Hard Candy takes on cosmetics industry giants with
a line of offbeat beauty products.
It's true that necessity is the mother of invention. Just
ask Dineh Mohajer. In May 1995, after the pre-med senior at the University of
Southern California spent an afternoon fruitlessly combing the shopping malls, department
and specialty stores of Beverly Hills for a nail color to match a pair of
strappy pale-blue sandals, she turned to her chemistry skills to come up with a
solution. Using her bathroom as a laboratory, she mixed blue dye with white
polish to create the hue she'd been looking for.
While Mojaher envisioned her summer vacation that year as a
three-month stint of partying and kicking back with her boyfriend, Ben
Einstein, what she got was something completely different. It started the day
Mohajer went shopping — sporting the shade of baby-blue nail polish she had
mixed — and was waylaid by dozens of passersby who simply had to know where she
got that polish. A saleswoman at Charles David practically begged Mohajer to
reveal her source, since the lacquer perfectly complemented the company's
spring line of shoes.
Out on the town in trendy Los Angeles, Mohajer got even more
attention for the unusual hue on her fingertips. Nearly overwhelmed by the
public’s reaction, her lawyer-sister, Pooneh, saw a business opportunity and
persuaded Mohajer to test the marketability of the home-mixed lacquer. The
budding entrepreneur partnered up with Einstein, and together they jumped into
the beauty business feet first, with a meager $200 investment by a then
22-year-old Mohajer.
The timing of their company, Hard Candy, couldn't have been better:
Young women were ready for hard-edged, "ugly" colors that were a
departure from the powdery, harmless pinks that once accompanied every American
girl' s journey to womanhood.
Not long after this enterprising, creative spirit began mixing hues, she
found herself presenting her polishes to Los Angeles’ hot-spot store, Fred
Segal, where a young customer nearly caused a scene with her mother, claiming
that she must have all four of the sample bottles topped with collectible jelly
rings. That turned into Hard Candy’s first appointment. With those bottles out
the door, Fred Segal ordered 200 of the first pastel colors: Sky (blue),
Sunshine (yellow), Lime (green) and Violet (purple). Mohajer and Einstein left
the store elated and more than a little panicky. They had no inventory and no
production facilities. They didn't even have adequate supplies to fill the
order.
"We bought bottles [of polish] at beauty-supply stores,
went home and started mixing," Mohajer says. "It was just
crazy." Mohajer, Einstein and an
extended family of friends labored day and night to fill orders. With help from
her parents, in the form of an investment (Mohajer won't disclose the actual
amount, but she says it was in the six-figure range), Hard Candy was up and
running. The money also enabled the partners to move the fledgling company to a
commercial office in Beverly Hills in 1995. With the help of Einstein, Mohajer
designed the distinctive Hard Candy packaging: a sleek silver case emblazoned
with a heart.
With an original business plan that included the simple
desire to make unique-colored nail polish for no reason other than for “fun,”
Mohajer’s summer project turned into what she calls a “pseudo-real
business."
"At first, our goal was simply to keep up with demand,”
she says. “Then, once we got a management team in place, we aspired to grow
into a full-fledged cosmetic company.” She adds: “So far, so good.”
In just three years, Mojaher has seen the concept she originally
conceived go from a hectic, home-based concern to a serious contender in the
competitive world of cosmetics. The company’s products grace the shelves and
display cases of Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s,
Macy’s and Dillard’s, among other formidable department and specialty stores.
Internationally, Hard Candy’s popularity has spread to 21 countries including
England, France, Italy, Germany and Japan. The company currently employs more
than 40 people and expects 1998 sales to reach $10 million.
Hard Candy has been called “the one to watch,” “the color
authority” and the “one to duplicate” by the media. In fact, when The Face, a popular British magazine,
recently released its list of the “100 Most Influential People in Fashion,”
Mohajer found herself at number 36, comfortably sandwiched between Ralph Lauren
and fashion photographer Juergen Teller.
Hard Candy’s products have clearly caught the attention of
the beauty industry, the fashion runways, the celebrities (including everyone
from legendary fashion icons Cher and Elton John, to the young elite, Alicia
Silverstone, Brandy and Sarah Michelle Geller) and the media. Others who claim
to be Hard Candy followers include Fran Dresher, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kate
Winslet, Brooke Shields, Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow. Mojaher has been profiled
in numerous magazines and has established herself and her company as leaders in
the industry. In fact, when Seventeen
magazine printed the company's phone number in an article, Mohajer took 2,000
orders the first day and had to install four additional phone lines to handle
the increased volume. From there, she hired distributors and diversified the
product line to include lip liners named "Felony" and "Psychotic"
and lipsticks called "Narcotic," "Boink" and
"Skitzo."
In just three years, Mohajer has created more than 60 nail
colors and a line of lipsticks and liners, mascara, eye shadows and liners,
brow powder pencils and innovative products like Glitter Eye, the first glitter
eye pencil. Just as Mohajer and Einstein saw the need for unusual nail colors
for women, they made sure that Hard Candy was the first company to introduce a
line of nail colors geared toward men. In spring 1997, the Candy Man line was
born with names like "Testosterone," "Dog" and
"Superfly." Male fans include basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman and
rockers Lenny Kravitz, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots and Duran
Duran. And while although Mohajer says sales are on target for the Candy Man
line, she admits that the polish appeals most to Japanese men. “Japanese style
is a bit more ‘out there,’ and Japanese men tend to groom themselves more than
European men.”
