Liam Jennings from Regal Gentleman is back – Facebook Groups, Product Dev and Relaunches (episode 175)
We’ve got Liam Jennings from Regal Gentleman back on the show. Liam was last here over 2 years ago! Wowser time flies. Episode 56 if you want to listen to the ‘before’!
Liam is a co-founder of Regal Gentleman which is an online only retailer who sell male grooming products. They launched in late 2014, last time we chatted they were enjoying 150% year on year growth. At the start of 2018 they stopped selling, and sold off all their stock, as they knew the business had to go in a different direction.
At that point they had over 2,000 customers, and still have over 200k site visits per month.
Intrigued? Me too.
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Hear our first interview with Liam here
Creating Their Own Products
In 2018, Regal Gentleman made the decision to stop outsourcing and start creating their own products. They did this to have full control of their brand in terms of marketability and they felt they could create the products better on their own. Creating products from scratch can be done as a white label, with minor adjustments to previously branded products, or as a private label, which is essentially creating products from scratch. Regal Gentleman creates private label products, which is a strenuous and time consuming project, but allows them full control over their brand.
Listen to learn what goes into the creation of an autonomous brand.
Putting Income on Pause
Regal Gentleman’s original plan was to continue selling all their products as they rebranded, making a slow transition. After a certain point, however, they were forced to choose between investing in restocking old products or in establishing the new ones. For them, the decision was easy. They had their sights on the future of the company and made the switch to stop running two businesses simultaneously in order to put all their focus into their own brand. The tightly knit community they have established with their customers has allowed them to maintain a relationship despite their hiatus in retail.
One Product Wonder
Regal Gentleman believes in quality over quantity. Determined to launch their new brand with absolute perfection, Liam and his team decided to make their grand debut with one product on the line. Originally they had planned to launch two products, but the second is not quite ready. Both products have taken roughly 16 months to manufacture and prepare up to this point. The one that just launched in July is a medium finish matte hair gel called Regal Gentleman Matte Clay.
Listen to learn the complexities of making products from scratch.
Customer Communities
Many businesses are timid to create Facebook groups to represent their business, even though they can be an excellent opportunity to create a community around their brand, keep long-term relationships with their customers, and receive helpful feedback. Regal Gentleman has made a strong connection with its fan base by establishing exclusivity in its closed Facebook group to keep the discussion engaged and relevant. They use the group to get feedback on things like packaging and product names, keep the community updated on the rebranding process, and share lifestyle advice with each other.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- Focus on content. With more of an opportunity than ever before to create original content around your brand, the best way to increase traffic is to continue creating content and sharing it with your audience.
You can hear about all this on the podcast, for free – right now…
Tool Top Tip
- Trello to organize everything from big picture items to minute details.
Growth Top Tip
- Before focusing on finding new clientele, pay attention to the customers you have accumulated thus far and get their feedback on your brand, what you are doing correctly, and what they would like to see improved.