Episode 003 – Interview with the CEO of the Lip Balm Company Cire D’Abeille
In this podcast interview with the CEO and owner of Cire d’Abeille, we talk with Ashley Monney. Ashley is the CEO of a custom artisanal lip balm and skincare company. We discuss what makes inspired skincare products. All of Cire d’Aibelle’s products are locally sourced. This company partners with wineries, distilleries, and coffee roasters to make infused lip balm.
Highlights and Quotes from the Podcast:
How Ashley created her Cire d-Aibelle’s unique offering.
“I experimented with different flavors of the coffees, and of the wines.”
“I live in the Finger Lakes. It’s one of the most popular wine regions in the United States. Why not tap into that?”
“It’s a fun little gift or adds on and if I can help those business owners put out another product that is incorporating their name and their brand, like another way to reach potential clients.”
On custom packaging…
- “It’s based on what brands and companies I’m working with.”
- “I’m working with them and using their logos and their fonts to keep the brand as close as we can to their line.”
- “The artwork is the product, and then I use a custom label for the winery or the coffee roaster.”
Using wholesaling as the primary focus…
- “My primary focus of my company, I’d say about 90 to 95% is wholesaling only because I didn’t want to have a retail store and have to manage.”
- “I’m working full time every day, but it’s different things. Some days it’s delivery, some days, it’s production, some days it’s returning emails all day and some days that’s marketing.”
- “When I first started, I got a really good piece of advice from a store owner who told me you either need to be retail or wholesale.”
- “It’s not fair if you’re out trying to sell your pieces at a lower price point, and doing events and online sales.”
- “Why should they carry that in their store, they have no incentive. They need me to send customers to their store to help them survive as a small business.”
- “Retail would be a little bit like selling one unit or two units. Wholesale, I’m able to manufacture 3000 or up to 5000 units at a time and sell that bulk or have it in inventory in stock.”
On presentation of the product…
- “I watched a lot of online tutorials, trial and error, get lots of feedback on the presentation before I roll it out.
- I can’t just base it on what I think looks best, because I’m not the big picture.
- I have to take the time to photograph it and then create my marketing campaign.
- I need to make sure that obviously the first impressions matter so the first photo you see needs to be crisp and clear and bright.
- It’s brand recognition already that they see an item on that they’re used to and then associate my item now with the item they were used to.
- I created my own handmade wooden displays where it would be more sustainable. It actually looked so much better and bigger and more professional in the long run.
- partnered with a seamstress for creating a lip-balm holder and then create a limited edition run of lip balm holders as an easy add on or purchase or to be able to offer gift shops and online and usually at Christmas time is stocking stuffers.
Marketing tactics for educating the audience
- don’t give people too many choices.
- if you pair sets together, let’s say for a particular season, like a Christmas holiday or Mother’s Day or Easter or graduation gifts that it’s easier for shoppers to potentially pick up as an impulse buy
- for customers and creating my products, I need to convey that this is a win-win for everybody. It’s helping them expand their reach to new potential buyers based on a brand that they’ve already established and that they want to continue to grow.
- marketing is hard because my items have either a fragrance or flavor depending if it’s a lip balm, or an exfoliating sugar scrub or some of the other products that I make and presenting that online or through an email, I can’t convey my fragrance or the flavor.
- I have to send out the sample sizes send out the lip balms to different vendors and gift stores, wineries, grocery stores for them to physically try the product.
How do you grow beyond the product lines?
- The biggest piece of advice I got was to start small.
- Make a product or two or three that you’re known for and you do well, sustain you and maybe seasonally branch out and try something else.
- As far as the legal side of the business, I did two months of research before committing to start my company and another LLC.
Licensing and contractual terms
- The first thing I learned is I looked at packaging of lip balms that I wanted to emulate or copy or be like, like, what are the brand standards that are required by the FDA to put on a label?
- What country it’s made in, you know what city you don’t need, your physical address if your business is on file with the town and the government
- There are all kinds of regulations about font sizes, fonts, you’re allowed to use. Certain scripts that you’re not allowed to use.
- It’s actually an industry standard for all cosmetics
- you have to be aware of what the requirements and the rules and regulations are.
- I had to learn all about sending proposals and getting those approved and then sending the invoice and how do customers pay for their invoice.
What does success look like?
- The best day ever that I can still remember was when I had sold to coffee-infused lip balm, where I was even officially like under a new LLC and with full-blown liability insurance.
- I could remember each milestone over the past two and a half years when I’d get an order for 25. Currently, I’m doing orders for more than 3000 at a time.
- I’m so busy that I have to turn down clients. They want to make a special batch and they only would like to order 100 and I say that I’m sorry at this time I can’t only manufacture 100 for you because it’s not, in my best interest as a company.
What are your favorite books within the art field or the business field?
- I’m not so much doing books. I do a lot of podcasts and I do a lot motivational videos for entrepreneurs where I hear and listen to other people’s stories and what have worked for them.
- I listened to a lot of Gary Vaynerchuk. I love him I have his book and it just gets me excited. It reminds you stuff doesn’t happen overnight. You need to just keep plugging away
Resources:
Ashley Monney – LinkedIn
Cire d’Abeille – Website Instagram Facebook Etsy
Cire d’Abeille Interview – Blog post
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