Getting Your Product Into Your Dream Store with PR Starter Pack member Moni
Getting your product onto store shelves can be a real game changer when it comes to growing your business.
Moni is a PR Starter Pack Member who has gotten her product onto 600 Store SHELVES without fancy representation or knowing ANY industry contacts.
Moni’s Product: A headband that can be worn in different ways. The more potential Moni saw in her product, the more she realized that she couldn’t do everything herself. She knew one way that she could get the product out to a lot of people was to sell it in stores. So she gave herself one year to just focus on retail and wholesale. With hard work, dedication, and determination, her product made it into over 100 stores in just the first year.
“If you do not believe it is going to happen, then you will not take the change or the risk”
Tactics To Get Your Product Out There
Understand the consumer’s needs and what is important to them.
Being a well-known and respected brand can be a MAJOR foot in the door. Press leads to more press. The more exposure you have, the more opportunity you have.
Brands benefit from being featured in social media and publications to get their name out there. Having a good social media and PR presence will make you seem much more credible.
Show up like a pro --if you don’t know anything about your wholesale or retail make sure to educate yourself. “Establish yourself as a brand that they need in their store.”
Quick Tips To Remember
When you are trying to get your product into stores it is the brand story that connects with buyers.
Have an amazing sales pitch including media features. You need to very quickly show them WHY they NEED to be in business with YOU.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to buyers, it will only improve your chances for success.
Great branding and packaging. Picture how it will look in the store and on the shelf. Make your product stand out and sell itself.
Learn how your line is doing and always improve. Before you get orders, get feedback and find out why buyers are ordering or where they are not ordering.
When you sell there must be a profit in there for you as well. Wholesale pricing equals you usually want to sell your products 15% off retail.
Moni’s Headband example: On the packaging, I had pictures of all the different ways the headband could be worn along with the phrase, “Yes, you can rock a headband!” I also had my story and what my business is for on the inside, that’s what draws people in.
What Not To Do
Work with someone who has “connections”. Buyers change all the time. “Don’t give your power away to someone else”. Hiring someone else will cause you to miss out on key information. “At one point I did hire someone who told me they had all these contacts and I got nothing from it and I spent like $15,000 on it,” Moni.
DIY your branding or packaging. Unless your area of expertise is that. It is always better to have someone with knowledge of graphic design and retail.
Reach out to a few stores then give up. Reach out to at least 100 stores and collect data about what works and what doesn’t.
It is so important to get into the mindset of learning, and know that it is not going to be perfect the first time around. Be okay with putting an idea or gesture out there, learning about it, and then possibly improving. It is also to learn to be okay with failure. It is going to happen at one point or another and it will make your product and business better.
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Just keep pitching and following up. You can do this!