This week Lavaculture is exploring the use of video. Video is a valuable tool for not only learning, but also for promoting products. Despite not having quite mastered the concept of video marketing, the thought process is developing as more is learned. But, there is a thought that constantly ways down entrepreneurs as they first begin, and that is the thought of sales.
Although market research is being done in one of Lavaculture's areas of interest, the natural tendency is to think about HOW products will be sold through an initially online business, regardless of what the product might be.
How can Lavaculture get traffic to its site what to speak of provide a product that people will be interested in? How will I know what they want?
Gideon Shalwick, an entrepreneurship expert shares a tip he learned from one of his big mistakes that entrepreneurs should watch out for.
After reviewing the history and concept of Pacifica Perfumes, Lavaculture has pursued a brief overview of the history of perfumery to get some idea of its origins.
The history of perfume and aromatherapy is wide and large but its roots can be found in Egypt. Egypt as we all know is associated with beauty, rituals, queens, and ancient recipes. The word "perfume" is latin for "through smoke." Perfume consists of a mixture of essential oils, aroma compounds (a chemical compound that has a smell or odor), fixatives (used to stabilize the volatile components of perfume), and solvents in order to make a pleasant scent. Egyptian women applied creams and perfumed ointments to their skin infused with aromatic herbs. They used perfume to adorn their bodies before lovemaking, for toiletries, and cosmetic purposes.
Although perfume began with resins, water flower essences, and potpourri, it was further refined and perfected by its spread to the Romans and Arabs. The three most famous personalities who made substantial discoveries to the developments of the perfume industry are: Jabir ibn Hayyan, Al-Kindi, and Avicenna.
Jabir ibn Hayyan was born in Iraq and developed many techniques such as: distillation, evaporation and filtration. This allowed the odour of plants to be collected in the form of water, or oil. Although Jabir ibn Hayyan made these physical contributions to the purfume industry and considered one of its founders, the real founder is Al-Kindi.
Al-Kindi carried out extensive research and experiments with the combination of various plants and other sources in order to produce a variety of scent products. Al-Kindi is also famous for the book he wrote in the 9th century on perfumes titled: Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations.
Avicenna was a Persian physician, philosopher, and chemist amongst many of the other sciences. Although Avicenna wasn't one of the founders of the perfume industry, he introduced the process of distillation. Distillation is a process by which oils are extracted from from flowers, the process most commonly used today. Until Avicenna made this discovery, lquid perfumes were mixtures of oil, and crushed herbs, or petals.
A very important fact to know about essential oils is that their effectiveness lies in the speed at which they are absorbed by the skin. Essential oils have many benefits other than olfactory. According to Pure Inside Out, an alternative health site focusing on essential oils, essential oil fragrances activate the nerve cells in the nasal cavity and send impulses to the limbic system, the part of the brain associated with emotions and memory.
It describes that the best way to understand the potency of essential oils is to look into their frequency. Bruce Tainio, who built the first frequency monitor in the world in 1992 determined that the average frequency of the healthy human body in the daytime ranges from 62 to 72 Hz. When the frequency drops, the immune system is jeopordized, and this can be caused by many factors in our environment such as pollutants, canned and processed foods, which have a frequency of zero—the following quote illustrates how essential oils fit into this study:
"Fresh produce has up to 15 Hz, dried herbs from 12 to 22 Hz, and fresh herbs from 20 to 27 Hz. Essential oils start at a frequency of 52 Hz and can go up as high as 320 Hz, as in the Turkish rose oil. Clinical research shows that essential oils have the highest frequency of any natural substance known to man. They create a condition where bacteria, virus, fungus and disease simply cannot survive" (Essential Oils, Pure Inside Out). Watch the following video to see practical applications and benefits of the use of essential oils in your every day life.
There is always a desire for unique smells, unique essential oils, concepts, and beautiful imagery. A label captures the eye and leads the hand to pick up the product; the words on the label stimulate interest, the nose desires to smell the combination of ingredients, and the smell entices the customer to desire the product. When visiting any health food store one becomes overwhelmed with the variety of amazing sustainable products: they are abundant, and therefore sit in the throne of a competitive market. As the concept for Lavaculture develops, there are a few key products out there that Lavaculture would like to learn from. For this reason, the next step in developing the future of this business requires thorough research, the assimilation of new resources and information, and an understanding of the requirements of the industry itself.
Understanding what is already in the market will help the potential entrepreneur become innovative: innovation is the key to a successful business, but first, knowledge is required in order to compare and contrast that innovation from already existing products in the market. Which product elements or company philosophies are good to learn from? What practices within the company are good to embody? Read on to find out what Lavaculture is learning during its conception stage before the birth stage: the forming of the business concept and an analysis of its feasibility.
This week, Pacifica is the subject of research. Their history, concept and philosophy is one of a kind. Pacifica was founded in 1997 by Brook Harvey Taylor and her husband Billy Taylor. As a child Brook grew up experimenting with essential oils and kitchen spices and eventually began studying aromatherapy. It was when she met Billy Taylor that they conceived their idea of Pacifica. Brook began by creating fragrances that were uniquely her compositions and made her first breakthrough by taking seven of her scents and turning them into candles.
How did they first get into the market? Through a trade show where their candles made an olfactory impression on the public and provided a foundation: "Upon which Brook and Billy have built a world of fragrance," as described in the "Founder's Story" page of her website (Pacifica Perfume). It was from here that they began creating the diverse range of scents that they have to this day.
