How to sell ethical grooming products to men

Picture a man walking through a major supermarket. In almost every non-food department – magazines, alcohol, gifts – there'll be testosterone-injected branding that will appeal to the guy in him. When it comes to skincare, however, it's surprisingly feminised. For teenage boys, there's Lynx, but the rest of the male grooming products on the shelves can look a bit like an afterthought of the female-geared brands. Look for natural products for men and you'll be even more stumped.

This, explains Simon Duffy, is how Bulldog – the UK's first natural grooming brand for men – was born. Both Duffy and his business partner, co-founder Rohdri Ferrier, were living in New York, where they had met and become friends, when they came up with the idea in 2005. "We were both starting to think more about natural products when it came to eating and drinking, but we were struck by all the natural grooming products being for women only. It was that frustration that sparked our idea," says Duffy.

The timing was important too. "I have a restless personality and had moved from the UK to New Zealand to New York, and I felt it was time to move again," he says. "I was just about to get married too, so it felt like a good time to think more about the future. Rhodri shares the same restlessness."

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In the two men's favour was their combination of skills and experience. Prior to founding Bulldog, Duffy was an innovation and branding expert who had helped the likes of Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Samsung and Procter & Gamble create new products. He had also been a founding member of the consultancy Fahrenheit 212. Meanwhile, Ferrier came from a finance background and was seeking a more ethical way to use his experience.

Having launched nationwide exclusively with Sainsbury's in July 2007, Bulldog has gone from strength to strength. Indeed, since the exclusivity contract ended this summer, Bulldog has moved into Superdrug, Waitrose, Debenhams, Whole Foods and Planet Organic. Having built revenues in excess of £500,000 in year one, the platform exists to deliver well beyond the year two sales target of £1.5m.

Like most start-ups, it has been a hard slog. "Having chewed the fat about the idea in 2005, we started 2006 with a feeling of 'let's go for it!' and really began to look into what we needed to do. For the next 14 months, it was a case of cramming in an enormous amount of business planning, figuring out the branding, finding people to work with us, speaking to retailers and raising the money," says Duffy

The pair raised the required £1.2m capital through high net-worth individuals – which proved to be a challenging process. People are savvy investors and make you work extremely hard before they'll consider investing in your concept. The individuals we met were demanding and forensic, but what we had on our side was the fact that our idea was unique and that the concept of 'natural' is a trend people understand. In many ways, it was crazy the product didn't already exist."

Equally challenging was getting a major retailer on board. "That was one of the most ambitious things about our business model," admits Duffy. "It would have been easier to launch in metrosexual posh stores like Harrods. That's where you would expect to see innovations like ours, but our ambition was to take on massive brands such as L'Oreal and Lynx, so the plan was always to launch big. But it was a plan that made our job even harder with potential investors. Trying to persuade them that we could go from nothing to something like Sainsbury's was really hard. But Sainsbury's gave us the big break we needed and that's why we feel they are hugely instrumental in our story."

Even then, it was only the beginning, says Duffy. "All of the other grooming products have massive ad campaigns, where they use celebrities and have huge promotional offers. We had to hit the ground running to keep up. What saved us was that we are unique on the shelf in terms of our formulas, how we look, our name and who we appeal to."

Indeed, the Bulldog user is not necessarily the best-looking guy or the most athletic – and the down-to-earth but bold packaging reflects this. "He's man's best friend – hence the name, Bulldog. He is certainly not the unattainable image of manhood other brands go for in their advertising."

It has also been significant to Bulldog's brand that all products are manufactured in Britain and all of their outsourcing is done to British companies. "The UK story is really important for three reasons. First, as people starting up a business with no experience in manufacturing, it had the advantage of being easy to visit and organise. Second, there's amazing quality in the UK and third, it would be over the top – and odd for a company that is devoted to ethical business – to add to our carbon footprint unnecessarily."

The first year in Sainsbury's was a huge hit for Bulldog. They moved from being ankle-height to second shelf from the top and they increased the number of their products – which range from moisturiser containing eight essential oils to shower gel containing seven essential oils – from six to 11. "We're still not as big as L'Oreal and Nivea, but if you take those out of the mix, we are selling faster than everyone else," says Duffy. "We know we can never compete with the size of their marketing campaigns, so we just have to play to our strengths and do things other brands aren't doing and depend largely on word of mouth."

On Bulldog's side is the fact that natural, organic products will inevitably be an even bigger deal in five years than they are today. The flip side, of course, is that this will probably invite stiff competition. But Duffy is unfazed. "Being the first entrant is definitely an advantage," he says.

For more information visit: www.meetthebulldog.com