6. Playing Against Type

Every entrepreneur didn’t necessarily set out to be an entrepreneur.  Sometimes their product or service may have evolved from a personal need or desire. Where some sit back and complain about what is missing or not working, others are driven by the gap, and take action to close it, even if they don’t know exactly how to go about it.  This episode shares how actress Jessica Alba’s desire to make sure that her baby’s childhood would be healthier than her own led her to start The Honest Company. A problem or need that you have is likely one that others have as well. Tune in to hear how taking steps to fix a problem or address an issue you had resigned yourself to live with could potentially turn into the role of a lifetime.

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Episode 6 Transcript: https://diamondbrands.media/brand-gems-episode-6-transcript/

Transcript

[0:00 - 0:34]

Hello, I'm Andrea Wade, the host of Brand Gems, the podcast where I highlight a person, brand or organization and discuss the key elements that contributed to their success. I'm a marketing strategist, brand architect and an MBA who likes a little fast company and Forbes mixed in with her Netflix Binges. I'm also a consultant who enjoys discovering those rare nuggets that make a business unique. Listen to Brand Gems for ideas to leverage in your personal and professional endeavors. Now let's begin the treasure hunt.

[0:35 - 1:01]

Hello and thank you for tuning in to this week's episode. Are you familiar with the word typecast or typecasting? It's usually used in reference to actors or actresses, but here's the definition typecast, assigned repeatedly to the same type of role as a result of the appropriateness of their appearance or previous success in such roles, represent or regard a person or their role as a stereotype.

[1:02 - 1:46]

As I mentioned, typecasting is normally associated with actors, but it can and does happen to those of us in business or even in our personal lives when someone wants to change industries or maybe do something different or be known differently. Sometimes those in the current industry or those who know them well may not see it as possible. Or if someone has held a particular role for a while, it might be challenging for them to secure another role in a different department or functional area because the powers that be are so used to seeing them in a particular light. Or maybe someone wants to do something that they don't have any direct experience with, to pursue something that they have been researching and extremely passionate about, but they aren't sure where or how to start.

[1:47 - 2:18]

Even sometimes, we typecast ourselves. I'm an HR professional, not a writer, or I'm an accountant, not an entrepreneur. This episode is about overcoming typecasting or whatever barriers or limits that may be in your path. Although you may not be an actor, chances are there is something that you'd like to do and the path just doesn't seem that clear. Listen as we uncover the brand gems that led actress Jessica Alba to launch the now multimillion dollar company The Honest Company.

[2:19 - 2:38]

Twenty-two years ago, a young actress, Jessica Alba, stepped into the role of Max, a genetically engineered super soldier for the Fox Sci-Fi television series Dark Angel. It aired on Fox and was created by James Cameron of Avatar fame, who is also the director of Titanic and Terminator.

[2:39 - 3:24]

Following the success of Dark Angel, television and film offers came rolling in for Alba. She went on to star as an exotic dancer, Nancy Callaghan in Sin City, which earned her an MTV Movie award for sexiest performance. She played an aspiring dancer and choreographer in Honey, and she played the Marvel Comics character Sue Storm, also known as the Invisible Woman in The Fantastic Four and its sequel. Additionally, she had guest roles on shows like Mad TV entourage and trippin. Alba was Hollywood's newest it girl. Although she wasn't new to Hollywood, having started performing at the age of twelve, she stayed busy. And like many starlets, she faced being typecast.

[3:25 - 3:46]

Sometimes to overcome typecasting, actresses may take on a role extremely opposite from what they are known for, what has garnered them their success. Alba, although this might not have been her intent, took things a bit further and started down a path that would prove quite lucrative, groundbreaking, and completely shatter any image of her being just another young and pretty actress.

[3:47 - 4:19]

About fifteen years after her breakthrough role in Dark Angel, Alba got married. And then four years after that, she became pregnant with her first child. When she was seven months pregnant, she attended the launch party for the book Healthy Child, Healthy world. When preparing for her baby's arrival, Alba had an allergic reaction to a special brand of laundry detergent. She was trying out the detergent because as a child she had had many allergies and she wanted to make sure that she was prepared that identified products that would be safe for her baby.

[4:20 - 4:35]

So that reaction triggered her attendance at the event as she was on a mission to create the safest and healthiest life for her baby. So at that book party, she met the author, Christopher Gavigan, who would eventually become her business partner.

[4:36 - 5:16]

I should point out that Alba didn't go to the event intending to start a business. Her hope was to learn about companies that made products that would be effective and safe for her baby. She got some recommendations, but unfortunately the products at the other end of the search were frequently expensive, didn't work out well, or were still toxic despite the eco-friendly packaging. The more research she did, it seemed the worst things were she had tested a laundry detergent, the same one that her mother used when she was a child and that her mother strongly recommended. But 30 years later, the product and its quality wasn't the same.

