PURPLE BLAB

Purple Lab was on its way – but homeless.

You can’t get any kind of media coverage on a product if there is no place to buy it. And that meant, work on the press kit but don’t print and go out there with it yet.. wait until I had a place to send people to buy.

Here’s the thing about retailing in today’s world.

The brick and mortar retail model has changed dramatically with the increase of the internet and the decrease of the economy. More people are buying online and on HSN and QVC, which used to be kind of low brow but has become cool, full of fabulousness.

That said, as much as I wanted to be in those kind of outlets, I also wanted some form of presence in traditional stores. There’s something about seeing a product in person and touching it, smelling it, feeling it.

My first instinct was a small, well edited chain of stores called Scoop, which started in New York City and had locations in Connecticut, Vegas, and Miami. It’s the kind of place known for spotting all things new, fun, and fresh. The top of the food chain from which I could trickle down. I was drawn to a small boutique, where I wouldn’t get lost (i.e. Sephora could have swallowed me hole and spit me out.)

The woman who started it is called Stefani Greenfield (she has since left the trend empire she started and is designing a line of accessories called Curations with HSN – she is my business idol). I have known her forever – from my journalist days.

While Scoop is not a beauty destination, it is coveted for, among other things, its denim selection. I figured, what better thing to want than Huge Lips Skinny Hips when you’re trying to squeeze into size 26 Current/Elliots (BTW: best jeans ever!)?

When I showed the Scoop girls the product, Stefani was sold, deeming it “yummy sexy.” Love that – especially because it’s such a hard store to get into and one I have personally made more than my share of donations at!

They asked for a P.O. – purchase order. I didn’t have one. I didn’t know how to make one. And then I was told it should have the UPC code (the bar with numbers on products).Of course I had those, I said.

The minute I left, I was Googling.

And whaddo you know… there’s barcodes.com.

Bought em and downloaded a P.O. template online, hoping it would suffice. It did. But the barcodes, not so much. Turned out to not have the right number of digits – bought the wrong codes and after we printed the stickers, all 30,000 of them, 5,000 per color – we had to buy new codes and make new stickers… good times!.

On our way. The order wasn’t huge. But it’s the kind of “door” (the term for store) that is prestigious and all about cache. My kind of door. Magazine editors love Scoop and though it’s not widespread, it was a good place to start a brand.

I also had my sets on a chain called Space.NK, like a school girl crush on the popular football player you only hope would look your way just once. They did – but it wasn’t quite the right fit. Will go there later.

I was finally able to finish up the press kit – and that is for next week, my friend.

Till then…

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

Tags: Beauty, Cosmetics, Hoodia, Karen Robinovitz, Lip gloss, Lip Plumper, Makeup, Purple Lab

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 7:05 am and is filed under Purple Lab Behind the Scenes, Where to Buy Purple Lab Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.