Insight
Thaggard: Brand websites should prioritize consumer education over DTC sales conversion
“It's the place the consumer goes to learn more about their brand. They may never even purchase from your website. The goal of the website is not to end a purchase. Well, I mean, I think our DTC business is probably a good chunk of our overall business, but our…”
Insight
Thaggard: Brands fail when trying to target everyone at once
“Identifying who that consumer is on a timeline is, is really important because obviously everyone has skin. It's our body's largest organ and you could go after the world, but you can't do that in a really powerful way if you're targeting everyone at the same …”
Insight
The skin cancer epidemic stemmed from a lack of SPF education
“It wasn't a shortage of SPF products in the country that were causing the epidemic. It was a lack of education around the importance of wearing SPF Every single day.”
Assertion Contradicted
In 2005, every US chemical sunscreen relied on oxybenzone
“What I also found is that every single chemical formula in the country relied on oxybenzone for its efficacy.”
Assertion Supported
Mass sunscreen brands relied on oxybenzone purely to keep costs down
“What I learned was oxybenzone is not the only way, it's the most inexpensive way. And again, going back to most SPF was a mass product, and mass products are, you know, as inexpensive as possible. It turned out that there was a counterpart, avabenzone, that co…”
Assertion Supported
Sunscreen is banned in US public schools as an over-the-counter drug
“As an over the counter drug, Sunscreen is actually prohibited in schools across America.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Elon Musk's team requested Supergoop for a Tesla Roadster press tour
“I know we got a call once from Elon Musk's team to put Supergoop into all of his roadsters that were taking a press tour down the BCH or something”
Insight
Category creators must sell the fundamental problem before selling their brand
“I'm dealing with a category where we actually have to convince people why they need to wear SPF, and then why Supergoop, so, you know, I often say, like, imagine I was having lunch with the founders of MZ Wallace, which is a handbag brand, and I said, you know…”
Assertion Supported
Holly Thaggard: 26 US States Now Allow Sunscreen in Schools
“We're up to, I think, 26 states that now allow SPF in schools for the, Reason of protecting our youth skin, our body's largest organ”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Thaggard played backup harp for Aretha Franklin in New Orleans
“In New Orleans at the Museum of Art, and I played a little backup for Aretha Franklin when she came through.”
Assertion Partly supported
Study: 70% skipped sunscreen because it felt bad on their skin
“I found this study by Memorial Sloan Kettering that was talking about how most people knew sunscreen prevents skin cancer, but I think it was like, 70% don't wear it, just like you said, every single day, and the number one reason was because it didn't feel go…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Supergoop generated approximately $45,000 in annual revenue in 2008
“Because I think at this point, we were, like, literally making 45,000 in sales, I want to say, a year.”
Insight
Magazine press drove Sephora sales in 2008 before influencer marketing
“So in 2008, you know, this is before Instagram and influencer marketing, and it was all really about those press placements. That you'd get in the magazine that showed your product. They were very product driven, and that's what sold product in Sephora.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A PR executive pitched Supergoop a $72,000 six-month seasonal contract
“She pitched me on a six-month contract that would go from January to June, and she felt in that time we could, in January, hit the long leads to make sure we were in the April-May books, and she would charge us 12,000 dollars a month, but only six months out o…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Supergoop's early PR campaign pushed revenue from $45,000 to $600,000
“My revenue went from 45 to, I know, a 150 to, I think, 600.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thaggard's brother made an initial $750,000 investment in Supergoop
“And he put in initially 750,000 dollars.”
Assertion Supported
Supergoop launched across all Sephora stores and 47 Nordstrom locations
“We launched in 47 stores. So I had full distribution in Sephora and 47 Nordstroms”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Supergoop achieved profitability in 2019 and double-digit margins in 2020
“Well, fortunately, twenty-nineteen for Supergoop was our year to get to profitability and double-digit profitability this year.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thaggard: Supergoop! founder personally restocked retail shelves from her bag
“I had created these sunscreen swipes, and apparently the swipes were a huge hit. So I would go around to stores during that period, and, ah, the swipes were always gone. They were just wiped off the shelf. But the problem was I knew that my sales couldn't be g…”
Disclosure
Thaggard charged $100 an hour playing harp in ninth grade
“Be Holly the Harpist, and I could kind of set my price because there wasn't a lot of competition, so I really started out playing for like a hundred dollars an hour, which was a lot when you're in ninth grade.”
