#253 - Adam Xavier, XG Formulations: Building Global Skincare Brands for Paris Hilton, Actsyl, & More

On this episode of DTC Pod, Adam joins Blaine to discuss building and formulating products from the ground up. They talk about identifying a problem, coming up with a unique formulation, what you need to take the product to market, navigating restrictions and FDA, positioning yourself to sell in other markets downstream, patents, ingredient licensing, launching Paris Hilton's line, the pros, and cons of working with celebrity talent, navigating managers and other involved parties, leveraging talent for retail distribution, and much more.

35:48 - The Formulation Behind Paris Hilton's Skincare Line

Launching a product line with a celebrity, it's just exciting because you can immediately get an interested consumer. There's instant, recognition of your brand because you're tying it to and someone like Paris, I think you said it earlier, she did a lot of things first. And being a celebrity that wanted her own skincare line yeah, she was one of the first. And the way she wanted to do it was different, I think, than most celebrities. She wanted to own it.

40:30 - The Reality of Partnering With Celebrity Talent

Especially when you get into bigger influencers or bigger celebrities. And that's the challenge. Developing a working relationship and a business structure that satisfies everybody. You have to take into consideration maybe not a lot of celebrities understand the difference between royalties and owning a business. Maybe a business manager has never done a deal where there's equity in a company. Maybe they're only used to royalty checks.

27:00 - Save These Q's For Your Next Brand

You have to decide your brand position in the market. Are you the cost leader? Are you prestige? How are you going to price it? what is your brand position? What's on the box? What colors are we going to use for not just the logo, but everything to develop the brand feel. Is this going to look clinical, or should we take it the other way and make it look super high end? Like you'd buy in a, blue Mercury or a Sephora? Where are we going to put this? Is it ultimately going to be in a drugstore? Or are we going to sell it in Nordstrom?

Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.

Additional episodes you might like:

• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth

• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content

• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views

• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands

• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook

• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands

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Adam Xavier - President of XG Formulations
Ramon Berrios - CEO of Trend.io
Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated