Why Spending 5 Cents More on Your Product Is Worth It

0:00You can get somebody to buy a product once, but the most important thing is they use it, they love it, then you have a customer for life. Hey there, I'm Shuang Esther Shan, and you're listening to Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. Our guest today is pretty much beauty royalty. Her family has been manufacturing skincare and haircare products for three generations. The family business called La Dove even launched Princess Diana's personal haircare line. Samantha Kent is now the chief growth officer of Ladov, and she also has her own line called The Cleanest Lab.

0:39Samantha is here to share her expertise from both sides of manufacturing and marketing beauty products. Thank you so much for being here, Samantha. Thank you so much for having me today. So great to have you here. Very excited to dig into everything because you have worked in beauty for such a long time, and also you've been involved in the family business. I would love to get a sense of your earliest memories growing up around beauty and also growing up your family business. Absolutely. So I think my first memory really of being involved in the business at all was on a school vacation day. My mom would bring me into the office and we have labs on site.

1:23And, you know, you don't want your child running around a manufacturing floor. So she would send me down to meet with all the chemists and they would sort of pull shampoo or gel or conditioner or something that was easy for me to mix and play with. I never actually got to use any of the fancy equipment, but there was just drawers of sparkles and glitter pieces and fragrances. So I used to just have a blast going down there and mixing everything and then bringing it up to my mom's office and showing her my crazy sparkly creations that were definitely way overly fragrant. But it was a really fun time kind of getting to experience, you know, just the mixing of things and the making of things and seeing that thing that's in your head kind of come together and can be a real product that you can use.

2:15I wouldn't advise using any of the products that I made when I was little. However, good learning lesson. It sounds like such a fascinating upbringing, and I'm sure you probably learned so much throughout the years. What were some of the things that changed a lot throughout the beauty industry throughout the years? First, as someone who's just mixing those formulas for fun, and then as you slowly got involved with the business as well. So I started my career actually not in beauty at all. I was in pet care, which is sort of beauty adjacent. So I was actually a customer of the family business. And it was really interesting sort of seeing the products come to life as a brand.

2:57And then I went back to work for the family business and sort of having that experience of understanding how hard it is to sell your product and to get people to really recognize your product. And then, you know, helping others to create those products and get them on shelves. And that experience has definitely allowed me to be more helpful, I would say, to any of our customers looking. We have a really wide mix of customers. So we have that startup that's looking to launch just one product and they're putting everything into this one product all the way up to sort of much larger companies that have been around for years and years and, you know, are distributed globally.

3:39Anything from professional to retail to D2C. It's been really exciting seeing all of those different brands and kind of what they have in common. At the end of the day, the ones that are really successful are the ones that focus on the product because you can get somebody to buy a product once, but the most important thing is they use it, they love it. Then you have a customer for life. It's so fascinating because I believe there's definitely no detours. And I think especially when you said there's actually similarities between pet care and beauty, I would love to get your take on that. And I guess what you learned from that business that you take into La Dove or the Cleanest Lab.

4:23Absolutely. So once again, really focusing on that product quality. I think the development process as somebody just starting out can be really frustrating because you just want to go full steam ahead. get your product out there as quickly as possible. But going through the full evaluation process and really taking the time to perfect the products is what's ultimately going to make you more successful down the line. So, you know, we've seen some clients that really just expedite and they may have wanted it a little bit different, but they're like, oh, you know what, we'll come back to it later.

5:01You never come back to it later, but then they'll start to see the feedback and the reviews. And that one thing that they wanted to change but didn't in the name of speed is always the one thing that people pick up on. So as a new business owner or an entrepreneur, it's really a struggle to determine speed and quality and getting everything perfect. Two very essential components to any sort of business execution. I would love to get a sense of how you found yourself back in beauty and also your journey back into working at Ladove? So my journey back into beauty, I was fortunate enough to be able to exit my first company.

5:46And that allowed me a bit of time to sort of, you know, think about what I wanted to do next. And growing up, I was always told you need to go find your own way. You don't have a guaranteed position at the company. So I just always assumed I would never be able to join. And then that allowed me to go sort of pursue the pet care and really learn things on my own and be an independent person. So then when I did sell the company, I guess that was sort of my interview process. My mom was like, well, you've had success on your own. Would you like to come back and be a part of the business and bring your insights and new excitement and new technology and just the third generation, keep evolving the business into what it will be.

