“Fyi101 Essential Depot Premium Member Services – Labeling” presented by Derek Hodges.

Derek Hodges presents packaging and labeling options soon to be available through Essential Depot.

DH	I wanted to do some research because what you've got is a bar of soap, its the packaging that we are going to be selling with a label which if of the label we use on all of our products which is printed and designed here at Essential Depot.  I visited Catherine up in Kentucky and asked her, she's got a wonderful store up there, The Soap Deli, and this is her bestselling bar of soap in The Soap Deli.   So I said let's just put our marketing development through a test and put a label together for you, and let's make it conform to the labeling requirements.  So what you have now is a bar of soap in a nice container and we are going to sell these containers and they will be priced at between $0.03 and $0.06 per container.   
A	I'm sorry Derek ...
DH	These containers will be priced between $0.03and $0.06 apiece.  We have a shipment from China, I hate to tell you, they come from China, but they will be at the March Retreat where we will actually have these for sale.  I just wanted to show you and let you know what Essential Depot is doing in the labeling and marketing department.   Let's just go through
A	Can I get back to you is that $0.06 is that a package and label or just plastic?
DH	No, just the plastic container.  It is going to be $0.03 - $0.06.  The labels cost us to print, I'm going from memory here, my cost on these labels is like $1.95, but you would be paying the volumes you buy about $0.05 a label, which is the spreadsheet.   Let's do a quick overview.  
Labeling today, Paul Clough, the CPA is going to get up here tomorrow and he is going to show you the cost of a bar of soap.   Now I want a free and open discussion because at the end of that I have business decisions to make because I actually have a marketing plan that I'm going to present right after Paul, so I'm going to be sitting over there, I'm going to be listening to interaction with Paul and I'm going to be making an offer afterward on what Essential Depot is going to be doing on a marketing front.   So today, the labeling, the packaging, my marketing department can provide labels and other costs you have when you design a label as you have to get good graphics.   Shutterstock is expensive.   You can't get a Shutterstock account for download of less than $199 a month or if you want to a merchandising label, you’re going to sell more than 250,000 bars, you have to pay $199 graphic.  So bear that in mind when you sell more than 250,000 of an item with a printed label, you can't just use the Shutterstock image you download.  Regardless, obviously we have a Shutterstock account, we do a lot of research, this is not I believe, Susan, this is not a Vector image?
Susan	No
H	So the actual quality that we can use Vector images, we can get better quality, it's 1200 DPI, it's a very robust label and it holds the container together.  I like these containers because you can smell the soap, you can ship the soap, you can ship a box of them, so that labeling and packaging, this is our first ploy into it, obviously you need a nice logo, Catherine is going to speak to some of the marketing stuff there, UPC Code, vitally important, you want to sell on E-Bay or Amazon, you have to have a UPC Code.   And it is coming from GS1.org.  Any one of you can apply to them.  It used to be when I did it, I don't know what it is now, it's $500 for the initial application and then up for 100 bar codes, you pay about $100 - $150 a year for the right to have 100 bar codes.  That's not a bad deal and I would encourage you if you want to go ahead now to do that because I think I mentioned this last time, I'm very confident if you put your soaps with a bar code up on Amazon, you are going to see sales you didn't expect you were going to get.   On that topic, we are going to talk afterwards.
A	I didn't say anything about enemas yet.
DH	Julie is someone who is starting a brand new soaping business.  She is doing a brand new company name.  She is trying to do it the right way before she gives up her long term career, she wants to own her soaping business.  We are going to talk afterwards, because Catherine the two projects I would like to spend my time on just in the next month is the perfume business with Catherine, the perfume business and the soap business another one of these with you.  So we'll talk afterwards.  These events I'm open to any suggestions from anybody, I want Essential Depot to grow and I want to grow  with your help and I can only do that if you would tell us what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong, and  what we want.   So coming back to the labeling, UPC Code, obviously you can buy UPC Codes on the internet tomorrow for $5.  Prior to 2002, GS1 organization allowed you to buy bar codes and resell them.  So there was about 40 companies that spotted the opportunity and they bought millions of bar codes, and if you go on the internet and do a search for legal bar codes, you will find some attorney offices that have lists of the legal bar codes.  And you can buy one of those bar codes and you can sell your products with a $5 bar code on Amazon or E-Bay.  The only problem with those, and it isn't a problem, because when you're big enough to do it, you're going to buy them anyway.  There's about 10 retailers that require you to have the first part of the bar code as your company name.   So if you want to sell to Walmart, Home Depot or wholesale foods, you've got to have your company name.   So when you buy all of those $5 bar codes, it is not going to work for you.  But you can buy a $5 bar code tomorrow and put your soaps on Amazon tomorrow, and I encourage you to do it and I am going to talk more about that tomorrow. 
