Amilya Antonetti
is making her own markin the soap business,one customer at a time
When Amilya Antonetti
began to talk seriously about breaking into the $4.7-billion U.S.laundry-detergent market,in
1994,industry veterans told her she had to be joking. "They all laughed hysterically," Antonetti recalls. "They'd say,'Honey,have you ever heard of Clorox? Have you ever heard of
Tide?
There's
no
place
for
you
here.'" Time
and
again,
buyers
for
grocery
stores
told
Antonetti
that
none
of
their
customers
would
be
interested
in
the
hypoallergenic
cleansing
products
she
began
developing
after
learning
that
her
infant
son's
health
problems
were
aggravated
by
the
chemicals
in
standard
brands.
After
one
such
conversation
Antonetti
came
close
to
admitting
defeat.
Then
she
did
an
about-face,
marched
right
back
into
the
guy's
office,
and
declared, "I
have
one
more
thing
to
say
to
you:
I
am
your
customer."
Convinced
that
there
were
others
out
there
like
her,
Antonetti
did
her
own
market
research
by
haunting
grocery-store
aisles.
She
spent
loads
of
time
talking
with
female
shoppers,
she
says, "asking
and
asking
and
asking,
What
is
it
here
that's
missing?" She
persuaded
a
retired
soap
buyer
for
Safeway
to
put
her
in
touch
with
formulators.
Then
in
late
1995
she
and
her
lawyer
husband,
Dennis
Karp,
sold
their
home,
secured
$120,000
in
loans
from
the
Small
Business
Administration,
and
set
up
shop
as
SoapWorks
in
northern
California's
San
Leandro.
It's
been
a
long
haul,
but
five
years
later,
grocery-store
buyers
are
no
longer
laughing.
Antonetti
now
has
shelf
space
in
2,500
stores
from
California
to
Florida.
She
generated
revenues
of
$5
million
in
1999.
And
she
owes
her
success
to
the
very
customers
that
grocery-store
buyers
claimed
did
not
exist. "There
was
very
clearly
a
niche
that
was
not
being
served," says
Antonetti,
who
has
boldly
enlisted
would-be
customers
in
her
sales
effort. "If
a
mom
comes
in
here
and
asks,
'Why
are
you
not
at
my
store?'
I
tell
her,
'Look,
your
store
already
knows
about
me.
I've
already
talked
with
every
major
chain.
If
you
want
us
to
be
in
your
store,
you
need
to
talk
to
your
store
manager.'"
That's
just
what
happened
with
Joellen
Sutterfield,
a
fashion-industry
executive
who
credits
SoapWorks
products
with
reducing
the
skin
rashes
she
has
suffered
all
her
life.
Sutterfield
boasts
that
she
hectored
Safeway
store
managers
for
more
than
a
year
before
they
placed
their
first
$50,000
SoapWorks
order,
in
April. "Now," Sutterfield
says, "I'm
working
on
the
manager
at
the
Whole
Foods
Market
in
San
Ramon."
At
Trader
Joe's,
SoapWorks
has
found
a "cult
following," says
product
manager
Annette
Davidson.
A
SoapWorks
customer
herself,
Davidson
says
store
managers
at
the
131-store
chain
reported
such "huge
demand" from
customers
that
she
decided
to
stock
an
expanded
product
line.
Indeed,
Antonetti's
customers
have
become
such
apostles
for
SoapWorks,
it's
as
if
she's
mixed
a
marketing
ingredient
into
her
formula.
But
the
secret
to
SoapWorks'
customer-driven
marketing
scheme
isn't
solely
in
the
suds.
What
really
makes
it
work
is
Antonetti's
demonstrated
allegiance
to
her
customers,
who
are
smitten
as
much
by
what
SoapWorks
stands
for
as
by
what's
inside
the
bottle.
Antonetti's
solution
has
been
to
interact
constantly
with
current
and
prospective
customers,
forming
a
bond
that
she
perceives
as
intensely
personal.
Eager
to
tap
into
the
same
sorts
of
frustrations
that
put
her
on
the
soap
trail
in
the
first
place,
she
has
positioned
her
products
as
empowering,
all-natural
alternatives
for
female
shoppers
fed
up
with
a
barrage
of
advertising
hype.