6:34So then, you know, hopefully it's around for several more generations. And then unfortunately, my younger sister was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago. She's in remission. So we're all very happy about that. But it gave us an opportunity to really think about the products and what kind of taking things one step further from clean because clean beauty is always it's already such an improvement in the industry however there are certain ingredients that provide certain functions and you know just using the correct ingredient for the correct purpose at the correct level is really what makes that difference in sort of health and well-being.

7:16So I always like to give the example of a preservative. So a lot of preservatives sort of get a bad rep. However, it's more dangerous to somebody with a disease to have a potential exposure to a bacteria than it is that exposure to that preservative. I'm so glad to hear that your sister is okay and is in remission. And it's fascinating to also hear about how thoughtful you are by coming up with this new brand. I think it's often really hard, especially you have both sides of the viewpoint where you see the manufacturing. A lot of new founders are coming to you with ideas, even though it's already saturated.

8:00And then now you're managing your own brand and it is really tough to stand out, I guess. What's your advice there for someone who's interested in beauty and they do want to carve out a space for themselves? Absolutely. You know, there's always space. Just when you think everything is there, somebody comes up with something that really pushes the boundaries and gets everybody excited again. I think that the most important thing is really staying true to your brand. I have the privilege of getting to work with so many amazing companies and amazing creatives on developing so many different products and different ideas that if we were to launch every single product, it would just not make any sense under one brand because people pick brands because they stand for things.

8:53So in my position, I just love creating products and I get so excited about the different technologies and the ingredients and the packaging and all of the different inputs. However, for the Cleanest Lab, it's a very different process of creating a product. You know, you might think that we develop so many amazing products. Why don't we launch all these amazing products ourselves under our own brand? But having that sort of standard and process of evaluating products and why you're launching a product versus getting overexcited about just everything. And that's what makes the difference between sort of being the manufacturer and product development as opposed to being the brand.

9:40And I think the special part about the Cleanest Lab is the fact that it is specially formulated for people with extra sensitivity and you're selecting ingredients and formulations in a thoughtful way. How do you then translate all of that complexity to the end customer so that they can understand what you're trying to create in a really quick way, whether it's online or on the package? So I think we're so lucky now that we are able to create these spaces online. You're really able to communicate with customers and show people kind of why. and you can do it in a much more visual way as opposed to just having a small space on a bottle that's sitting on a shelf.

10:28You'll never be able to communicate everything that you want to and what's special about the product. So I think that online is so important and having your storefront set up in a way that's meaningful and once again, continues to push the same narrative and it really lets your customer get immersed into what is your brand. For our listeners, of course, you have this duality where you're also looking after growth for La Dove. And for new founders, when they're going through production for the first time, and they're trying to communicate with a chemist for the first time, how do they make that process smoother?

11:11And how do they build those relationships? Because a lot other times it's hard to communicate all your ideas to someone who is in that profession for such a long time. Absolutely. I would say that the most important thing to remember when you're communicating your story and what you want the product to do is to give as much context and why as possible because nobody can get in your head and understand what you want. You have to be able to communicate and try to explain it as many different ways. I always like to say there's a difference between creating a product and creating a brand. Creating a product is an easy thing.

11:54You can come and say, I want a shampoo that has extra clarifying power and will make sure my scalp stays balanced. That's a very easy thing to do. But then laying in sort of the brand whys And why are we creating this clarifying shampoo with scalp benefits? Well, because the whole line is all about scalp health and sort of taking different approaches and a whole new look to cleaning, I guess. But there's always more than just the product. So being able to communicate the brand to your manufacturing partner and your why is always so important. Totally. Well, I think especially for me, I just moved to London.

12:41So I'm always like trying to understand the hair care and I feel like I'm learning so much. I think it's also really important at the top of the show when you mentioned the importance of balancing speed and quality when you're going through a process like this. How does one like make sure that they're investing equally in both where they're kind of actually finding that balance between the two? Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So there's sort of the three prongs, I would say. There's speed, quality, and price. Rarely do you get all three at once. So in my opinion, quality should always be the primary focus because that is what people consume and what they use and the reason they keep coming back.