Brook finds inspiration for her fragrances from all over the world. Her philosophy on fragrances is that: "Scents are a magic carpet ride back to great emotions. Many scent responses are learned associations" (Scent and Memory, Pacifica Perfumes Blog). Brook says that the best scent memories can sometimes be random and even unexpected. By choosing to perfume our homes and even ourselves we are creating memories that can be recalled instantly. Brook takes inspiration from all parts of the world including her travels to the most beautiful areas of the Pacific to create her scents. Her products are divided into the following categories: Fruits, Floral, and Nuts and Spices. The scents aren't tacky or overwhelming, rather they enhance the unique subtlety of the natural product.
If you ask her, Brook also markets each fragrance to invoke a particular memory, or mood. Brook associates daringness and adventure with Mediterranean Fig or Hawaiian Ruby Guava;
Sweetness and "girlyness" with French Lilac or Tahitian Gardenia;
And the all around pleaser, Tuscan Blood Orange, Pacifica's number one fragrance. Brook mentions that each scent smells different on every individual—this makes it more personal to the customer. But how did they make their customers like their scents? Brook and her co-founder believed: "that if they invested in the quality of their products and the fragrance experience, rather than marketing, people who fell in love with Pacifica would spread the word."
Next week, Pacifica's web presence will be explored as well as their packaging design, customer support and sustainability efforts.
Starting a business is a scary thing, especially if you are not confident about how to start a business. It's great to have ideas, inspiration, a nice concept and name, but how do you actually make your business manifest?
Luckily I am taking a business class so I am learning the nuts and bolts of making a strong foundation. It all begins with being aware of resources and "enlightening" yourself out of ignorance. There are a lot of fears and misconceptions due to lack of knowledge so having a nice collection of resources to combat those fears is the first step.
The main fear has to do with finances and not having enough. So, it is good to look at ways to obtain those finances. A recommendation is to get help from the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) whose objective is: "To help foster growth and success in the business sector."
Another great site for starting a business is: The Small Business Association (SBA). This site will provide almost everything you need to know about starting a business including forms for registering etc., but they also act as guarantors to entrepreneurs looking to start a small business.
www.entrepreneur.com Is another great size that will give you a jump start. So, with this task at hand, I will begin reading and try to come up with a plan of actions to take. There is no other way but hard work!
It all started in Kolkata, India. It was a misty morning just before noon. I was sitting upstairs and had up to this point been contemplating effective ways to attract people to a spiritual culture and way of life (Bhakti Yoga), yet provide practical products and solutions to every day necessities.
I had always been drawn to and had a magical relationship with: Herbology, Aromatherapy, Ayurveda; a sense of fashion, intuitive healing, and earrings. I used to collect stones and study about gems. These sweet childhood memories and a longing for the creative were weighing me down. Had my life's creativity ended here? Could it be possible that it might have ended?
Sitting in a basket chair just thirty minutes before noon worship (since I was living in an Ashram, a spiritual center in India) and thinking to myself— a culture, a way of life. Bhakti Culture? Devotional Life? Veda Culture? Love. Divine Love. And then I remembered an excerpt from a book I had been recently reading. There was a description of Divine Love of God wherein the internal feelings of Divine Love were compared to Lava and the holder of that love to a volcano. I thought, really our culture and spiritual ideal is to develop pure love of God, this is what the culture is about right? The ultimate goal? So I came up with the name LAVACULTURE. It was perfect. Obscure, yet for my own satisfaction and those who can appreciate it, signified something spiritual; its origin was somehow related to this Divine ideal. At the same time it matches all of my interests and this natural holistic way of life. And there it was. Having said that, the next step is in the development of these products. It will take research, time and knowledge to make all of this work. More on that later.
Ok, so I am having these super rich inspirational attacks which I would LOVE to share with everyone just because I am a Libra moon and love to judge myself and live through the feedback and added ideas and opinions of others :)
I have boiled shit down towards action plan:
I need to take a few classes, let's face it:
Herbology
Aromatherapy
Ayurveda
Earring making
Soap, Lotion, Shampoo and Conditioner making
And that will be all for now. So, I am in London, will be in Italy in a few weeks, then back in India for two months, and then to the U.S. can anyone help me find places at reasonable prices, where I might be able to take these classes? You can even suggest places in Seattle since I remember there being a very well known school.
From India I will search out and bring back to the states with me:
Ayurvedic base oils for lotions and shampoos etc.,
Essential oils (can anyone recommend any companies or people to connect with?)
Silk cloths (for aromatherapy eye pillows) plus maybe kadi, (cotton weave) for the inside pack
and other cloths for making clothes
precious gems
AND pillow covers, curtains, and bamboo mats to sell for developing all of this
Boiling it down, now I need to find the places to do this and find these things.
I am also thinking about labels, I would love to make organic paper labels that are collage looking...
So I am trying to sell the stuff on my site. What to do how to do it?
I have opened a facebook page and from there I hope to build on online community of ladies and in the future, gents who are interested.
I also need advice about scents, what sort of smells do people like? What do they need to get through the day? I want to create my first body line call LavaFlow and want to know what keeps people going throughout the day. Which products they need and use all of the time to make a complete kit.
Also, clothing, what materials are most liked? Organic materials? Where to find them?
But back to point A: Sell all things on the site! At least if I could sell all of the purses and winter clothes that would be great.
Lavaculture is a business venture in progress. This blog is dedicated to the research involved in the developing of the various branches of this business such as: body products, clothing, jewelry, and healing remedies. I plan on posting recipes, ideas, new facts, and any other information related to the formation of the different aspects of this entrepreneurship.