She
has
vowed
that
customers
won't
have
to
pay
a
premium
for
choosing
SoapWorks.
She
personally
accepts
many
of
the
75-odd
calls
that
come
into
SoapWorks
daily.
She
hands
out
free
samples
(100,000
a
year)
in
children's
hospital
wards
and
women's
shelters.
And
she
invites
all
the
people
she
meets
to
share
with
her
their
problems
and
their
needs. "They
feel
like
they
know
me,
and
so
they
speak
on
my
behalf," Antonetti
says.
Another
incentive
for
Antonetti's
customers
to
promote
her
products
is
their
genuine
need.
After
a
year-end
sales
slump,
for
example,
the
Albertson's
supermarket
chain
pulled
SoapWorks
products,
only
to
be
confronted
by
customers "who
went
back
in
droves,
saying,
'Where
is
this
product?
We
really
need
this
product,'" says
SoapWorks
broker
Tom
Oneto,
president
of
Adobe
Sales,
based
in
Pleasanton,
Calif.
The
upshot:
at
press
time,
Albertson's
had
begun
restocking
SoapWorks
products.
"
Our
customers
fit
into
a
niche
that
was
not
being
served
by
Tide
and
Cheer
and
All," says
Antonetti.
A
black
binder
chock-full
of
customers'
letters
and
e-mail
messages
attests
to
that.
A
few
gripes
do
jump
out
from
the
correspondence:
dishwasher
powder
left
undissolved
and
weak
grease-cutting
agents.
But
most
of
the
missives
read
like
this: "After
meeting
you
in
Children's
Hospital,
we
began
using
the
products
you
gave
us,
and
they
are
wonderful.
We
no
longer
need
to
leave
the
house
after
cleaning,
and
we
all
breathe
much
easier." Another
writer
credits
SoapWorks
laundry
and
bar
soap
with
ridding
them
all
of "painful,
dry,
flaky
skin." Then
there
are
those
who
simply
seem
smitten
with
Antonetti: "Thank
you
for
caring
about
me
and
my
children."
Now
that
she's
gained
a
foothold
in
the
market,
Antonetti
is
more
aggressively
taking
on
the
mainstream
competition.
She
has
a
new
label
with
a
much
bigger
brand
name
and
bold-colored
bubbles.
She's
also
formulated
a
more
upscale
product
line
based
on
cold-processed
whole-leaf
aloe.
SoapWorks
has
doubled
its
revenues
each
year
since
its
launch,
but,
as
is
typical
at
growing
companies,
Antonetti
and
husband
Karp,
who
serves
as
chief
financial
officer,
are
grappling
with
chronic
cash-flow
problems.
Moreover,
with
every
advance
Antonetti
makes
in
the
market,
she
runs
into
new
demands
for
costly
promotions,
such
as
a
buy-one-get-one-free
campaign
she
agreed
to
do
as
part
of
SoapWorks'
planned
entry
into
100
Walgreens
stores.
To
step
up
production
--
and
thereby
increase
profit
margins
without
boosting
prices
--
Antonetti
has
decided
she
needs
to
bring
in
outside
investors.
It's
just
that
she
hasn't
yet
found
the
right
ones.
If
SoapWorks
does
get
capital,
the
challenge
for
Antonetti
will
be
staying
true
to
her
vision. "Customers
are
buying
into
the
concept
and
the
message
of
the
company
as
much
as
they
are
buying
the
product," observes
Debra
Lynn
Dadd,
author
of
the
book
Home
Safe
Home
,
and
a
SoapWorks
endorser. "Amilya's
concept
originated
from
within
herself,
from
her
problems
with
her
son.
That
has
resonated
with
other
mothers
and
other
women
who
have
been
attracted
to
joining
her
cause."
D.M.
Osborne
is
a
senior
writer
at
Inc.
Continuing Article : Customer
Driven
Marketing-
Vol.2 "Bootstrap Marketing"-
Retail
Strategies
Sources:
http://www.inc.com |