Among the challenges brought by the arrival of Lorene Mah’s second child was a small but tricky dilemma of finding teething products for her newborn son.
“With our first she was fine; we didn’t really need any teething products,” Mah said. “But when he came along it was the complete opposite and threw us for a big shock. So I went out shopping and I was surprised there wasn’t really anything out there that had both style and function.”
Mah, on maternity leave from her position as a human resources manager, decided to take the DIY route, creating handmade teething accessories that were a far cry from the usual “rainbow colours” with little sense for fashion. Mah’s products were a hit with family and friends, and soon she was ready to put her product out to the world, armed with a website and Instagram.
In less than a year Glitter & Spice, based out of her home in South Surrey, has garnered more than 100,000 sales, received press in such publications as Vogue, Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar and landed its products in both the Emmy and Academy Awards swag bags. She also recently won a Small Business BC Best Online Marketer Award.
Mah said the idea was simple – give parents teething accessories that weren’t run-of-the-mill.
“It really took off so quickly, more than I expected it to. Just because the demand was there; there wasn’t much out there that gave parents a sense of style – it was just for function. When you have to wear it all the time, you have to have something that looks good too.”
Mah is also another example of the growing power of social media marketing. Glitter & Spice gets approximately 80% of its sales from Instagram, where it has more than 47,000 followers.
Glitter & Spice is one of three Surrey companies recently nominated by Small Business BC for their work in online marketing. The other two are A&A Media, run by 19-year-old entrepreneur Amar Atwal, who does volunteer online marketing for local community groups, and The Counselling Group, a therapist/counselling network. All three companies have just one registered employee each, but have extensive social media followings.
According to social media management company Sprout Social, the largest demographic on Instagram is urban-based women aged 18 to 29.
“I looked at what people wanted and what worked, and for us that turned out to be Instagram,” Mah said. “Instagram has been such an incredible tool; there’s such a community of small businesses on there, and Instagram shopping is such a big thing. And when we started we really didn’t know that, but we really tapped into it.”
Sara Clark, head of strategic projects for Small Business BC and one of the judges for the Best Online Marketer Award, said Mah’s business is a perfect example of how social media can launch a venture.
“Through campaigns with stunning visuals like the baby brand ambassador program on Instagram, Glitter & Spice has achieved remarkable results in capturing the attention of their target market and converting this into business success,” Clark said.
While social media apps such as Twitter have stagnated lately when it comes to adding new users, Instagram has grown, especially for businesses looking to expand brand awareness. According to venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ Internet Trends report, Instagram brought in $595 million in mobile-ad revenues worldwide in 2015, and will bring in $2.81 billion by 2017.
Glitter & Spice has also built its Instagram following through brand representatives and promotions like products in exchange for photos and giveaways.
Mah, who has a degree in molecular biology and biochemistry from Simon Fraser University, said she originally planned to attend medical school but has always been interested in business, and when she took her second maternity leave, she used what little extra time she had to launch her startup.
“You don’t really need to pay the traditional marketer to go knock on doors anymore,” she said. “We’ve had some companies approach us but we haven’t gone down that road yet.”
