What I wish I’d known about developing a product line

The single most important relationship you'll have for your brand is this.

One of the things I loved about creating my skincare brand Faace was that it was genuinely born from a place of enthusiasm, creativity and joy, with very little strategy involved. That was also one of my regrets.

When someone pays to subscribe to this Substack, I often ask if there’s anything they’d like me to cover. I received this question recently: What did the early days of building your company look like when you were working on product and customer development? So here, I’m going to answer this in part. Also, please do keep the requests coming in as it sparks ideas for me on what’s of interest to share.

I can’t stress this enough: Choosing the right manufacturer is the most important part of the process.

I knew I needed my manufacturer to align with my brand values: vegan, ethically made, eco-conscious packaging, philanthropic and ideally be a small business where people mattered. But I was clueless about where to find a decent supplier, so I simply took to Google to track one down.

I reached out to many companies with no idea about their credentials or capabilities. One of the biggest challenges was finding someone who would take a chance on a new brand. Ultimately, manufacturers want to work with brands that can provide longevity. But if you’re just starting out, you have no proof of concept and the likelihood of you being a long-term business partner (and cash cow) is unknown.

Eventually, I thought I’d found my perfect match: a local, family-run company which also produced its own line of good quality, accessibly priced, eco-conscious products. The products they created with me and my small team were excellent - proven by continuous customer and press feedback, as well as the thirteen prestigious (Elle, Marie Claire, Telegraph to name a few) awards they won. Which is partly why I stuck it out with them for so long.

I’m not going to go into detail, and without sounding too melodramatic, partnering with this company caused me a tremendous amount of heartache. Ultimately, they let me down in many ways and were extremely difficult to work with. I’ve worked with hundreds of clients over the years, and I think most (there’s always one…) would say I’m a good, open and fair communicator, and someone who’s solution-driven when things go wrong. This company, however, I found impossible. My single, biggest, regret in the years of running my skincare brand, was not trusting my gut, and letting this relationship continue beyond the point of no return.

Good rapport when doing any kind of business matters.

Many savvy brand builders have said this before me, that the single most important thing you can do is cultivate an excellent relationship with your manufacturer. Things will inevitably go wrong, but what matters is how you work together to solve any issues. You need to be able to meet them in person, have open channels of communication, and build rapport so you feel you have a shared goal of making the business successful. Without that, working together will just be too hard, as I unfortunately found out.

How do you go about finding the right manufacturer for you?

I can’t claim to have the formula for success, but my advice is mainly just don’t rush in. Ask around for recommendations, rather than blindly choosing someone who only appears like a good match before you’ve done your due diligence. Share your business plan so the company knows you intend to be in this for the long haul, which could hopefully open up more options. Take your time, get a few quotes, see if you can connect with their other customers. Ask to visit the space where the manufacturing will take place and meet the team in person. Make sure you feel all aspects have been fully vetted before you sign up.

Also, get some advice on what you’re signing up for. Do you need to own your formulas from the start so you can take them to any supplier as you see fit? Do you have flexibility with order sizes? Make sure you question every step, as this is potentially the single most important relationship you are going to make for your brand.

Pricing your products correctly before they’re made.

We were ingredient and efficacy led in our formulation process, but we didn’t stop to consider a pricing strategy or the retail price we wanted to achieve for our products before their inception.

If you want your RRP to be under £20 for example, there will be limitations on the amount of active ingredients you can include and still make a profit. So, speak to your manufacturer early, so you can align your price point and your product limitations from the start.

Picking the right packaging.

We were set on using high-quality PCR (post consumer recycled) materials and a strong aesthetic was paramount in all our decision making. Our packaging design, developed by creative director (and my husband) Dan, received high praise from press, consumers, retailers, and even the Dragons on Dragon’s Den gave it a glowing review. But we hadn’t considered budget restraints or retailer readiness when making our initial decisions.

I remember showing the first three products to someone I really admire - Jon, then-CEO of a major brand. One of his first comments was: “The caps are small and won’t stand on a retailer shelf.” I was kicking myself. We’d made thousands of tubes (which I wasn’t going to waste). Straight away I realised this wasn’t ideal. I was frustrated, as why hadn’t I thought of this, or anyone mentioned it before?

That’s another thing with being naïve and relying on the wrong suppliers: if it’s your first time doing something, you need someone willing to make suggestions to help you improve.

We didn’t have seals on our products. We didn’t have boxes, as we wanted to use as little material as possible. We didn’t even put barcodes on our first tubes… Looking back, it sounds bonkers. But you only know what you know, when you know it. We were caught up in the creativity of the process, and didn’t always stop to consider some of the fundamentals.

We also made completely bespoke tubes for each SKU, which added significantly to the initial costs. One alternative could have been using a standard vessel with different labels, reducing upfront spend before proof of concept. Yes, you want the product to stand out, but it’s worth questioning whether each choice balances beauty, efficacy, budget, and investment before you know if your brand will land.

Having said all of this, would I make our product less beautiful if I had my time again? No, this was a non-negotiable for us, but it’s still worth sense checking in your process.

Making sure the products are commercially viable.

We wanted to include more actives in our formulas so we couldn’t retail the products cheaper, and therefore decided to make the products 100ml to give customers value for money through the generous supply. But this was an error. Simply put, they last too long. As a business, we needed customers to buy a certain amount each year to survive, but sizing them too large meant it was harder to create the supply and demand.

We launched our brand with face masks - which are great - but they’re not something you’ll necessarily use every day. I wish we’d given this more thought at the start. While our story was strong and our message unique, we hadn’t stopped to consider the fact that we needed customers using our products every day (ideally twice) to encourage repurchase and to keep the business viable.

Great formulas can take time.

It can take dozens of iterations, testing and adapting formulas to get the performance, texture and smell just right. I underestimated the time this would take, it can take years and years, and often I felt frustrated we couldn’t launch products faster.

If I had my time again, I’d start working on a new product pipeline as soon as my initial lineup was ready, so we’d have new launches available to go, should the first set sell well. However, it’s not all about constant new product development - sometimes creating a hero product is the strongest strategy (something I can go into another time).

These are the things I’d suggest are the key criteria around manufacturing to consider when developing a brand. I hope they help. Next, I’m planning to write about how I approached building a brand identity and storytelling, how we created buzz at launch and beyond, and how we missed out on getting to know our target customer quickly enough. So let me know which topics are of most interest, and I’ll put my thoughts down.

Thanks as always for reading.