Launching with Selfridges - gain or pain?

The History -

In April 2015, I officially incorporated my business and in July2015 I launched my full range of Indian pickles, chutneys and sprinkles with Selfridges across the UK.Neat right!?? I thought so too!

In many ways, it was the dream launch that any entrepreneur with rose tinted glasses could have expected.

Selfridges were running a campaign Meet the Makers 2015 where they invited artisan producers from around the country to showcase their products for a chance to launch them at their prestigious foodhalls.

Having discovered the competition, just the night before submission deadline, I quickly created a presentation for my Indian condiments that I submitted with fingers, toes and everything crossed.

I was then invited to meet with the very lovely buying and marketing team at their flagship Oxford Street store - I told myself, if I get this one - it was meant to be! Magical right!?? I thought so too!

Living the dream

Within a week of meeting the team, I got the email - my products were going to launch with Selfridges!

I remember laughing, smiling, crying, screaming and feeling a whole surge of emotions under the sun. I think most of us have felt this at some point in our entrepreneurial journey. It's that feeling of "I have finally arrived".

My grandma's pickles in Selfridges!

Not only were my products selected, I was chosen as one of the 12 hero makers for the campaign with my story and brand spread on the walls across the three Selfridges stores.

What dreams are made of!

Everything had to be perfect for this launch - there were no two ways about that!

Branding - the best!So I worked doubly-trebly hard with my design team, who came up with beautiful logo and labels to launch the product. I did not know anything about our USPs, brand messaging or positioning, but our packaging was launched nonetheless.

Website - the best!I spent (what at the time was) a lot of money in creating a website where people could land on launch day to discover more about Cheeky Food. I didn't know anything about SEO, ecommerce stores or even my product proposition, but my website was launched nonetheless.

Photography - the best!Everything needed really on point gorgeous food photography of my products in lifestyle setup. Even though my lovely friends offered to model for free, and even though I had no research points on the type of recipes customers wanted to enjoy with my condiments, I booked two days of photography sessions nonetheless.

Looking back, even though I did things on a tight bootstrapped budget, practically everything that I created was the wrong way around. It wasn't because I didn't hire good experts to help, it was simply a case of the brand being too young and I not understanding it's real proposition to even guide these teams.

I was building a brand from grounds up, without deep foundations into understanding what would sell, how it would sell or even who it would sell to?

It was very much a case of throwing everything at it and seeing what sticks.

BAD IDEA ALWAYS!

Except the only things that stuck were heavy costs in packaging, 1000s of labels that were not selling the product, food photography that was immensely good looking but didn't do justice to the value proposition of the products.

Selfridges went well for a while, but it always felt like an upward climb to sell.

I would personally turn up at the foodhalls to sample and talk about the products - this is a trap that a lot of new founders fall into - if your product cannot sell itself, scrape it, make it anew.

The Reality vs Dream

I still look back very fondly at my launch with Selfridges and it will forever be an honour that they were a part of my brand story so early on.

But if I really had to do retail all over again, I would forget anything flashy, anything that needed websites, fancy photography or labels.

Here are the things I would focus on -

1) Create an early version of the product

2) Sell across market tables but without the hard sell. Let people sample/try and see if they buy without a lot of hard convincing sales.

3) Take feedback regularly and change versions frequently.

4) Create home labels with cheap print of maximum 100, put the products in local shops for free. If they sell, the shop keeps the booty, if they don't sell - well go to step 3. Note even though it "seems like a loss", having access to a shop's shelf and their customers is a huge win for early stage founders.

5) Do 2-4 till a good run of easy, self selling products have been honed.

6) Only once the products have built enough cash in the business to fund design teams, would I hire someone to make a first version of the brand.

7) Keep fixed costs low with small runs on new labels (there is something about wasting labels that I have heard so many founders hate to do and continue to use reels over reels of low selling labels). I would then go back to the shops I have built relations with and ask for them to buy at wholesale price. The previous sales would be a validated track record that shops can easily make their money back.

8) Keep a solid run with 10-15 stockists max where a have a good run of frequent repetitive sales. Also strong relations where the shopkeeper would share sales data and customer feedback readily. Only when this has been achieved would I even think about approaching a Selfridges or a Wholefoods.

There are a lot of ways to sell easily and gather customer feedback cheaply. Technology makes it easier than ever before for early founders to collect data and pivot.I think key for me would be realising that a business is a money making exercise not a vanity one! I still repeat this mantra over and over whenever I am tempted by the vanity metrics of business building.If you have enjoyed reading my blog, please subscribe for my Friday newsletters of the Frugal Founder

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Love your business not your product

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