After the presentation was over, several classmates came and talked to us about our concept. Hearing so many encouraging comments about our idea is incredibly motivational. We’ve really enjoyed the feedback and look forward to hearing if we make it into the next round.

It seems like there is never enough time to do everything we want to. As much as we’ve done, as hard as we’ve worked, there is always another question to ask and more information to find. If we could, we would’ve spent even more time on primary research. In fact, Amanda is in charge of calling boutique owners this week to do in-depth interviews. Hopefully, hearing from our direct customer, the retailer, will be informative and help us refine our distribution strategy.

Everyday is an adventure when you’re working on an entrepreneurial venture. It makes you pay more attention to the world around you. For instance, Jessica recently sent us an article from USA Today talking about the trend in “cholo” style, inspired by East Los Angeles. Walking through Hollywood, Amy noticed the makeup style of the trendy fashionistas growing towards a more traditionally “cholo” look. We all agree, ShyGirl has changed the lens from which we see the world.

As we start to physically put together our contact lists for the project, we’re all realizing how many people we’ve talked to about our idea. Everyone from makeup users, makeup fillers, packagers, experts, etc. We’ve learned so much about the industry. It’s been encouraging and scary at the same time.

At our last meeting, we starting to reflect on the the ShyGirl project thus far. It’s tested our limits and forced us to practice the many principles we’ve learned in our other classes. Putting together everything is making us realize that our hard work has paid off and it’s all coming together.

The group dynamics have evolved and we’ve figured out what everyone’s strengths and interests are. Each of us has really come to “own” certain portions of the projects, yet we’re equally capable of interchanging the work.

The real question is: Is ShyGirl something we will actually consider pursuing post-class? It’s an exciting prospect, but scary at the same time. As four MBA students, we will all have major debts to payoff after school is over. Are we willing to incur the risk involved? It remains to be seen.

The line-up! After looking at competitor lines and speaking with our industry contacts we decided on the cosmetic line-up. Initially, we’re planning a cosmetic line with 12 different eye shadow shade colors, 3 eyeliner colors, 1 mascara (black), 10 lipstick colors, 5 lip-gloss colors, and 3 lip liner colors. This amount of SKUs (34 total) will allow ShyGirl to have slightly less start-up costs than, yet still launch with a complete makeup color line.

It’s all in a name! Based on focus group and individual interview feedback, we re-evaluated (once again!) the company/brand name. The older Latinas we spoke to had negative connotations associated with the name ShyGirl because of its reference to gangs. However, we found great research about upcoming designs and trends over the next two years. We’re got the intuition because Cholo is forecasted to be in! By starting to work on and hone the trend now, we’re confident that the younger market that ShyGirl is designed for will be interested in our line.

We’ve met a number of times to finalize the missing pieces of the financials and to address the holes in the paper that Professor Allen outlined in her feedback. We’ve found that we work best when we can all get together at the same time. Sunday afternoons seem to be our most productive meeting times.

Until next week,

ShyGirl Cosmetics

We also talked to a cosmetic filler last week and found out that the minimum order quantity is 5,000 per SKU – ouch! That means for example that our eyeshadow order will have to be at least 60,000 because it is reasonable that we would have 12 different colors, and that’s just eyeshadows. Lipsticks would be a similar quantity, but mascaras and eyeliners would be more reasonable since we only have to have 2 or 3 colors of each. We are now getting a better picture as to how much this endeavor would cost going in. Our initial order would have to be for our entire starting inventory (with minimum of 5,000 per SKU), which certainly adds up pretty quickly.

This week we have some more focus groups and in-depth interviews to perform. We found out last week that the name wasn’t too popular, so if we went forward with this we would have to rethink the names and do some more primary research to gauge consumer reaction. We think we will keep the name for now, but if we went forward we would likely change it.

Until next week,

The Ladies of ShyGirl Cosmetics

We need to work on scheduling interviews with cosmetics buyers for department stores as well as specialty stores like Sephora. Jessica has a contact at Sephora and hopefully she can help us find out what Sephora looks for in cosmetics lines to carry.

We also have to do more primary research on our target consumer. We need to touch base again with the Latino undergraduate student organizations. We sent emails to all the Latina sororities but we didn’t get a great response. I think we are going to have to see if we can go to the houses and maybe conduct a focus group after a meeting or something.

