After experiencing a certain level of success with your brand, it only makes sense to turn your attention toward the future. How do you scale up on that success and pave the way to an even brighter future for your business?
That’s where brand expansion comes in. This can take many forms. The most common involves introducing a new product line, but brand expansion can also refer to taking your existing products into a new market. Either way, get this right and your brand will experience some serious growth. Of course, on the other hand, any mistakes that you make could potentially be fatal for your brand. This is why many businesses hesitate when it comes to expansion.
One way to mitigate some of the risks involved in brand expansion while also experiencing a number of other benefits is to work alongside a private label manufacturer. Read on as FLPL talks you through how private label manufacturing can help to simplify and propel a brand’s growth.
What is Private Label Manufacturing?
Although private label manufacturing is rapidly rising in popularity, many are still unfamiliar with the term and often confuse it with other manufacturing models.
Simply put, private label manufacturing is when a third-party company, like FLPL, takes charge of a brand’s manufacturing processes. They don’t have any ownership of the products being manufactured – that still lies with the original brand. However, the private label manufacturer will take control of everything from liaising with factories to mass production to quality control. The brand can still have as much input as they want but they’ll be able to relinquish a large part of the manufacturing responsibilities to their private label manufacturer.
This brings with it a variety of advantages for a brand, which we’ll soon be talking about in more detail!
Is it Time to Expand Your Brand?
Before going down the private label manufacturing route, it’s important to make sure that brand expansion is the best next step for your business. There are some clear benefits that this would offer, from the ability to target new demographics to an increase in sales. All of this will lead to bigger profits. However, attempt to expand your brand before you’re actually ready and the results could be disastrous.
So, how do you know if it’s time to expand your brand?
Firstly, assess whether or not this is something that your existing customers want. This will involve some market research. Find out whether there’s actually a demand for that new product line you’re thinking of developing because if there isn’t, then your expansion could potentially be your brand’s downfall.
Take time to judge how well your overall industry is doing too. If you’re in a stagnant industry that’s showing no signs of growth, then expansion could be a dangerous move. On the other hand, if you’re in an industry that’s experiencing steady annual growth, such as the cosmetics industry, then there’ll be plenty of room for your brand to expand.
Of course, your financial state will also have a big impact on whether or not brand expansion would be the right move. Ideally, you should already be making a profit. This would be a sign that expansion is a viable move, particularly since expanding costs a significant amount of money. It will likely also take some time before you begin raking in profits from your expansion, making it important to have a steady revenue stream from the products that you’re already selling.
How Private Label Manufacturing Can Propel Brand Expansion
If you’ve done all of the necessary research and have decided to go ahead with your brand expansion, it’s time to think about how you want to do so. Go down the private label manufacturing route and life becomes so much easier, making this well worth considering.
Let’s take a look at just a few of the ways in which private label manufacturing can help your brand to expand:
A Streamlined Path to Product Development and Production
Product design and development both take time, particularly if you’re introducing a completely new product line. It can take several months to get things right, and only then will your products move on to the manufacturing process.
However, with private label manufacturing, that entire process is streamlined. Your private label manufacturer will offer a range of product types that you can choose from. This makes it so much easier to put together a new product line that’s relatable to your brand. Say, for example, you have a skincare brand that produces face creams. Team up with a private label manufacturer that specializes in cosmetics, like FLPL, and you’ll be able to expand into everything from exfoliants to serums with ease.
At FLPL, our clients have access to a vast ingredient catalog that they can choose from. Once you’ve decided on the types of products that you want to expand to, you can then pick a few signature ingredients from our catalog to help further differentiate your new products. We will then work on creating your formulas, after which you’ll be able to approve samples that can then be sent off for mass production.
Speaking of production, sourcing suitable factories can be a huge headache for a brand. This is particularly the case if you want your manufacturing to take place overseas. Between language barriers, cultural differences, and time zones, it’s not easy to team up with foreign factories. However, your private label manufacturer should already have all of these connections in place. Once your samples have been approved and you’ve picked your manufacturing location, you can sit back and relax while your private label manufacturer oversees the rest of the production process.
Cost-Efficiency
One of the biggest advantages that comes from working with a private label manufacturer is cost-efficiency. As we mentioned earlier, brand expansion can get quite pricey. However, with the assistance of a private label manufacturer, you’ll be able to keep costs down.
How? Well, for starters, you won’t need to spend as much on product development. There’ll be less trial and error involved since your private label manufacturer will already have so much experience in creating products for your industry. This means that fewer mistakes will be made. Mistakes cost money, so this can be a huge saving.
You’ll likely save on the manufacturing process too. When working directly with a factory, minimum order requirements tend to be quite large. This is often unrealistic when first introducing a product line since you won’t yet know how successful it’s going to be. Work with a private label manufacturer and minimum order requirements are usually much lower. Not only will this cost you less upfront since you won’t need to order quite as much stock, but it also means that should everything go wrong, you won’t lose out so much on wasted stock either.
Extra Time to Focus on Your Expertise
Brand expansion can be extremely time-consuming. In some ways, it can be even more so than when you first started your brand. Not only do you need to put your time into the new products that you’re creating but you also need to ensure that your current sales remain steady. You’ll be running your existing business while also working on expansion.
Working with a private label manufacturer will free up a significant chunk of your time. From product design and development to manufacturing, your private label manufacturer can take control of all of this, leaving you with extra time to focus on your areas of expertise.
Adherence to Regulations
Chances are that your brand expansion will see you entering into a new market. This could be with the new products that you’re creating or it could be down to a new demographic that you’re targeting, such as bringing your products to a foreign market. Either way, this will leave you dealing with a new set of rules, regulations, and legalities.
Familiarizing yourself with these new regulations can be a challenge. It’s so important to get this right because even a small mistake could see your products being rejected from the market.
This is something that a good private label manufacturer can help you with. From the initial product design process, particularly when it comes to ingredient safety, to manufacturing regulations, your private label manufacturer will be in the know about all of this. You won’t have to spend hours studying all of the new rules that you’ll need to follow. Your private label manufacturer will have already done this for you.
Quality Assurance
If your brand is ready to expand, then this is a sign that the products you’re currently producing are up to standard when it comes to quality. This is something that consumers are increasingly prioritizing, and rightly so.
However, expanding into a new product line could cause standards to slip. As you can imagine, this could be hugely detrimental to your brand. One sub-par product could harm your entire reputation, causing your customers to go elsewhere for their needs.
Work with a private label manufacturer and you’ll be able to enjoy a certain degree of quality assurance. They’ll make sure that everything that’s produced under your name is up to scratch. This way, your brand will be able to maintain consistency in quality. This will help to cement existing customer loyalty while also bringing in new customers.
Increased Adaptability
It’s extremely important for a brand to be adaptable. Market trends come and go and brands that stay on top of all of this are usually the ones that experience the greatest successes.
When working on your own, this is difficult to do. As we mentioned, the product development process on its own could potentially take months, after which you may need to wait several more months before your products have been manufactured. By this time, the market may have moved on. The trend that you were hoping to capitalize on may no longer exist.
When working with a private label manufacturer, lead times tend to be much shorter. As discussed earlier, the design, development, and production process will all be streamlined. You’ll likely have your products back and ready to be sold far sooner than if you had done things on your own, meaning that you’ll be able to rake in profits much quicker.
Summary
There’s so much to consider when it comes to brand expansion, but working with a private label manufacturer will definitely make your life a little easier. Not only will there be less risk involved, but the money and time that you save could make all the difference in how well your expansion goes.
Want to know more about how FLPL could help your brand to expand? Click here to contact us today!