13:30So if you don't have that quality, it doesn't matter how quickly you do it and it doesn't matter at what price you do it for. Whereas you can choose sort of if you want to focus on then it becomes kind of the speed and the price aspect of it. And different companies have different sort of outlooks on that. You know, you can really speed things along, but you may not be able to sort of take into account your ideal price point because you don't allow the formulation process to happen in the full stability and understanding what can be changed to achieve a better price point. Some people have it in their minds that they need to stick to a certain price and they really get stuck on it.

14:14Whereas what they'll compromise on is the quality. So by putting five cents back into a bottle of product, you could have an infinitely higher quality product. But because you are so fixated on this price point per unit, you miss out on the opportunity of having the perfect product. However, you know, I think you have to be super happy and proud of the product that you're creating. I think that's the most important thing. If you're not obsessed with your product and you that's not the only thing you use you probably need to spend some more time on development of the product itself I don't use any other face creams I don't use any other lip balms it's the only shampoo that I use and I'm really proud that that's the product that we created for the cleanest lab yeah and I think that speaks volumes because you are like in the sea of different formulations and you get to understand how each product is made.

15:16Yeah, it's really cool to hear how you've gotten to the step of formulating for your own brand and creating products that you use as well. For founders who are going through that process, how much time should they dedicate to product development before they have something that they're comfortable with launching? You know, I think that really depends on the partner that you're working with and if If they can understand what you're looking to achieve and they're sort of behind your vision and can help you execute, it can be much faster. I think it becomes more challenging to develop something when you're having communication problems with your supplier, because then the message is not going to be communicated correctly.

16:04You'll probably get something that you need to give a lot more feedback on. And, you know, there's just more back and forth time. whereas if you can be on the same page and understand what you're looking to launch then the whole process just becomes a bit more seamless and faster everybody always asks when they come to us to develop a first sample they always ask about timing and you know I'm sure it's the most frustrating thing in the world but I always say we can't give you an exact time because we don't know, you know, are we going to have to source a custom peptide from South Korea that is going to take us a month to even get into the building?

16:47Or is it something that, you know, we can source really quickly? Is it a custom fragrance? Is it sort of a more off the shelf fragrance? There are just so many different components that go into something. And if you're allowing to give the time to do that development up front. It'll usually be super duper frustrating waiting for your sample. However, when you get it, it's just something that requires less follow-up work, if that makes sense. It's very insightful to get behind the scenes understanding of how things are produced and manufactured. So we're going to dig into manufacturing even more.

17:30but I would love to take a moment to thank you our listeners for tuning into the show if you haven't already make sure to subscribe to Shopify masters and leave us a review with feedback for the show we really appreciate them and love incorporating those feedback into our production so thank you so much the one thing i would love to know is when different founders approach you and they want to start manufacturing and they're probably going through their pitch what are some of the things you are checking off that's great to have in a pitch from someone who wants to potentially partner and manufacture with you absolutely i would say having a distribution strategy is really important because it takes just as much effort to create something that you'll run once as it does to create something that you'll continue running and will be around for, you know, years to come.

18:34So we always like to kind of make sure that when we start to work with a new partner, that we are both are working towards making this a huge success because as a company, we don't do really outbound leads or sourcing. We work with a lot of referral business and just a lot of word of mouth. So for us, we really like to invest in our partners and we grow with them as opposed to just growing to grow. So I think that's kind of a big thing to check off is that you're just as invested in this project and we'll sort of have a plan and strategy to move it forward. I think that's always very important as opposed to just sort of, oh, I want to do this because this person did this and I think I can sell it.

19:26Definitely having longevity in mind and thinking about how you would grow a brand is very important, which I think is the perfect segue into understanding how you were marketing and growing the cleanest lab when you were launching your brand. So I think one thing that we did a bit differently is, you know, we're online. We are not in any stores. And it's definitely a slower build. However, our repeat business is just, the numbers are incredible. And they get so excited about the products as well that really the word of mouth and sort of organic growth has been the most important thing for us. You know, we are fortunate enough that it's not our only job.

