Selling the Idea That You Are What You Eat
"Nothing would be easier than taking a vitamin and being 25 again. It's a very appealing ideal," says James Spencer, a dermatologist in St. Petersburg, Fla., and a faculty member at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "But it's a 'walletectomy.' You can get the same benefit from a Flintstones chewable."
Price and perception, however, are often linked in ways that defy logic, as Borba knows firsthand. At age 30, he launched e.l.f. (eyes.lips.face), a line of low-priced cosmetics sold exclusively at Target stores. He wanted to capture the growing number of high-end consumers who shop for 99-cent items at so-called dollar stores, without his products being perceived as cheap. The solution: Price every e.l.f. product, from a makeup brush to an eye shadow, at an even dollar, not 99 cents. The perception: a good deal, not a cheap trick. Sales of e.l.f., launched in 2004, are expected to top $12 million this year. In a similar way, the prices for Borba's line of moisturizers, lotions, and other topical products, ranging from $16 for face wash to $42 for eye cream, are designed to allow consumers in what Borba calls the "masstige" to live in the "prestige" environment, if only when they wash their faces.
It's a territory Borba himself has been wandering since he was a kid growing up in a central California farm town, selling candy bars to his friends at a profit and working two paper routes to afford designer jeans. These days, he still shops for high-end goods at the low end, rummaging through the racks at discount stores for a good suit he can then have expertly tailored. Living his work 20 hours a day, Borba, a law school graduate, is rarely dressed in anything else.
After three years, Borba (the company) is on a roll, and Borba (the man) is scheduled to star in his own reality show on LiveVideo.com, the Internet video site started by his close friend and silent business partner Brad Greenspan, a MySpace founder. The show will follow Borba as he goes through his entrepreneurial paces (and skin-care regimen, no doubt), making deals and obsessing over every detail. After a few episodes of watching Borba in action, budding entrepreneurs may wish he could bottle that.
advertisement
