HOW TO MARKET YOUR DETERGENTS - FOR STARTUPS

 

Marketing the product has always been a difficult aspect of the business. Our clients have always complained when it comes to marketing their products. In this post we are outlining some strategies to help should you decide to use liquid soap or any other products. It must be noted that the strategies outlined below are not infallible. The following strategies should help and you should adjust it where necessary to suit your strength.

Choose your customers or segment your customers

It is always important to know your customers and their need. This will help you produce an unquestionable product. For instance, if your target market is high-income earners, you should know these groups will buy your product no matter how expensive it but they will be looking at your product’s viscosity, lathering ability, and also the effect of the product on the hand.When you can determine your customers, it will help you in choosing your words when it comes to selling.

Credit Sales - Market Women

This strategy depends on your convincing ability. You should know that your product is new and some market women, will only take your product into their shops when you give it to them on credit. They do not want to waste their money on a product that does not have a market. And sure these detergents are being sold with a brand name. So yours is now coming into the market so the market women will feel that, when they buy the product with their money, it will get stuck.With this strategy, you should have the policy to implement it. You can have a policy that when you give to the market woman, you will come for money in two weeks.

Using social media - Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, WhatsApp

Social media has become the order of the day and it is one the cheapest means to market your product. It is cheap in the sense that, you can reach many people with just a click. However, it will be expensive for some people. Using Instagram and Facebook can help you reach buyers outside your range. All you need to do is have nice packaging for the product and you are good to go. To improve social media marketing you should be willing to pay to run ads to reach more people. For a fact, you may not be getting money from these ads but your product will be getting into the mind of people who uses a similar product.

You can make use of your WhatsApp status which is very cheap. It is quite limited to the number of contacts you have on your phone but you can ask friends and family members to help you post the product on their status for you.

Peer to peer marketing

 You must make use of your friends and family to help you sell the product. As mentioned earlier strategy of using social media to sell, your peers can help even in the local or the traditional form of marketing by recommending your product to their friends and family too. With this approach, you should not be afraid of giving free sample to some to these friends and family members who are willing to support your marketing. This free sample will even help you to improve your product as these family and friend will provide you with their feedback.

Promotional Sales

 This strategy has worked and have been working for some startups in the manufacturing and production industry. Even in the commerce side, promotional sales works. What you can do with this strategy is to identify local markets in your area. Organize some friends and family, print out some nice T-shirts and get some allowance for them. Sell the product to break even or make some profit to offset the cost incurred on putting together promo sales. Take this strategy as advertising to let people know the product in also good.

Take Home

The next line of investment in your quest to making a business out of these detergents and cosmetic is marketing. You need spend more and time to market the product as someone new to this business world. You must make use of your family, friends, church, groups that you belong to and your local community.

INVESTING IN LIQUID SOAP BUSINESS - SMALL SCALE

Our goal is to help people get employment to support their families, particularly children. Our activities are to provide people with employment opportunities and also provide them with the needed support to start their businesses.

This post has to do with establishing a liquid soap business. It will provide you with the financials, branding, and also marketing strategies to earn some income for you and your family. Let’s get into the deal.

 

Product Description

Liquid Soap is a detergent that is used in the house for dishwashing, handwashing laundry, and floor cleaning. Generically, liquid soap can be bathing gel or shower gel but in this context, we are talking about liquid soap for dishwashing, handwashing, and floor cleaning activities. Liquid soap is also used in the office for handwashing, floor cleaning, and evening laundry services. This product is generally used by everyone and so it provides the opportunity for unemployed people to take advantage of this product due to its marketability.

 

Ingredients Expenditure

Whether you are doing this product on a small scale or a large scale but not like the other big companies. You will need the following basic ingredients. Below is how you need the ingredients to start this liquid soap business on a small scale.

 

Table 1: Price of Ingredients on the market

Chemical	Local Name	Price	$ Equi.
Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate	Base	40.00	4.98
Sodium Laury Sulfate	Booster	10.00	1.25
Sodium Benzoate	Preservative	5.00	0.62
Sodium Chloride	Salt	5.00	0.62
Color	Color	1.00	0.12
Fragrance	Fragrance	10.00	1.25
Citric Acid	Acid	5.00	0.62
Vegetable Glycerin	Glycerin	20.00	2.49
		96.00	11.96

The table above indicates how much you will need to purchase chemicals to produce 25 liters of liquid soap for handwashing and other home and office activities.

 

Bottling and Packaging Expenditure

It will always be to choose the way you want to package your product. Nice and attractive packaging enhance marketing. But it is always important to take into consideration your target market. For instance, if your target market is high-income earners who would love to have their product in 5-liter gallons, you wouldn’t worry yourself with a 1-liter bottle.

To use the 5-liter gallons as our bottling material, let us look at how it will cost us to package our 25 liters of liquid soap. The table indicates how many bottles needed for the 25 liters of liquid for the various bottle types

 

Table 2: Price of bottles and quantity for 25 liters of liquid soap

Bottle type	Quantity	Unit Price	US$ Equi		Cedi Total	$ Total
5-liter	5	8.00	1.00	40.00		4.98
1-liter	25	5.00	0.62	125.00		15.57
500ml	50	3.00	0.37	150.00		18.68
200ml	125	2.00	0.25	250.00		31.13

 

From table 2, each bottle type is on its own. If you want to use a 5-liter bottle that will fill the 25 liters of liquid soap we are going to produce. Same for the other bottle types. Now let's look at the label design and printing for each bottle type.

 

In terms of label design averagely, it will cost you around GHc 80 equivalent to $ 10 to get a very standard and nice label for your product. The table below indicates the size and printing cost for the labels. It must be noted that this is an estimation.

 

Table 3: Price of the label printing for each bottle to be selected.

Bottle type	Label size	Quantity	Unit Price	Total
5-liter	5 X 5 Inches	5	1.50	7.50
1-liter	2.5 X 4 Inches	25	1.20	30.00
500ml	2 X 3 Inches	50	0.80	40.00
200ml	3 X 3 Inches	125	0.50	62.50

 

Expenditure Total

Depending on the type of bottle you choose to sell your liquid soap, you must take the total from the bottle price, label design fee, and the printing and then add it to the cost of ingredients. For instance, if you are going to use the 5-liter gallon to sell your liquid soap, it means you will need a total of GHc 223.50 equivalent to $27.83. To sell your product, liquid soap is currently, the 5-liter gallon of liquid soap is sold at GHc 35.00 equivalent to $4.35

Read about how to market your product from here 

 

TAKE HOME

Investing some amount of money into the production of detergent-like liquid soap can help generate some income for the family. You must be aware that penetrating the market with a new product requires strategies and a lot of money for people to accept the product. You must start selling the product to your family, friends, and your local community.