The Pitch: Giving unsustainable products the flick
IN our ongoing series on entrepreneurs, we meet a self-starter who is bringing Australian inventions to consumers in an ethical way.
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In the Herald Sun’s ongoing series, The Pitch, on local entrepreneurs, we meet a self-starter who is bringing Australian inventions to consumers in an ethical way.
HAILING from a family-owned plastics company, Felicity Ford is passionate about Australian products.
MEET THE RISING ENTREPENEURS AND INVENTORS WHO STAND OUT FROM THE PACK
Over the past year and a half, she has been building a business that takes local inventions and commercialises them.
Her GoLusty business currently has two products on the books. One is the UpperCup and the other the 321 Water bottle.
UpperCup is a reusable coffee cup, developed by a Melbourne coffee enthusiast working in the industry who was alarmed by the waste created by single-use cups.
Through industry contacts, Ms Ford approached the inventor and bought the assets and intellectual property rights.
It remains Melbourne-made but her family business, Fischer Plastics Products in Mulgrave, is now making the lids. The cup’s base is made by Dandenong-based Microplastics.
Fischer, founded in 1965, makes a big range of storage units such as first aid cases, fishing tackle boxes, clothes hangers and storage trolleys.
“When we take on products, we always make small changes to the product before relaunching,” Ms Ford says. “For UpperCup, when we took over the assets, we changed the lid to improve functionality.
“Then when relaunching, we provided free new lids to any old customer so that they could continue to use their UpperCup.”
The 321 Water bottle is so named because it takes about three litres of water to make one of the 500ml non-reusable water bottles used by big beverage companies.
The 321 bottle filters water via a press plunge and because it is 100 per cent Australian made and free of plastic nasties, it gives people peace of mind, she says.
Ms Ford is also finetuning another product — due to hit the market later this month — which is a water bottle made by recycling water bottles. It will be called 321 Recycle.
“What drives GoLusty is a commitment to ethical and local manufacturing,” she says. Her mission is to enable creative people to have their products commercialised and reach a bigger audience.
Ms Ford says she consults widely with entrepreneurs about how their products can find a bigger market.
She is also looking at other products and collaborations. Females in the Gen Y bracket and millennials are possibly the core market, she says. “I think the thing is getting consumers to question where their products are coming from. There are a lot of pretty products and brands out there but people have no idea in what conditions they are made,” she says.
She says that making locally results in a better product, workers are paid better and work in good conditions.
Ms Ford says her business has signed on for Australia Made certification, which is often a factor in people’s purchasing decisions.
GoLusty at this stage is not a formal signatory to the B Corporation — a certification program for socially responsible companies.
But Ms Ford says she is embracing its values of meeting rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
What the experts say...
JOHN DOWNES, MENTOR — MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESS
WELL done Felicity. The GoLusty family of 321 Water and Uppercup look to be off to a great start. I love your B-Corp approach to quality for prior Uppercup purchasers.
Two issues concern me. Distribution strategy:What is the focus of your distribution; off or online? How will you either maximise in-store product visibility, or dramatically improve online presence?
Who is the target audience and how does this effect who you target? Are we talking mums/hipsters with lunch boxes, or Boomers in activewear? The offline channel needs a push to be serious. The online channel needs brand ambassadors/bloggers to promote to your audience.
Commercialisation and diversification: Will you diversify your product mix or expand out the existing product range?
I caution that it is easy to go after more products (distractions), when the existing products are not yet yielding maximum potential.
While neither is likely to have more than a three-year life span, this provides an opportunity to hone and prove your “acquisition, launch, operationalise, innovate, life cycle extension and, return on investment” process without too much distraction over the next 12 months.
This is the basis of credibility for funding future product investments and partnerships. Input from your target audience can help you innovate with both products.
VIVIAN VO, MENTOR — MELBOURNE INNOVATION CENTRE
THE brands have strong vision statements in that they are reusable, sustainable and ethically sourced. These are communicated on the websites. Your social media posts work well to engage and raise awareness among markets such as millennials.
Millennials are an interesting market, given the generation’s size, power and influence. The approach is to engage them on their terms, while staying true to the company brand. Consider name personalisation in emails, sending highly relevant email campaigns and partner campaigns to further your reach.
Millennials also hold great power to encourage other demographics, serving as influential brand ambassadors. Ensure your campaigns are fun and easy for them to share, particularly through social media. These shared platforms can help you to build emotional connections with shoppers.
Implement a customer-centric approach by developing a highly personalised marketing plan that delivers custom experiences. Engage shoppers on an individual level rather than addressing broad demographics.
Consider customer data as valuable not only to you but also to investors. Having an effective CRM (customer relationship management) system in place will help you analyse and understand customer journeys and desires. Data and analytics from social media will prove valuable and cost effective
BRUCE HALL, MENTOR — SMALL BUSINESS MENTORING SERVICE
I LOVE what Felicity and her team are trying to do, bringing together products and innovators to improve sustainability. That the products are quality and Australian is even better.
From a marketing perspective, to succeed and increase awareness and her reach in what is a crowded marketplace, it will be important to focus on building and engaging with a “tribe” — people interested in sustainability, innovation and Australian-made products. To build an audience, the products sold should be the end outcome, not so much the focus.
With this in mind, I suggest shifting more of the focus on social media and the blog to topics of interest to her target audience and engaging them in the conversation. Why is sustainability important? The challenge faced by innovators. The innovation journey. Hints and tips.
Focus on topics of interest to the people who are the likely buyers.
To do this requires content and work, however the potential pay-off is significant. It also gives the audience a reason to buy GoLusty products instead of the many alternatives.
With the web and social media, it is not enough to simply pump out content. It needs to be optimised for search. A good starting point would be to add the free Yoast SEO plug-in.
Australia has a lot of great innovators. GoLusty can help transform their vision.
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