Branding & Private Labeling. It's A Breeze. Or Is It A Hurricane?
Rick London
Tired of buying Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, or even Nike? Want to give your own brand a shot? It can be done and its not as expensive as you think. I started my own private label gift line for less than $500 ten years ago
Why do so many people "chicken out" when it comes to launching their own brand? I know I did for many years. It as out of fear of failure. Now I know better.
You know what you do best. If it is art, you have a feasible product to put on the label of, say gourmet coffee or candy or cookies. In most cases, these companies farm out the manufacturing of their products. Sure, they have quality control, and make certain the products are manufactured according to their "recipe" but they don't sit in a big factory and watch the wheels turn. Most of them sit in luxurious corner offices, simply coming up with creative ideas for new or better products and marketing strategies.
When I entered the world of e-commerce, all I had to offer were cartoons, a lot of them. But I had to decide on what products to put them. I was no "trust fund baby" so I had to think smarter, better, faster than those who were.
Since I was on a shoestring, I started with a print-on-demand company such as Cafe Press and a few others. I didn't even have to pay for the web space, simply digitally-design my products and they did the rest. I left them for awhile to form my own stores, but they grew and added hundreds of more products, and improved their quality and service so I recently launched Rick London Collection there and it is already successful. It is merely another outshoot of Londons Times Cartoons.
There is no right way to launch a private label business. It all depends on you, what you want to do, what your goals are, and your style of doing it.
I also decided to start the world's first cartoon gourmet coffee line which I sell at my Londons Times Superstore. It has five blends of farm-fresh packaged whole coffee beans, an oversize cartoon coffee mug, four cartoon coasters and the gratuitous biscotti. How did I do it? The way I did it is not necessarily THE way to do it, but I can tell you it did not cost me a penny to do it. It was a barter. I gave permission to a manufacturer of such gift boxes (we do not use baskets as they tend to bend in shipping), and split the commission. He even does all the promotions and advertising, thousands of dollars worth a month.
As time went by, I got really brave. I already had nearly 8500 cartoons up on my Londons Times Cartoon site and I was ready to take them to market in a big way. I already had nearly 60,000 gift and clothing products up at my Londons Times Supertore, but I wanted something very different, the world's first and only private label cartoon gourmet coffees. Ruth London's Exquisite Coffees was born and sold at the superstore. Each basket includes 5 blends from around the world, an oversize cartoon mug and four cartoon coasters. They are top-sellers at nearly $50. I bartered the whole deal, with my leverage being my cartoons. Ruth London was my late maternal grandmother who I loved so much, and she loved coffee so much, hence the name.
Personalization and corporate gift-giving are "the big thing now". There is no reason not to offer personalization. It is inexpensive and the customers love it. I decided to offer it for $2 on every product at Londons Times Superstore. Each buyer gets his/her company name and URL on the product. So, say it is a coffee gift basket or mug, their name and a funny cartoon is the first thing their client sees upon awakening. Not bad psychology.
So the Internet, in many ways, has leveled the playing field. The time to brand yourself is now. All the information is there. All you need do is utilize it. If not for the Internet, there would be no Londons Times Cartoons, RickLondonwear, LTSuperstore, RickLondonCollection or many of the smaller niche stores I have opened, all branded under my name. If I can do it, believe me, you can
I'm not sure I could have made it without the Internet, maybe so; maybe locally or regionally. But it sure is fun to say, travel to Martinique and people know who I am, or at least what Londons Times Cartoons is.
Sassy cartoonist e-tailer Rick London has added yet another funny gift cartoon store to his repertoire of offbeat funny gift and apparel store, Rick London Collection http://www.ricklondoncollection.com/funny-gifts/) online shopping and
|
