometimes you want the jean with the flare, sometimes you want the cut-ups, but just kind of having those essentials in your kind of makeup uniform or arsenal, that's really our goal.

10:10So a little earlier on, you mentioned L 'Oreal. You also have had stints at Glossier. You've had stints at Sephora. Sephora is a huge piece of your entire business even today. And I'd love to get that whole story. But before we go there, these various stints at L 'Oreal, Glossier, Sephora, what did you take away early on that you've actually applied into your journey as an entrepreneur? Oh, absolutely. And I think it's so important because I think sometimes, listen, a job is a job, right? Sometimes you're in a job, you're like, oh God, I can't wait to get out of here. I can't wait to move on. And you're, especially as an entrepreneur, when you're just kind of scratching and itching for the next thing.

10:50And I'm so grateful that I've always been a very curious person. I always want to know a little bit more. It just has to make sense in my mind. So I feel like at every single role, I wanted to really understand. And before I moved on, I wanted to understand like why this was important in terms of like the overall kind of workflow of a company. And I think when I look at Temp2, for instance, Temp2 is a pro makeup artistry brand. When you think of Temp2, you're thinking like HD makeup. You're thinking about X Factor and kind of like Hollywood worlds, like that level and that grade of makeup, but made for, you know, artists and then also consumers eventually where they had this big airbrush makeup machine.

11:29You would think like, OK, like why is that important? Right. But to be able to work one-on-one with pro makeup artists that look at color in such a particular way, like the way that they understand color theory, application technique, how to hide a tattoo, how many layers of makeup you need to do that for it to look just like skin. I was so grateful to have that experience to understand the world of that kind of ecosystem, thinking about trade shows, et cetera. Then when I went over to L 'Oreal, it was really trying to understand you kind of had this big box beauty approach. And when I say big box, I'm thinking like Walmart, CVS, Dwayne Reed, kind of bigger impact and a little bit slower.

12:13Right. So like what you do on social is not going to translate immediately at Walmart. But how as a collective, if you kind of do it the right way, how do you get collective voices talking about one product over and over again to then look at the overall market shift? So I think I got a little bit more data analytical. I understood how to play the long-term game. I understand how to stratify influencer impact and outreach between nano, micro, mega influencers and like how to kind of work with EMV, earn media value at the time. And again, that was a little too slow for me. And then I went right back into like the craziest, wildest, fast paced world of Glossier, you know, right when the Series D hit and a wish of funding came through that kind of company at the time was the pinnacle of like all things disruptive.

12:58I mean, I learned a lot. I learned like what it meant to work cross-functional in terms of working with regulatory, working with the art team, what it meant to really field community voices and really try to figure out like what is the next product for this company. And again, at each step, it took a amount of patience, but also understood like, okay, what am I learning here? What can I quote unquote say that I'm an expert at when I leave here? And I joke around with the word expert because honestly, you're constantly learning. But how do I gain enough confidence to then apply that to my next role or my next gig?

13:31I didn't know at the time. But at every single step, even working at Sephora, full-time college student, part-time working at Sephora, I understood what it meant. I knew the vocabulary of being a cast member, working on the field. What happens backstage? What does training look like? What are girls that look like me? What are they walking in looking for? What was I selling them? And how could I sell them? So I think even applying that kind of like on the ground experience and understanding like how crazy it could be at holiday and empathizing with the BAs, the beauty advisors on the storefront.

14:04I have a different level of empathy when I walk into that store and do training now because I had been there before. So it's very interesting, like the tapestry of my career has really made me equipped for this, you know, in many a ways. So my business school has been my entire career and now I've been able to kind of add that kind of concept to what I'm doing right now. I definitely want to go deeper into your career tapestry. But before we do that, I'm going to pause and thank our wonderful audience for tuning in. Wherever you get your podcast, please follow and subscribe to Shopify Masters.

14:36And if you haven't already, write us a review. It helps other people discover the show. And our team absolutely loves reading your feedback. Let me just ask you about these experiences again at L 'Oreal, Glossier, Sephora. What do you think are some of their unique abilities that, say, they do incredibly well? What separates a Glossier from a L 'Oreal from a Sephora that you could take away and directly apply into Amicole as you build that business? What an excellent question. First of all, Adam, I'm so impressed. These are the best questions I've had in a very long time. So I would say, you know, L 'Oreal, they are very data centric.

