Growing your brand or just starting out? Happi’s upcoming Brand Building Breakfast Seminar, April 22, 2015, will feature a panel of experts and dynamic entrepreneurs who have succeeded in the competitive personal care space.

For more than 50 years, Happi has served the household and personal care market—offering insight into ingredient and formulation trends, manufacturing and marketing and strategy—in print and online. Now, you can join the Happi staff at our Brand Building Breakfast Seminar, featuring a special panel of experts and dynamic entrepreneurs who have grown their brands in the highly competitive personal care area. This “power breakfast” will be held in New York City.

The panel of speakers includes a pair of entrepreneurs who have been in the trenches in the personal care space—and have taken their brands from seed to success. They are:

• Craig Dubitsky, CEO, Hello Products, LLC
Recently named to Advertising Age’s Creativity 50 (an annual list of the most influential and innovative creative thinkers) Craig Dubitsky is currently founder of Hello Products LLC, a firm that’s out to disrupt and elevate the staid $30 billion global oral care category. Prior to Hello, Dubitsky co-founded the Kind Group, a privately held company dedicated to the development and expansion of personal care brands. There, he conceived the eos brand, which turned the lip balm category on its head.

While in a role advising the nation’s largest public retail REIT, Simon Property Group, Dubitsky identified and led the initial investment in Method Products. His ongoing involvement with revolutionary consumer packaged goods spans category lines: strategizing with green home care brand Seventh Generation on innovation and design, serving as CMO of Popcorn, Indiana, one of the fastest growing salty snacks brands in the US, and advising OTC brand Help Remedies from his role on its board of directors. Dubitsky is also the chairman of the Advisory Board of Lexicon, the leading global product-naming consultancy.

• Founder, Jane Carter Solution Hair Care
“The saying ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ could not be more true in the case of our current brand as well as the additional line extensions to follow. Our first brand ‘jane carter solution’ started out with the tagline ‘homegrown hair care,’ which is exactly how we started the brand… I believe that the driving force behind every brand is the DNA of the brand creator’s life vision and mission. Getting it to market requires a completely different skill set,” Carter told Happi.

Data & Guidance
In addition to Dubitsky and Carter, the panel will feature presentation from these well-respected industry experts:

• Karen Doskow, director of consumer products, Kline & Company, on “The New Paradigm in Beauty Retailing.”
Beauty marketers and retailers are faced with unprecedented changes influenced by modern retailing formats and technology, plus more sophisticated expectations from consumers for their shopping experiences. These two factors combined have made multi-channel marketing a reality. While there are many sources of data available to monitor mainstream channels to stay on top of the game, tracking alternate channels like direct sales and specialty stores has been a challenge, keeping numerous brand stewards and retailers a step behind.

Doskow will explain why a multi-prong channel approach is no longer optional and why the role of alternate channels has become increasingly more important.


• Georgia Sturges, independent beauty and wellness brand consultant, on “Finding Your True Voice: A Guide For Beauty Entrepreneurs.” Sturges’ background includes the Amorepacific skin care and spa brand, where she served as director of education and development, as well as senior roles at Procter & Gamble (director of education and spa for DDF) and Estée Lauder, where she was the executive director of global education for the Origins brand.

According to Sturges, “there are few things as exciting, challenging, gratifying or terrifying as the pursuit of your own personal truth, your authentic self. For the beauty entrepreneur, discovering this is not simply a matter of personal fulfillment, it’s the ground on which an effective business strategy is built. It informs every aspect of your brand from the formulas themselves to the packaging, marketing collateral and invoices. But discovering your brand’s true voice and deeply internalizing can feel like an arduous endeavor.”

Sturges will overview practical exercises to guide you on your path to success as a beauty entrepreneur.

Tickets for Happi’s Brand Building Breakfast are $75 before March 30 ($90 after that date). Seating is limited, so to reserve your space at the table, log on to: http://seminar.happi.com