In March 2002, Sweetface signed a worldwide licensing agreement with the Lancaster Group, the prestige division of the giant perfume and beauty company Coty Inc., to develop and market fragrances and cosmetics under the J.Lo by Jennifer Lopez brand. The accompanying press release noted that the line would be launched in the fall of 2002 -- less than six months later. Normally, it takes 18 months to bring a new fragrance to market, but Lancaster and Sweetface both wanted it on the market in time for the holiday season, while Jennifer Lopez's star was still white-hot.
On June 27, Lancaster and Lopez threw a lavish party to launch the new fragrance at the Trump World Tower in Manhattan. Beauty magazine editors flew in from around the world to join the festivities in a private apartment on the 90th floor, overlooking the East River. Donald Trump joined Lopez and Coty CEO Bernd Beetz in greeting the 200 guests, who were treated to a sumptuous feast and each given a bottle of the new fragrance. To top it all off, a fireworks display launched from a barge on the river spelled out the name of the fragrance in glittering letters. That name was Glow.
"Are You Working With Jennifer Lopez?"
just six days earlier, oblivious to the fireworks to come, Terri Williamson had slipped into the San Miguel Room of the Albuquerque Convention Center. A breakout session on branding was already under way, and she didn't want to interrupt the speaker, a well-known expert on the subject. About 75 people were seated at round tables, listening attentively. Williamson settled into a chair in the middle of the room, pulled a pad of paper from her briefcase, and began taking notes.
In court, says Williamson, "They depicted me as a little mom-and-pop while they're holding up a product of mine they'd bought in New York. I thought, 'How can they say that if they know it's not true?' "
As she sat there listening and scribbling, the speaker began to talk about co-branding and brand ruboff, wherein a lesser-known brand is associated with a better-known brand and gains strength as a result. "We have a great example of that right here," he said, pointing directly at Williamson. "I know about Terri Williamson's company, Glow, because I travel a lot and stay at Ritz-Carlton hotels. Ritz-Carlton offers a special bath to customers using Glow products, which get the recognition and the brand ruboff. That's a classic example of how you can build a brand through co-branding." Williamson was stunned. She had never met the speaker. She had no idea that he knew who she was. Yet here he was, holding her up as an example of the right way to build a brand.
In fact, Williamson was beginning to get a lot of recognition. It had been just three years since she and her partner, Jennifer Levy, had opened their Glow boutique on trendy West Third Street in Los Angeles -- not far from Beverly Hills -- and already the company had a national reputation and presence, not to mention more than $1 million in sales. And the partners had done it on their own. The only outside capital had come from friends and family. As for marketing, it had pretty much taken care of itself. Williamson and Levy hadn't bought any advertising, and they'd hired a publicist for all of three months. The truth was, they hadn't needed one. The beauty magazines had come looking for them, and so had 20 high-end retailers from around the country who had signed on to carry Glow products.
Both Williamson and Levy had been professional branding consultants, and they'd been meticulous, almost obsessive, about the details of creating a distinctive look and feel -- from the colors on the store walls (pale gray-blue), to the shelving (like you'd find in a restaurant kitchen), to the product packaging (clean, simple, unisex), to the typeface used on labels and signage and even in e-mail messages.
As consultants, the partners had also learned the importance of establishing a strong, intimate relationship with their target market. With that in mind, they'd used their shop as a laboratory for testing products and developing a clear sense of the consumers Glow attracted. Williamson, for one, had expected customers to be drawn mainly to the natural aspect of her products. She hadn't realized how much Glow's success would be driven by the scents she used in making them.
Although the scents had common names -- sandalwood, gardenia, grapefruit, vanilla -- they were actually her own creations, distinct from similar fragrances available elsewhere. Working in her home, she would mix and remix complex blends of essential oils and other ingredients to create fragrances with the qualities she wanted. One of those qualities was the ability to hold the initial smell -- the so-called "top note" -- on the skin for several hours, right through the "dry down" stage. To accomplish that, she favored oils with more "base notes," such as sandalwood and amber, which cause a scent to linger.
As it turned out, Williamson's scents were especially popular with celebrities, which was another surprise. Yes, she'd selected the shop's location in part because it was an area frequented by Hollywood's elite, but she'd never dreamed how many stars would find their way to her door, or how widely they would spread the Glow name. The list of celebrities who'd become devoted customers read like the lineup of Entertainment Tonight. Reese Witherspoon was a regular, as were Laura San Giacomo, Gina Gershon, Sharon Osbourne, and Kid Rock. Stars of The West Wing and Alias came in frequently, while other celebrities -- Renée Zellweger, Julia Roberts, Michael Douglas -- sent assistants. Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu had a full supply of Glow products in their relaxation trailer on the set of Charlie's Angels II. Michael Bay, the director of Pearl Harbor, ordered so many Glow products that the head of his production company insisted on putting Glow in the movie's credits. Pamela Anderson was so enthralled with Glow's sandalwood scent that Williamson created a sandalwood perfume just for her -- and later added it to the Glow product line.