15:18You know, a lot of decisions are really baked in pattern recognition and promise. And then they lean 100 % into it once they understand and have collected enough data points to make sure that they can move and pivot the company to make certain decisions. So for me, that meant very tactically understanding how to use social media listening, looking Looker versus this, tracking analytics on Google search. What does the momentum look like in terms of people and their behavior and their search and what are they looking for for us to then service them? When we ran an ad campaign, were people particularly happy about JLo being in an Elvive commercial?

15:58What was the social sentiment? How do we change that? Is repair bond an actual thing? Is temporary die a thing? I think that using the collective data points to then drive literally the industry and the kind of temperature was very, very interesting. And I think they do it still very, very well. Glossier, on the other hand, people ecosystem, literally like we're inviting customers to the office to say, hey, do you like the way that bubble wrap sits on top of your makeup? You know, what about this eye cream that you really like? If you were to post this on your top shelf, how would you position this?

16:34Do you want this bottle to be opaque? would you like an opalescent kind of radiant look? How does this translate to a selfie? You know, this girl that's using a serum and pumping this into her skincare routine, what does that look like? Or how does that photograph at like a five o 'clock out of Brooklyn, right? So we're thinking about the actual experience of the product in the point of view of a real person. So I was able to kind of get that into it as well. And I think, again, Temp2, I mean, at the end of the day, you know, we cannot undermine the importance of pro makeup artists. They kind of drive the trends.

17:13They drive the technique. They teach us. They kind of are the underbelly and the current of our entire, you know, industry. And hearing from them first, like, no, we don't need another one of this. We need this. We need to double down on complexion. It's really not about the shade depth is really about the undertones that we're missing. It's not about having 100 shades. It's about getting those 10 to 15 to 20, 50 correct. So I think at each one of those locations, there was definitely an expert point of view that I'm now able to apply at my work at Amikolay. So interesting. You use the word ecosystem, right, Jara, with respect to what Glossier has done very well.

17:52The way that I think about it is community. How do you build a community around a brand? How do you think of your brand as a community oriented brand? Do you feel like Amikole is that? Is this something that's kind of a North Star for you? Are you halfway there? Are you fully there? How do you think about community? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And going back again, like in terms of the hair salon, you know, that my mom had, it really is about community. Like, hey, girl, like I'm getting my hair done on Friday. You want to come meet me there? And we'll like, and you come there and you're sharing.

18:25I'm like, oh my God, what book are you reading? Oh, this is that book. So it's kind of like I am, my goal is to kind of create this spaceship, right? You come into the spaceship, you enjoy the scents, you enjoy the music, the playlist is just right. How do I host the best party for you to come to me every Friday or to tell your friend? I think success to me is like this person leaves the spaceship and say, oh my God, I had the best time when I went there. You you got to try this product. You got to go to this hair salon. You're kind of sharing that experience. And I think the best news is that, you know, Amicole still feels like a secret, right?

19:02It's kind of like, if you know, you know, it's kind of that gentle nod when you pull out that lip treatment oil, you know, at a party in Brooklyn and there's a girl across the way that's like, oh my God, I see you girl. And you're kind of pulling out your lip gloss together. Like that to me is success. And I think that is the fabric to create a life brand when people are just nascently talking about your brand and your products out in the wild. And I think that I was deeply inspired by how Glossier was able to do that. But I think it was always a part of me, especially growing up in Harlem as a first generation Sunny Leaves American, all we had was community.

19:39If you didn't understand, my father was the household that would help you break down a letter and say like, hey, this is what the government needs from you. They're asking you for this ID and this and that in order to get your immigration and just helping out and sharing notes and knowing this is the house that you come for if you need help to translate this and that. This is the house that you come for if you need to Western Union money back home to your family because you don't have access to that. So it's really about using people within this ecosystem to kind of better your life and to not feel lonely, to kind of have a safe space of solace.

