Launch of Betty Beauty is a PR Coup
Source: Ad Age, November 14, 2006
If you still think a brown betty is an apple tart, you may not want to read further.
Beauty’s pubic-hair-dying kits are being marketed with names such as
Brown Betty, Fun Betty, Blond Betty, Auburn Betty and Black Betty that
designate color — Fun Betty is hot pink.
Media buzz
That’s not the meaning ascribed by Betty Beauty, a New York startup
that is getting big PR play by marketing hair color for the nether
regions. Billed as "color for the hair down there," the company began
really building buzz this summer with a brief appearance on the "The
Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and mentions in magazines such as Vogue, W and People Style Watch.
Distribution so far is only in about 300 salons and beauty stores and
via the website Bettybeauty.com. But helped along with a publicity push
from LaForce & Stevens, New York, traffic to Bettybeauty.com, as
measured by Alexa.com, was on pace last week for 2 million visits
annually, running well ahead of Procter & Gamble Co.’s Clairol.com
and climbing toward that of L’Oreal’s website.
Single ad
That’s despite the fact that founder Nancy
Jarecki’s first, and to date only, advertising expenditure was a $1,995
full-page ad in the official publication of the Cosmoprof beauty trade
show in Las Vegas in July. By the time she registered for the show, the
ad had already created enough buzz that several people around the table
were asking her about it. The ad also helped draw the "Leno" team,
which was taping a segment at the show. "It was just banter," she said,
along the lines of "It’s Betty — color for the hair down there."
But it was enough to draw thousands of visits from people who
did online searches even before her site was taking orders, Ms. Jarecki
said. Mentions in magazines and on drive-time radio followed this summer and fall.
The whole thing started with Ms. Jarecki’s visits to a hair salon in
Rome, where she was living three years ago. She noticed as women left
the salon, the colorist would discreetly slip them little brown bags.
"They would receive it with such delight, kiss kiss, and away they
would go," she said.
