Whose Brand Is It, Anyway?

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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.

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Bo Burlingham

Burlingham joined Inc. in 1983. An editor at large, he is the author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big. The book was a finalist for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2006. Burlingham is also the co-author with Norm Brodsky of The Knack; and the co-author with Jack Stack of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome.

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