[5:17 - 5:30]

It was at this point that Alba would make the life changing decision to create a brand that offered products that worked tremendously well, were affordable, beautiful, and did not contain any of the harmful chemicals that would trigger allergic reactions.

[5:31 - 5:58]

Alba's initial search to find safe products had now turned into a mission, and her mission to make a safer environment for families, starting with the most vulnerable babies. She teamed up with Brian Lee, who had former startup experience with LegalZoom and shoe dazzled.com. The two invested $6 million of their own personal funds to get it started before major venture capital players would believe in them and invest as well.

[5:59 - 6:37]

Sean King and Christopher Gavigan, the author who I mentioned earlier, also joined them on this launch. A ton of hard work and three years later, around 2011, the honest company launched and their first product, diapers. Literally starting at the cradle with their customers, the diapers were successful and the company would go on to raise approximately 128,000,000 through 2014. After proving themselves in one category, The Honest Company expanded their product offering. They expanded it to include soap, kitchen cleaner, detergent, nipple balm, multivitamins and even nursery furniture.

[6:38 - 7:11]

The Honest Company was still relatively new and needed to generate a lot of awareness. So Alba leaned into her Hollywood expertise. She started a press tour. She went on late night talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel to promote The Honest Company. She also became the face and voice who alerted consumers to the dangers of existing products. Although The Honest Company didn't create the market for safe and natural home goods, they exposed the gap and opportunity and then stepped in to close the gap. Despite the competition from brands like Johnson and Johnson and Jergens, the Honest Company was able to carve out its own niche.

[7:12 - 7:37]

The brand's foundation was that home and kids products should be safe, affordable and eco- friendly. The company laid out its guiding manifesto called The Honest Standard, and Alba took things one step further. Now that she was known as the advocate for safe, affordable and eco- friendly products, she wrote a book called What else? The honest life. This book became a New York Times bestseller and cemented her as the goto source on safe and eco-friendly products.

[7:38 - 7:57]

Her recognizable face was associated with the brand, which helped to grow the awareness of and demand for the types of products The Honest Company provided. Although parents were willing to pay higher prices for the peace of mind of having safe products in their homes, the Honest Company products weren't priced outrageous or out of most consumers' price range.

[7:58 - 8:33]

The company experienced consistent growth and at one point was even considered for acquisition by Unilever. Unilever went with 7th generation instead. It was around this time that The Honest Company started facing other challenges. In 2017, the brand faced a few lawsuits related to the ingredients in their laundry detergent, sunscreen, baby wipes and baby powder. Honest was not only in the brand name, it was essential to the brand positioning. If you were going to name your company The Honest Company, customers are likely going to hold you to that. So after all of these issues and scandals, the future of The Honest Company seemed unsure.

[8:34 - 8:56]

This was a make or break period. The company's survival depended on some major changes. In 2017 there was a big management shakeup and Nick Vlahos, a Clorox veteran, joined as CEO. They also shook up some things within the company. They brought in-house the research and development department and quality assurance departments, so they had complete oversight over the manufacturing process.

[8:57 - 9:15]

To survive and grow, Vlahos knew that they needed to literally be honest, be true to their name as a company and to make some tough decisions. This led to getting rid of products that were struggling and focusing on their most significant revenue drivers, diapers, which is where they started baby products and beauty products.

[9:16 - 9:59]

Although Alba wasn't known as much for her work as an actress, at this point, her squeaky clean girl next door image had managed to stay clean during all of the scandals. Also, many of her fans were now having families of their own, and they viewed her as a trusted source. So Alba's image provided a halo to the brand during these scandals. As they made it through this tough period, the investors wanted The Honest Company to have an initial public offering or to go public, quick sidebar an initial public offering is the big event when shares of stock of a company are sold to the public. It's usually done as a way to raise money for further expansion of the business or as an exit strategy or wait for the initial investors to get some of their money back.

[10:00 - 10:29]

So when a company is going public, the goal is to generate a lot of excitement to help drive up the initial stock price. The higher the price, the better. To help with buzz, Alba launched a YouTube channel and a TikTok account. During this period, she also made the media rounds, putting her again at the forefront as the face of the company. The company saw immense growth. Their revenue grew almost 28%. It went from 235,000,000 in 2019 to 300 million in 2020 during the pandemic.