20:17So it's not, I would say the pressures of having only the cleanest lab, as opposed to, you know, having the manufacturing business as well, makes it a little bit easier to have that slow organic growth, but really taking advantage of, you know, your strengths, and especially strengths as a founder. Some people are better at sort of selling in person. Some people are better at telling stories online. And especially starting out, you have to be really nimble and play to your strengths. And in the early days of launching this brand, how did you get your products into new customers and maybe some of the key influential customers that are acting as the word of mouth people who are able to speak for the brand as well?

21:04So we actually did a partnership with a subscription box as our initial launch. We worked with City of Hope, actually, because my sister was receiving treatment for her leukemia there. And we just partnered with them and, you know, gave products to some of the other patients. and going through something like leukemia or an illness where you just feel like you're not yourself you don't want to have to give up or compromise on beauty or feeling good I think that's the most important thing and for my sister as well when she had soft long hair she felt like she was still herself and there was one part that you know she didn't have to compromise on because she had to give up so many of her other products.

21:54So by allowing others to have sort of that same feeling, they really became our super fans and just sort of continue to support and spread the word. And that has been super amazing for us. It's such a thoughtful and impactful way to think about your launch and also share it with so many people who needed the product. I would love to hear how you're splitting your time nowadays because it seems like you have a lot of responsibilities and you're switching between the two sides of the beauty industry right now as well. Yes, I would love to say that I have more time to spend on the cleanest lab, but La Dove is sort of the most important at this point in time as far as time.

22:39You know, if we didn't have that solid manufacturing partner, we wouldn't be able to have the cleanest lab. So it's sort of one or the other. And having the opportunity to work with so many amazing founders, as I said, is also, you know, we want to provide that same quality and reliability. So that is kind of where I would say I'm 75 % Ladov, 25 % the cleanest lab. That sounds like a good split. And also it's great to like enable so many new brands to come into market as well. For yourself, what has been some really big milestones that you've been proud of? You know, I think, I can't say who, but we've been working on development of Align for, oh gosh, it must be three years now.

23:35And the products finally launched and, you know, we have nothing to do with the packaging or the design or the marketing of the products, but just seeing the success that they've had and just knowing that, you know, we helped them create the product that's allowing them to have the success is just an incredible feeling. And that's why I do what I do. Yeah, it's definitely fruitful to see ideas turn into physical products. For us to close off the show, I will love to circle back to the point you said earlier where there is enough space for everyone and there's plenty of space for new founders to enter into beauty.

24:17if you were to leave them with a piece of advice of finding their niche or finding an area where they can carve out their own space what would that advice be i would say just think about what you and your friends and your family are missing or would prefer to have or just an improvement it can be as little as simple as you know i love this face cream that i'm using but i wish it also had this or I wish it was, you know, a little bit more rich and hydrating. And I'm sure that somebody else is thinking the same thing. And if you are so excited about creating that product, and you're willing to spread the word and get other people excited about that product in whatever way that may be, I think that's ultimately what turns, you know, the industry spaces.

25:12I mean, sometimes everything is very cyclical. We've been in business since 1977. So we've seen a lot, but even some of the trends from say the eighties and nineties, they're now coming back in a big way, but with a new spin. So it's sort of, it's just like fashion, you know, there's a lot of trend-based products. There's a lot of sort of core solid items that are just always going to be there like a white t-shirt. But, you know, trends come and go. But I think creating products that you're passionate about and that people will continue to come back and buy because of the quality, there's room.

25:55Amazing. There's always room. So hopefully that's encouragement enough for our listeners to take steps into their journey for entrepreneurship. Thank you so much for joining us, Samantha. Thank you for having me. That's Samantha Kent, the founder of The Cleanest Lab. Our show is produced by Megan Coyle and Gogo Zoger. Engineers are Miku Betlam and Mash Shorts. Our managing producer is Benjamin Gottlieb, and I'm your host, Schwang Esther Shan. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday to catch brand new episodes of Shopify Masters. And if you're still here, go share this episode with another entrepreneur.

26:32Thank you so much. Thank you.