Last Monday, we conducted a focus group with Latinas in their late twenties and thirties. The focus group was really useful and we found out that finding the right shade of foundation was really important. We also found out that the primary outlet to buy cosmetics for our group was department stores. No one in our group bought makeup in specialty shops or boutiques. Our group also seemed receptive to trying out a Latina line of cosmetics if it was accessible. This group is older than the target ShyGirl customer so we really need to do some more primary research with the 15-24 year old set.

We are still trying to meet with a cosmetics filler. We met with a packaging components company, but we still need to meet with the company that will actually formulate our products. Hopefully that should be scheduled in the next week or two.

This process has been great for all of us. Everyone in the team has learned a lot by researching this industry and market, and the enthusiasm has definitely shown through. So, we all decided last Wednesday that we are going to take the Business Plan class together next semester. We are not sure yet if we will pursue ShyGirl further, but the feasibility process has opened our eyes to a world full of opportunities that can be exciting and scary.

First, one very prominent cosmetic industry veteran was instrumental in giving us an understanding of how cosmetic companies make money, as well as how to determine sales & marketing expenditures. With information gathered through an in-depth interview with Michelle Taylor, former Director of Kiehls products and current consultant to start-up cosmetic lines, we were able to work out selling price as a percentage of Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) and the COGS breakdown. Actual ShyGirl figures were calculated by working backwards from the MSRP, which was set closely aligned to MAC Cosmetics prices.

Second, we met another cosmetic industry brand manager at the Marshall Graduate Women in Business networking/panel event. After explaining our project, the marketer was excited to help in any way she could – with contacts or industry information. Way to network!

Third, the President of the Latin Marshall Business Association contacted us, as she is interested in the Latina marketing aspect of our project. She volunteered to help recruit her members to participate. As long as scheduling permits, we should be able to incorporate another focus group of female students from the LMBA.

Although we continue to play phone tag with one of our potential suppliers, we’re not giving up. We hope to schedule another factory tour in the next week.

Crunch Time! This week we focused on crunching the financial numbers. As I mentioned before, we received a lot of great information from a key contact, but we still had to organize and run the numbers ourselves. We met to work through the assumptions and spreadsheets as a team because the decisions impact each of us. Unfortunately, no team members have prior experience in finance, but collectively we were able to put our MBA education to work.

Furthermore, we found the financial assumptions were tied to the timeline and market rollout plan, so those sections all had to be in sync. Luckily two of our team members live together making it convenient for productive meetings. Similarly they volunteered their large kitchen table as the start-up office, saving us money as far as start-up costs.

Voila - The Feasibility Analysis Draft! After a long meeting of incorporating sections and making sure the analysis was fluid and correctly structured, we turned it in! We had just a couple of holes in the financials as we wait for more information, but otherwise most of the analysis was finished. Now, we eagerly await the feedback. So exciting!

THE UPS – Beauty is recession proof! We’ve got tons of secondary data that tell us that cosmetics in the US is big business, and welcomes small/new players like Shygirl. Between Amy’s summer at L’Oreal and our collective effort at pulling together research, we’ve got a ton of information. Also, a visit to the Crocker Business Library at USC was incredibly helpful. Who knew there was so much information out there? It’s almost overwhelming. However, all the research is encouraging. Cosmetics has low barriers to entry because it’s almost all outsourced (like we saw last week when we met with packaging company Techpak). But as a result, it’s also really competitive.

Another exciting, but challenging part has been developing and refining the personality of the brand. Recently, a friend of Jessica’s was kind enough to do some pro-bono work for us. As a graphic designer, he was able to read our business concept and put together a few logos for Shygirl Cosmetics. What logo we go with is a really important decision for Shygirl because it will definitely set the tone for our brand personality. We’re hoping to use the focus group input to refine our idea, but we feel we’re well on our way.

THE DOWNS - Sometimes, it seems like we’ve got it all together – it’s a great idea, we understand our customer perfectly, there’s a perfect niche for our product – and then we realize we’re wrong. After doing in depth interviews with makeup artists and consumers, we have found that there isn’t a real “need” in the market. The idea does seem intriguing, but really, there isn’t a lack in the market right now. What does that mean? We’re going to have to work even harder to create a “just for me” Shygirl image for our consumer to buy into.

Recently, we went on another trip to research distribution channels (ie, we went shopping!). Fred Segal is known for carrying all the new, hot, up and coming designer goods – from cosmetics to apparel. A trip to Fred Segal Beauty proved just that. And there’s a million new cosmetics companies it seems! Will we ever be able to compete?