[10:30 - 11:27]

In May 2021, the honest company went public with an initial stock price of $16 a share. It rose to about $23 a share, giving the company evaluation that varied between 145 billion with a b and two 8 billion. Alba’s path from actress to entrepreneur is littered with several gems. So let's recap Brand gem number one, If there's a problem you're facing and you can't find a solution, you likely just identified an opportunity. This was the case with Alba. She was an actress who is expecting her first child. She wasn't an MBA or an entrepreneur with dreams of launching a business, but having had allergies herself as a child, allergies that kept her in the hospital. She did not want that fate for her baby, and that was a compelling enough reason to lead her down an entirely different path.

[11:28 - 11:47]

Brand gem number two, which you have experience with or a need for other people may need as well. The Honest Company was one of the early providers of safe and nontoxic products. The industry was in its infancy, and now, years later, the industry and consumer demand has increased exponentially. The honest company has created and grown a category.

[11:48 - 12:20]

Brand gem number three, which you don't know or do well, other people know. Alba's why was powerful. Now it seems like a no brainer, but back then it was probably way easier for her to have gotten a movie or TV show and to get paid for that than it was for her to be able to launch a consumer goods company. She didn't have the experience, so she teamed up with people that did. The Honest Company story, starring Jessica Alba, has all of the elements of a Hollywood blockbuster, and it appears to even have the happily ever after ending.

[12:21 - 13:01]

As a new mom, Alba had a need and identified a gap in the marketplace. Although others wanted to typecast her as just a young, pretty actress, she did her research and then teamed up with those who had experience to help bring her vision to life. She continued her learning and positioned herself as an expert by writing a book that became a New York Times bestseller. She became the face of the brand and of the industry. As the company faced challenges, a change was needed. So the company brought in new management. An industry veteran from Clorox, they streamlined their product line and pushed forward with rebranding. This wasn't an easy process to go through, but it was the honest process. And given that honesty is the key to the brand positioning, this was essential.

[11:28 - 13:34]

Alba, founder and chief creative officer of The Honest Company, now the mom of three, is also still acting. At the time of this podcast, the stock market and the retail sector in particular have experienced serious declines, and The Honest Company's stock is now trading at around $3.34, substantially lower than the IPO price of $16 from just over a year ago. On upside, it was announced that the products would be distributed in Walmart. The Honest Company, which was launched eleven years ago, is now a multi million dollar company.

[13:35 - 14:02]

Alba's journey and the evolution of The Honest Company is an example of so many gems authenticity, patience, determination, crystal clear purpose and mission, a strong team. As a famous actress, Alba likely had different access to some people and perhaps a few more dollars to fund the business in the initial stages. But she still took a risk, and she bet on herself. Now she's navigating the challenges that come with having a public company during a challenging economic time.

[14:03 - 14:31]

In my opinion, and I don't have any special access to info, just the same info that's available to the public. But it seems to me that Alba is at a transition point. She's recently started acting again. Her daughters are older and her youngest was a boy, is probably about to start school full time in another year or so. She also could be thinking about the exit strategy for the company. Will someone buy them? And if so, what does that mean for her role? If she was a client, I'd suggest you do a couple of things.

[14:32 - 15:40]

One, I think she should work on another book. The story I know I want to hear, and which would be extremely valuable, is what was it like for her, a young woman of color at that, whose prior experience was acting to launch a company and then have it reach over a billion dollar valuation? Hello? I mean, can someone please get on that? I'd also like to hear her on the speaking circuit, the corporate speaking circuit, conferences, all kinds of business events, sales, motivation, whatever. This could be in conjunction with her book launch and then connected with her entertainment routes. I'd like to see her producing some projects that really show powerful enterprising women, inspirational stories about women, business owners, young women or girls taking on roles that we traditionally don't see them in. Whatever the case might be, I just think she's in a great position to spearhead those types of projects and they are consistent with her brand. That's it. She's still running a company, being a mom and wife, and she recently joined the Yahoo board, so she's definitely got a full plate.

[15:41 - 16:10]

As I wrap this episode, I encourage you to take that step to fix that problem that is bugging you. Chances are others have the same problem and you could be sitting on a million dollar solution. Not sure what to do? Come up with a list of questions and then do the research to answer them. Alba's research led her to her business partner. Not confident in some areas, are missing certain expertise. Then find a partner who has the right expertise. Give yourself space to dream and then take action.

[16:11 - 16:13]

That's it for this week's episode.

[16:14 - 16:15]

Until next time.

[16:17 - 16:26]

You just listened to another episode of Brand Gems. Be sure to follow so you don't miss future episodes. And please share with anyone you think will find the information useful.

[16:27 - 16:28]

Until next time.