With Hard Candy’s products being featured in every women’s
beauty and fashion publication, it’s clear that these publications’ influential
voices are indeed fans of the products placing their every-important
endorsement in Hard Candy. In 1998, the company’s advertising campaign appeared
in the pages of Vogue, Glamour,
Seventeen, Teen People, Jane and InStyle.
Mojaher’s shrewd business tactics, knowledge and understanding of the
market, coupled with her philosophy to “just have fun,” have led to television
coverage on news and entertainment programs like Entertainment Tonight, MTV’s House of Style, Oprah and CNN. The excitement over Hard Candy
continues with VISA's recently developed print ad featuring Mojaher’s wallet,
sporting pictures of her and Einstein, along with a page full of spilled
polish, which will be seen in more than 10 top publications. Mojaher will also
be featured in a print ad campaign for Forbes
magazine this winter.
When quick success isn’t planned, it can prove to be more of
a burden than a blessing for a small business — and that’s exactly what
occurred during Hard Candy’s early days. In fact, runaway success proved to be
more than just a minor dent in Mohajer's summer relaxation program. Setting up
suppliers, distribution networks, accounting systems and a corporate structure
while managing breakneck growth was like trying to put out a raging fire with a
glass of water: There was no catching it. Youthful energy was an advantage, but
inexperience was not. Nor did it help that suppliers and accounts lacked
respect for the young entrepreneurs. Nine months after starting the company,
Mohajer nearly ended up hospitalized from exhaustion.
Undaunted, but aware that she needed help from a seasoned
business professional, and armed with the help of a major consulting firm,
Mohajer temporarily hired former cosmetics-industry executive William Botts.
Botts, who has what Mohajer calls "tons of business experience," had
recently helped another nail polish company through an acquisition by Revlon.
The seasoned executive came on board and served as CEO during the company’s
start-up phase to set up the initial functions of the company, then turned the
reigns back over to Mohajer.
"He had technical experience, and he knew how to fix
what was going on," says Mojaher. "But what I really loved was that
he understood my vision and was genuinely excited about it. He was a perfect
fit."
Botts did indeed get Hard Candy into shape, doing everything
from cleaning house to bringing accounts on line. He also lent a sense of
balance to the mostly twenty something staff. It's his expertise and structure
that allow Hard Candy to function like the multimillion-dollar company that it
is. Given the circumstances, hiring a CEO was clearly an intelligent move, but
it's one that many other entrepreneurs resist for fear of losing control.
And as any hot, new trendsetter will, Hard Candy immediately
inspired a fleet of imitators. Other similar lines originated at about the same
time as Hard Candy, including Mountain View, Calif.-based Urban Decay. Even Revlon, which Mohajer
says once expressed interest in buying Hard Candy, followed her to market with
its Street Wear nail polish.
According to Mojaher, Hard Candy has generally learned to
"ignore the competition. By the time they copy us, the trend they were
trying to mimic is over, or their quality just doesn’t measure up to
ours."
In addition to fighting off persistent imitators, Mojaher says she’s
faced many challenges in her short tenure as an entrepreneur. Among the other
perpetual hurdles are the hiring of management and production functions,
including shipping, billing and distribution. “Those are real operational
issues that we still continue to overcome, but we’ve come a long way,” she adds
According to Mojaher, a professional management team is an
absolute must in overcoming such issues, although it’s not an easy task to find
one, and she’s "still looking." By hiring seasoned professionals and
continuously updating production procedures, Hard Candy has been able to prevail
over the challenges.
Because Hard Candy has positioned itself on the cutting edge
from the start, it can't simply follow fashion — it simply must be out in front
at all times. Although the company’s initial colors, which were heavy on the
pastels, catapulted the company into the major leagues, the pressure is
constantly on to create still newer, hipper colors.
To maintain this necessary edge, Mohajer’s creative eye is
everything, and keeping it tuned is exactly why she needs the space to lead a
life outside the business (although that doesn't include medical school, which
she has put on hold for now). She reads fashion magazines and tracks trends,
but more importantly she lives the life of her target market. She appeals to
12-to-25-year-old women because she is a 12-to-25-year-old woman. For
inspirations, she likes to hang out with friends, go to movies, and follow the
music scene.
“Our goal is to continue with our current distribution
channels by supporting and nurturing our accounts, while also growing from
within,” says Mohajer. “We also want to work on an overall build of the brand
by continuing with the line expansion and diversification.” Mohajer adds that
continued international expansion and brand building through product
diversification, namely with apparel, accessories and more cosmetics, are all
on the agenda for her growing company.
Company: Hard Candy
URL: www.hardcandy.com
Founders: Dineh Mohajer and Ben Einstein
Industry: alternative cosmetics
Location: Beverly Hills, Calif.
Founded: 1995
Employees: 40
Revenues: $10 million (expected for 1998)
For additional reading on this topic, don't miss Creating
a Competitive Edge, Analyze Your Competition, Solid Identity +
Goals = Brand Awareness.
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