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A showerhead that costs $165 (or more, if you include the cost of quarterly shower-filter replacements) might seem like a luxury product to most. But that\u2019s not how Arjan Singh, co-founder and head of brand marketing and operations at Jolie Skin Co.\u2014which sells a showerhead that promises to filter out \u201cchlorine, heavy metals, and other contaminants\u201d to improve skin and hair health\u2014sees it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would not say Jolie as a product is a want or something that\u2019s nice to have, but more a necessity,\u201d he told Marketing Brew.<\/p>\n
Since going to market in December 2021, Jolie\u2019s showerhead has been featured in more than 25,000 pieces of user-generated content, according to Singh. The brand, which has more than 200k followers across Instagram and TikTok, has also run activations in the New York City area as part of what he says is an effort to generate conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWord of mouth\u2014whether that\u2019s word of mouth online or across the dinner table\u2014that\u2019s really the end goal,\u201d Singh told us.<\/p>\n
The company says it brought in $28 million in revenue last year, which Singh attributes in part to the brand\u2019s marketing. By keeping operational costs low with a team of three and a robust gifting strategy that is \u201cfar lower\u201d in cost than paid advertising, Singh said Jolie is able to reach audiences online and IRL to encourage them to add a Jolie showerhead to their existing beauty routines.<\/p>\n
Jolie\u2019s marketing strategy centers on product seeding to \u201cnot necessarily influencers, but people of influence,\u201d Singh said, and the brand currently sends out free products on a monthly basis. (Singh declined to share the number of free products sent each year).<\/p>\n
The brand has worked with well-known influencers like Devon Lee Carlson and Becca Moore, but Singh said the goal is not exclusively about racking up big-name endorsements; encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations can work just as well. \u201cWe want many different types of people to represent the brand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While Singh said that Jolie isn\u2019t \u201coverly protective of who represents the brand,\u201d it isn\u2019t sending products without a strategy, either. Instead, Jolie\u2019s marketing team targets people who it thinks are likely to be interested in the product at a time when inbound requests are exceeding outbound, he said. There\u2019s a benefit to sending out a somewhat unconventional beauty product, too, according to Singh: most people aren\u2019t getting many free showerheads in the mail, meaning they could be more likely to try the product, he said.<\/p>\n
Jolie uses affiliate links, but it doesn\u2019t provide discounts, and Singh said his team isn\u2019t focused on the sometimes difficult task of trying to track individual creators\u2019 contributions to sales anyway. Instead, they \u201clook at it in the aggregate\u201d to gauge the total impact of giveaways.<\/p>\n
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Jolie also doesn\u2019t typically provide scripts or send briefs when it seeds products unless there\u2019s a certain milestone approaching, like a holiday, Singh said. \u201cWe want the customer base to be the sales force, not necessarily the company,\u201d he said. \u201cThat message should best be delivered by someone in their own words.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some cases, Singh says Jolie will put paid spend behind creator content, with most of it going toward TikTok (spend on Meta platforms, meanwhile, makes up somewhere in the single digits, percentage-wise, he said). In addition to creators, he said that Jolie has partnered with nearly 80 brands on everything from content to gift boxes to giveaways.<\/p>\n
In the real world, Jolie is working to generate conversation with 15 Jolie-branded trucks driving around New York City with the message that people\u2019s shower water could be dirtier than the truck\u2019s exterior. \u201cIt has been, by far, the most successful form of marketing that we\u2019ve done, measured by how many times it gets brought up to us or [posted],\u201d Singh said.<\/p>\n
The brand has also put stickers on the sidewalk outside upscale New York restaurants like Balthazar and The Odeon, as well as outside subway stations. It\u2019s currently hosting a pop-up in SoHo with local store Happier Grocery and florist Audrey in the Garden.<\/p>\n
This summer, Singh said the company will move to a house in the Hamptons for the third time, hosting events like yoga by the pool and a sushi and sak\u00e9 tasting on a sailboat.<\/p>\n
This, too, could sound like luxury-brand positioning, but Singh said the activation is more about being culturally relevant and aligning with water. \u201cWherever there\u2019s a cultural current, we\u2019ll go there, because we know the impact that that has and the momentum that comes from that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Product seeding combined with pop-ups and events has enabled Jolie to \u201cspend online in a way that is a bit more sustainable from a cost perspective\u201d and ensure it\u2019s not overspending on marketing, Singh said.<\/p>\n
As for potential customers\u2019 spending? \u201cWe truly believe that Jolie is for everyone, no matter what your income level is,\u201d he said, adding that the filters\u2014which last for 90 days and retail for $33 each\u2014cost less than 40 cents per day (excluding the initial cost of the showerhead, of course). And he feels sure that some consumers will shell out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are vain creatures,\u201d he said. \u201cThe willingness to spend on beauty and on our vanity, unfortunately for our society, is way beyond anything else that is in disproportion to one\u2019s income.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n