Choosing a Brand Ambassador to Create Value

Image: Here + Now by Justin Bieber

​Corporate Challenge: A niche product company wants to break through to the mainstream.

Ironbound Strategy: Choosing a brand ambassador to create value for your brand’s customers, employees, and society can help launch into the market spaces where the brand ambassadors have influence.

Ironbound Action: Portland Oregon based Schmidt’s Naturals began creating chemical-free personal products in a house kitchen in 2010.  Between 2015 and 2018 the company tripled in size and scale, reaching customers from coast-to-coast.  Unilever purchased an ownership stake and created a partnership with Jane Goodall to design a product, it tripled sales.  In 2019, Justin Bieber became Schmidt’s next brand ambassador.  His popularity launched Schmidt’s entire product lineup into every mainstream cosmetics retail store globally.  Choosing Justin Bieber helped Schmidt’s create a larger impact on expanding the all-natural product segment from a niche preference into the mainstream must-have product.  

* 54% of women have claimed a preference for their cosmetics to be all-natural.
 
** The current US cosmetics market is around $49B.  The natural cosmetics market is positioned to be worth $25B globally by 2025.  Most of the natural cosmetics market is driven by large market players, rather than small entrepreneurs growing to competitive scale.

*** 5% of Jane Goodall’s product sales through Schmidt’s are donated to the Jane Goodall Institute.