20:17And I think that we're able to do that through beauty. Circling back all the way to Sephora and getting the origin story of that because they're an important pillar of the business at this point. And you started way back when as a beauty advisor. What's the origin story here and where are you at with that partnership today? Wow, so Sephora is a deep story because it extends even beyond me. Like in high school, my older sister, she would always stop by Sephora and like grab fragrance samples. I'm like, where is this beauty carnival that you keep calling to and coming back with free samples and like spritzing the entire house, our room, we shared a room.

20:59So I think that, you know, I fell in love, my entire family fell in love with Sephora because it was this kind of premium, prestige place to walk into and kind of get lost in beauty. My entire family just loves fragrance as well. It's actually my first role at Sephora working in Fragrance World. So painting the picture for you. I'm a Syracuse University undergrad. I go to the mall. I'm working at Delia's at the time, and then I see the stripes. I see, oh my God, there's something happening here. The awning is just wooden stripes, and I'm like, I think there's a Sephora opening in a store at this mall.

21:31So I just kept watching, kept watching, and eventually the email opened up, and I applied. I didn't even know how I was going to work these shifts. I don't know know if it's the same now, but when Sephora stores open, there's an intensive training program. I think for like two weeks, you're like in, you know, an academy from like nine to like two o 'clock. I don't know if I like ditched classes to be here or not. I don't remember the details of it, but I sure, I sure showed up and I did all of those courses. And I was one of the founding members of that Syracuse University mall location. So fell in love, you know, again, like the brands were coming in, Correz at the time, Lolita Lampica, they all came in and explained, you know, why they exist and here is how you sell it.

22:12And I was just like, oh my God, I am in, I'm in a great space right now. So I worked there, you know, at Syracuse while I was an undergrad for about two years. So all that to say, like Sephora is something that I knew very native to me and like all things beauty. Fast forward a little bit, here I am creating Ami Kole and they're like, what would be your dream partnership? I'm like, well, duh. And listen, it didn't go smoothly. Okay. My first conversation with them, they're like, oh, this is cute. Give me some samples. We'll give you feedback on the brand. I'm like, I don't need feedback on the brand.

22:45We're launching tomorrow. I need to know if you're going to take this brand or not. I had just missed by literally a hair of maybe two to three days their accelerated program. So I didn't qualify for that. So the hopes of being in Sephora felt very quiet, close to like zero. As the universe, you know, kind of did its thing. I'm a very big believer in fate and universe. I fast forward one year into Amy Kelly's existence. We're starting to talk to retailers, you know, including some of the competitor retailers. We're getting really close to kind of signing a deal with another retailer. And this WWD publication, we won an award.

23:23It was the beauty founder of the year, I believe. And this is a very lucrative space. So like everyone from L 'Oreal to Estee Lauderdale to Sephora to Olaplex, everyone is in this beautiful breakfast and I am being awarded. So I get on stage, you know, I accept my award. I'm all excited. I'm like seven months pregnant, kind of waddling through the crowd. So Artemis and Alison Hahn are sitting in the crowd. They're like, wait a minute, we've heard this name before. Haven't we exchanged emails? I'm like, yeah, we exchanged emails, but your team hasn't been responsive. We're moving on to the next retailer.

23:56And they're like, no, no, no. Like we have to talk about this. We really believe in the brand. I think there's some synergies here. Even if you don't go with Sephora, let's just have the conversation. So long story short, we signed that contract within like a month. And we were literally launching within a couple of months at Sephora. But it took a little bit of zigzagging to get there. But what is yours will be yours, you know, regardless of what. and that's the the coming story of sephora how many sephora locations are you in today so we are in 277 locations and we're on sephora.com as well through the next next big thing i mean when you walk into a sephora and see amy cole on the shelves like what does that mean to you how do you feel i feel like sometimes i feel like someone made a mistake i'm like like, what?

24:49Like, is this real? Especially the first couple of months, I'm just like beyond myself to see. I mean, it's definitely full circle, obviously, you know, what I just told you. But I remember creating the brand to have that orange box be able to stand out on black floors because I was thinking about Sephora. And when you walk into Sephora and you see that orange box, it will stop you to at least spark your curiosity. And I was just really proud that what I envisioned in your mind and in your mental iCloud, that that was the reality and it materialized in stores. I was very proud about that. But then I just went into typical founder mode.