What’s Next? We need to do more research! After pulling together a discussion guide and setting up a focus group at La Opinion (thanks to Jessica!), we’ll be conducting more primary research via focus group this week. It’s imperative we do this to confirm how our consumers are thinking, what they use, where they buy, and how they buy.

Ultimately, we’ve found that what Professor Allen said is really true – as an entrepreneur, something good happens everyday. But she forgot to mention that something bad can happen everyday too! The truth is, no matter what, whether Shygirl turns out to be a feasible idea or not, it’s been an exciting and educational experience. And for now, we’re enjoying the ride!

We now also have some prototype logo designs that were created by Jessica’s graphic designer friend at La Opinion. We plan to ask our focus group about the logo prototypes and the new “ShyGirl” name. Jessica also has web designer friend who has volunteered to design the ShyGirl website. So things are definitely moving along.

We are also currently in the midst of planning our first focus group. Jessica’s employer, La Opinion, has allowed us to conduct a focus group at the newspaper’s corporate headquarters in downtown L.A. Participants will be recruited from amongst La Opinion’s employees. We are looking forward to initial feedback on our ideas so far.

ShyGirl Cosmetics is still working to accurately define our target customer segments. Our two target groups are very different. Our primary target segment is Latinas who are looking for a vibrant color palette along with the availability of heavy-coverage foundation in an affordable prestige cosmetics line. The second primary target segment is non-Latinas who want to project a hip, urban, edgy image. The kind of woman who lives in Los Feliz, Silver Lake, or Echo Park and celebrates and embraces a lifestyle and culture outside of her own.

We are super excited about this coming week. On Wednesday, we will be meeting with a cosmetics packaging manufacturer who also will be putting us in contact with filler manufacturers. So our next step after Wednesday’s meeting is to meet with fillers. We also are working on meeting cosmetics buyers for department stores and Fred Segal Beauty.

Things are moving along very well, and everyone in the group is excited. Thankfully, everyone’s energy level is still high for this project.

In between bites of yummy Mexican pastries (courtesy of Jessica) we hashed out our business concept, created an action plan, and talked about how each of our backgrounds would contribute to the business. We started by reviewing the concept statement below:

“Cuca Cosmetics provides a line of hip and fashionable color cosmetics catered specifically for the skin tones, preferences and mind-set of young, stylish Latinas. Cuca offers beauty-conscious, Latina ladies a hip, high-end alternative to the existing array of cosmetics tailored to the general market”

Our idea was borne out of a common love for beauty and a recognition of an attractive niche opportunity. From 1990 to 2000, the Hispanic population grew 58% to 35.3 million – making Hispanics the largest minority in the US (Census 2000). It’s not just the size of the Hispanic population that makes it an attractive target audience. According to Roslow Research, Hispanic women spend $1.6 billion/year on cosmetics – on average 17% more than the average woman in the US. Identifying a current gap in the high-end cosmetics market for specifically Latina-marketed cosmetics, Cuca Cosmetics was born.

So, what makes us think we’ll be good at starting and running a cosmetics company? We’re girls! More specifically, we each have strong backgrounds in marketing and an entrepreneurial drive. Jessica Martinez has a background in marketing research and marketing to the U.S. Latino market. Jessica was most recently Marketing Research Project Manager at La Opinion, the largest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the U.S. Sarah Turner’s background is in consulting and marketing research. Amy Huang also has a background in consulting, as well as experience marketing cosmetics for L’Oreal, one of the world’s largest cosmetics companies. Amanda Lomont brings to us over five years experience in public relations and consumer marketing. All four are currently studying marketing and entrepreneurship at USC’s Marshall School of Business MBA program.

With all this formal training under our belts, through academia and professional careers, it’s funny to find that what seems to be our strength is our ability to understand the consumer’s needs simply by the fact that we’re also the target customer in many ways. Jessica has to fill in the holes sometimes because she understands the specific “Latina” needs of our consumers though. But, we’re all equally excited about the opportunity. Our plan moving forward is to further develop our concept to target our customer and then test it by holding a focus group. Each of us has been charged with the task of becoming more familiar with the cosmetics market as well.

We all sifted through magazines and makeup to talk about what we liked and didn’t like in the existing market. What we learned: There’s a lot of makeup out there! But we still think there’s room for us – Cuca Cosmetics!