Private Label Lotions

[phattmatt]

We sell cups ranging from $6- $8

[Will]

Din, what you say makes sense to me except for one thing, which has always held me back from PLing lotion. How do you come up with a different bottle, and different name and different smell each season to keep up excitement and keep customers interested. Or is your plan to just keep with the same one all of the time.

[Din]

Simple....i doubt you will be filling all 5000 bottles in a year and selling them. So you keep some empty bottles and every year you fill it with a new lotion or two with different smells.

Since it's about seeing what the consumer likes....so if they like one of your products color it gives them, use the same exact formula next year, add a different label and fragrance and change the ones that weren't all that hot to something new.

Most PL companies may require you to fill up to 200 bottles of each product....you may not sell all of them off....but there is not need to. Instead of reordering the same product, you bring out a new product.

The bottle will be the same.....look at Devoted Creations, Designer skin, etc...they have 6-10 lotions in the same exact bottle, just change the label.

[EliteMike]

Din, you see GSK got new bottles?

[Din]

Last time i checked.....for the last 10 years, they've been the same. I asked to see new pictures of them, but i haven't heard anything back.

Where can i see them?

I wasn't happy with the lotion either, has that been changed too?

[phattmatt]

We have gotten up to 10 different PL lines of our own over the years....education is the key......

[Din]

I'm still seeing the ugly bottles on the website. Which lotion bottle would you like to see on your shelf???

[EliteMike]

you have an email address din, i'll forward his news letter

[Din]

info@chronosmarketing.com

[Din]

okay...so i saw the new bottle, thanks EliteMike for the email.


Uhmmmmm......that's the same damn bottle, just right side up now. 10 years and nothing has changed. Greg, you're killing me here.

Mike, i think you did that on purpose, cuz you knew what i was going to say and you'd get a kick out of it. And you got me all excited about a new bottle by a PL company. I'll get you back....

[Din]

I don't see a difference really.....do you? i almost peed my pants from excitement of a new bottle finally.....and then this happens.




EDITED:
Greg, i re-read the newsletter and see what you are working on a project that may appeal to me.

Please contact me ASAP once that project is ready to go with the bottle as i'd like to get a sample bottle from you to see the bottle and try the product out.!!! As for the bottle above....please please please see if you can change them to something else. It may cost $1.00 more a bottle....but you'll double the sales!!!

[mule14]

Im with Din here, I am so anti cupping its not funny. Our packets range from $7 - $14, our average bottle of lotion sells for $90, its not a question of price is a question of how it looks. Ive got regular tanners that buy a new packet everytime they tan, they like the look of it and want to try something new, I just keep adding new packets. Stingy ass cup users who ask you to keep whats left over for their next tan and than turn up 3 months later expecting you to have kept it for them are a waste of time. Tanners are into image, otherwise they wouldn't be in our salons. I have no issue with charging someone $12 for a packet because if they want to save money than they should buy the bottle....

[Din]

Originally Posted by mule14

Im with Din here, I am so anti cupping its not funny. Our packets range from $7 - $14, our average bottle of lotion sells for $90, its not a question of price is a question of how it looks. Ive got regular tanners that buy a new packet everytime they tan, they like the look of it and want to try something new, I just keep adding new packets. Stingy ass cup users who ask you to keep whats left over for their next tan and than turn up 3 months later expecting you to have kept it for them are a waste of time. Tanners are into image, otherwise they wouldn't be in our salons. I have no issue with charging someone $12 for a packet because if they want to save money than they should buy the bottle....

I AGREE 100% !!!!!!!!

[The Freshness]

Originally Posted by Din

bump...

looking for PL companies that have changed their bottles & have added Packettes....

anyone?

Me too. Anyone??!!

Where can I buy a machine to do this?

[Din]

Ebay...

You will also need a company to print your packettes....it's not as simple as you think.

[em1521]

geoff d post a pic if you can or send me one please!! id love to see it!

[GSK Resources]

I (and the other PL manufacturers) would love to offer a number of different bottle options and packets.

Then it is very difficult for private label manufacturers to offer these options for the investment amounts that most tanning salons can afford.

I wish I had the ability to offer packets and custom labeled acrylic bottles for runs of just 48 bottles or 100 packets but that is not reality of the economics of indoor tanning product manufacturing.

Your choices are simple:

1) Keep selling the national lines and understand that those products will also be diverted on the internet at 1/2 your retail price.

2) Invest $20,000 to run 5,000 packets of several different products or 500 each of two different products in acrylic bottles.

3) Invest $1000 for 24 of 4 different private label products with enough extra labels to have up to 152 additional bottles at a very reduced cost.

Tanners will purchse the products you suggest.

Packaging does matter but the actual results of the tanning product in the bottle matters more.

You need to train your staff to sell the product not the packaging.

[Din]

Originally Posted by GSK Resources

Packaging does matter but the actual results of the tanning product in the bottle matters more.

I disagree with that.

the proper order of how things work in a tanning salon, not in a factory...is like this.

First thing they see is the presence of the bottle (style, colour, look, name of the lotion)

Second, after you hand them the bottle, they smell it, maybe even put a sample on their hand to feel texture and ease of application.

Third....They buy it based on your recommendation. (sometimes this comes first)

None of these steps include how good the lotion is and what results it gives you. They just made a purchase based on vanity and salesmanship. Not what the lotion did based on trial.

Regardless of how good the lotion is, over 90% of customers will change up lotions each and every time they REbuy another lotion bottle, whether they were using a good lotion, an amazing lotion or a crappy lotion. Just to be different.

Of course it matters how good the lotion is.......but not nearly enough as what it looks like, smells like and the marketing mumbo jumbo of what it "can" do. vs what it actually does. And anyone with a salon would know that!

Whether it is not cost effective to do the plan i am looking for or not, it IS better than stocking fugly bottles and telling people it's amazing lotion that looks like it was made in my garage. That's the point.

[GSK Resources]

That's is why I suggest training your employees to sell the customer what they need to help their tanning results...

Not sell what is a pretty package.


Anyone can pick a pretty bottle off the internet just as easy.

Educating your staff to sell the effective use of indoor tanning products is critical to your business success in limiting diversion in your salon.

PS: I see alot of national brand products that are in the same packaging as the private label manufacturers.

Examples would be:
Look at Cal Tan: Helix.... it's a black bottle with a label
Look at Cal Tan: Poten C .... It's a black bottle with a label
Look at AG: Browing Fury.... It's tan bottle with a label ( bottle looks like Red Lime's bottle)
Look at most of the Swedish beauty products.... It's a tan bottle with a label (some are tubes like Breeze can make for you)
Look at Supre:Tansium - It's color bottles with a silk screen label

This is just a short list of the product examples where the packaging of national brands and private label brands are the same.

[Din]

And you are naming the ugliest bottles that they sell, that i wouldn't carry.

Unless you get a bottle like tansium and silk screen the labels. Then yes, that looks alright. And if it's so simple...i'm surprised nobody in the PL companies have done it yet.