When my students or anyone who knows what I do for a living asks me about choosing products that would be good products to sell online, they often assume that I’m going to instantly hand them the name of a particular product, where to source it and how to sell it. Although if I did tell them one single product idea it would be the equivalent of me handing a hungry man one fish, in that he would enjoy one meal and be hungry again the very next day.
Instead, if I showed them how to build a private label brand its more like teaching a hungry man how to catch as many fish as he wants so he’ll never need to go hungry ever again.
So, here’s a few killer examples of how smaller businesses can use and incorporate private label products into their own businesses..
1. Hotels – Many hotels and boutique guest houses have bathroom toiletries such as shampoo, conditioners and soaps with the hotel or guest-house brand name printed on the label.
In some hotels you might see towels with the hotel name sewn into the towels. Maybe the hotel room caters for business clientele, providing pens and notepaper with the hotel brand printed directory onto the stationary -all private label products.
2. Day Spas – Spa’s often stock massage oils, skin care treatments and other cosmetics with their own private label brand packaging. Immediately following an enjoyable and relaxing experience, clients are much more likely to want to buy the products used during the experience for personal use at home.
This strategy leverages the clients desire of replicating the enjoyable experience at home –just like Boots retail store, day spa’s can offer their own brand products to increase customer retention and bottom line profits.
3. Hair Salons – Hair Salons sometimes carry their own private label version of special hair treatments for the exact same reasons mentioned –to be able to offer the customer a similar ‘silky hair’ experience in their own home..
..encourage the customer to return, expose the product to more eyeballs and make more profit.
4. Auto trade – Some auto care companies might carry private label auto cleaning products with their own brand packaging and labels on the products. Other possibilities are motor oils and lubricants.
5. Fitness & Health Clubs – Fitness clubs can sell their own version of vitamins or sports nutrition supplements. This is big business!
6. Golfing Clubs and Resorts – Almost ANY sports club or resort will have a clubhouse and/or shop. The shop can sell goods with the sports club brand printed on the product. Golf balls, polo shirts, hand towels, the list is almost endless –all these products are simple advertising ‘widgets’ that a member of the club will probably pay for and carry around for his or her friends to see and be curious about.
7. Seminars & Educational Centers – I can remember as a small child buying an illustrated A-Z Science and Technology magazine (yes like many, I do have the techno-nerd gene too! 🙂 I remember the first edition of this magazine was cellophane wrapped to a branded FREE ring binder.
The first magazine issue could be kept and stored safely in pristine condition in this ring binder, printed with the magazine name in bold, attention grabbing colors.
On my bookshelf, the big, clumpy binder stood out.. …making sure I didn’t forget that my next pocket money was to be spent buying the next issues of the magazine and to fill up the binder.
The same principal of using ‘branded marketing widgets’ can be used at seminars and educational training centers for marketing subscriptions and courses.
8. Internet Marketers – The smart internet marketers know that the big money is made by those who actually own a product. A product no one else can obtain except from the owner of the brand, whether that’s a ‘personality’ brand or a protected brand name or trademark. Private label products can be incorporated and used as the ‘back end’ product or even as a front end ‘lead generation’ widget.
These are just a few examples of how small businesses might use their own private label branded version of a standard product, manufactured by a third party manufacturer.
Unless a particular product has already been patented or has other legal protection, it’s no big deal for manufacturers to make the same or similar products for anyone who wants to brand and label them for their own use.
I hope that so far this at least has your ‘idea neurons’ firing.
