Ellen Cagnassola (with able help from her young daughter, MaryEllen) runs a business out of her home - MaryEllen's SweetSoaps (www.SweetSoaps.com).  In a way, her whole business has taken a joint venture turning... by way of thinking B2B promotion…

You guessed right from her URL - Ellen makes and sells bath products (soaps and salts). You can get a feel for her ingenuity by scanning the assortment of them on her website…

She sells soaps in many scents, shapes, colors, and sizes – from gumdrops to photo- and logo-embedded bars ("This process was invented by accident while creating something else in my soap lab") to roses… and salts in many interesting containers. Gingerbread-scented Christmas tree soaps are my favorites!

Ellen started out marketing the traditional way, to gift shops around her New Jersey home. Eventually she added a website…  "I was very naïve about the Internet and what it would do, but I found I could do it cost-effectively if I did all the marketing and research myself.  So I bootstrapped it and learned by the seat of my pants."

The addition of her website exposed her to the world…  "The first year I exported to Switzerland and since have gained customers all over the U.S."

With her business on an established footing, her brain must have been ready to let loose on other levels at the first opportunity!…  This is where the "joint venture turning" came in… serendipitously.

The marketing director for mega-giant drug company Johnson & Johnson has a daughter who was in MaryEllen’s kindergarten class.  As Ellen puts it, "You know the saying… ‘Network Network Network!’  Standing outside of school, we were just talking…"  That’s when she learned where this local dad worked.  "I am quick on my feet…  The next time I saw him, I told him of an idea I had for a promo for J&J.  I made a sample, and a deal was born."

It was a deal which, according to Ellen, pulled her into the promotional industry…  "I have always been attracted to it but never thought of it as a career."  Now, it seems she can’t stop.  Nor does she want to… it’s been great promotion for her business!

And many businesses are interested in promotional merchandise...

Johnson & Johnson has a drug product called Procit, for severe anemia patients.  My first reaction was to wonder how on earth soap could sell drugs!  I assumed it was the packaging and/or distribution that must make the connection clear…  But in this instance, the soap itself makes it make perfect sense.  Here’s Ellen’s description of the product she designed…

"Since it related to red blood cells, I created a round clear bar of soap with round red pieces of soap inside to resemble red blood cells.  Then it’s shrink-wrapped and placed inside a 4x6" burlap bag…  The bag has the name and a full-color logo and whatever business info they requested."  The product was handed out for free at the Nurses Teaching Association tradeshow in May 2001.

Now the joint venturing aspect also becomes transparent…  Though this is first a straight business-to-business sale, both companies gain from the transaction.  Ellen, too, has her business info on that bag!

Ellen says…  "I have a tracker, and I kept my eye open to see how many direct requests were coming to my website after that day. …They doubled in hits and 50% of my hits were direct.  Perfect!"

And in a sense, this type of service - to companies that need promotional products - can be self-perpetuating…

After landing the J&J contract, Ellen capitalized on her experience by contacting another major drug company herself.  When they heard about their competition’s offering, they were eager to hire Ellen to create a product for them.

"I placed Georgia-peach-scented bath salt in a little promo bag with their logo on it, which also has my website on the front of the bag.  As soon as they started handing them out…  I got emails from other Georgia-based companies wanting something peachy for their companies as well."  For instance, she’s gotten business from a pine flooring company wishing to entice female household decision-makers to buy the company’s planking when their homes are restored…  And from a manufacturer down the street from them who had received that peach-scented promo product via their mutual UPS deliverer!

Now that these interesting opportunities have cropped up, custom wholesale products are Ellen’s favorites.  "Wholesale is easier for me and does seem to get me more money than the retail that I do from my site.  I view my website as a portfolio of creativity primarily."

The promotions are stacking up nicely – among them something for a major insurance company, and the glow-in-the-dark bath bombs (!?) that will hit Denver as soon as a new mall opens.

I asked Ellen what she’d learned about joint venturing from these efforts…

"When you create a positive relationship with another business, it can automatically build your business with ease."

I believe that’s the case - only I think that you also need to think joint venture, as Ellen did…  In other words, look ahead, scan the horizon for possibilities, and plan for ways to make the automatic happen!
  

Ellen Cagnassola is the owner/inventor of SweetSoaps.com (908-BIG-Soap). 

 

• A joint venture can masquerade as a regular business transaction!

• Promoting someone else's business can be a great way to open doors to your business.

• "Networking" doesn't happen in only a business environment...  It pays to be open to all the potential opportunities around you.  ("Serendipity" really means... seeing them and taking advantage of them!)

• Soap to drugs?... Yep!  Between your business and someone else's - no matter how dissimilar they may seem - there's likely to be at least one usable connection (probably many!)... if you're creative enough.

• Retail businesses might grow by considering wholesale possibilities.

• One successful venture can be a lead-in to others - whether by further effort or word of mouth.

• (Maybe you eventually will fall into a trade you only dreamed about!)
    

For those serious about JV marketing...
  

     

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