  Now, address.  What you just handed out, Leah Donald let me know that got a letter back reference putting addresses on the product.  That's right you no longer have to list your home address.  Just get yourself a listing and it looks like yellowpages.com is a free listing and you're all set.   And when you’re doing small labels, if you’re doing standard mailing labels, the real estate on the  label is likely important, and that's the cheapest way to go.   And if you've got a business to print, you can get really nice quality mailing label and at a very low cost at a very high quality.  So if you just going to do a small label on your soap, just do a ruling on the labeling of the address, you can probably fit more on a standard labeling with a good quality label.   Match numbers, serialization, good manufacturing practice where we went from before, all of our labels will have a sequential batch number with a tracking back to where the ingredients came from and put it together.  Soap is not regulated, soap is the thing you can make and sell as long as you don't make health claims for it and it's the business that I love because of that.  
In the March Retreat we are going to have an attorney here going over the Florida cosmetic law and that's when I want you to be up about legal questions.  We can't give legal advice, so my focus for tomorrow is going to be to get you and help you grow your soapmaking business while I'm still absorbing the Florida cosmetic law and all the other things.   And part of the things in Kentucky that was great was Kentucky doesn't have that problem.  Next month I'm hoping that Catherine and I can focus on some of the perfume opportunities, we got in all the shipments of jojoba in, and the labeling on perfumes and stuff is going to be a whole new topic.
Ingredients.   There are only three ingredients.  It is normal protocol to list in the order that the most used ingredient down to the least used ingredient.  So put that on your label to.  If you have a product and if you want to put an expiration date on it, so people can use it by a certain time and make sure they come back and buy some, I would encourage you to put an expiration date on your bar of soap 18 months out, then you'll get people coming back.
I'm going to have a lot of fun tomorrow.  Any questions on labeling and packaging?
A	I have to say I love the packaging.  Some clients I know are going to say do you have recyclable type packaging.
DH	I'm looking for suggestions here.  
A	Could you repeat the question?
 DH	Yes.  Recyclables.  We will bring a lot of company.   You can't beat this from a merchandising ability, but I would love to come up with the best solution of recyclable, and I'm open to suggestions, and we want to buy that in.   So I'm going to show you tomorrow our new website where we have a separate packaging section and that's launching next week.  Next Thursday.   The old Essential Depot site will be retired and new site will be on line.   I would love before the next Retreat to have a whole range of recyclable packaging material.  Please speak to Susan any companies you have, somebody mentioned one yesterday.   We want to make a list of those.  We want to find out where in Taiwan or China they buy it, go around them and get a better quality.   But it's got to be recyclable.  That's tougher for the far East, but in India they've got recyclables.  So if we can find a domestic, we try and go US first.
A	I know the Canadian company.
DH	We buy some of our oils, the scarcer ones for New Directions, we have a lot of product that comes down from Canada, so it would be great to find a supplier in Canada.
Repeat questions.
A	Is this going to come in different sizes?
DH	Yes
A	For the people that are so big into recycling, no disrespect, not pushing this but I'm a big believer of this.
DH	We chose this one size because it fits exactly into the revolutionary mold, the revolutionary cover.  We are not limiting it down to the length of the cover
A	Or the height.
DH	Or the height, so I'm open, I recognize it, we've a great thing with the sizes we've chosen here for the soapmaker as you get bigger.  
A	Great, I'm really into ornate top signing and this is really a neat little box.
DH	Please e-mail Susan the packaging that you like and we will research it in and try to bring it in and that will be resolved before the next Retreat.  You will see tomorrow what I'm hoping to have you guys doing before the next Retreat and anymore questions?
Thank you very much.  Talk to you tomorrow.


 

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