First I want to thank everyone who sent email feedback to my last post/newsletter. Wow! Got a lot! So nice to have a *conversation* going with customers and hear your thoughts & questions! This helps shape business direction more than you likely know….. ’preciate it! I do this for you, afterall!
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As requested, here is the initial cut-list of soaps:
100% Natural page: Lave Sus Manos, Ooh! Baby!, Survivor
95% Natural page: Cowabunga, Emerald Isle, Gardenia Moon, Java Bean Scrub, Juniper Sage, La Luna, Monkey Bar, Red Clover & Rasberry Tea, Sweet Almond Oat
With some soaps like Cowabunga (vanilla), we have another vanilla soap in another incarnation Wylde Faerie Soap - Honey, Milk & Vanilla….so we see no reason to keep two vanilla-type soaps.
There are limited quantities left of these soaps and they will currently be marked down 10%.
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I was also a bit surprised by how many questions I rec’d…many were the same, including a couple of the following which I get over and over through the years, and will try to fully answer again here:
When are you making the Limited Edition Treasure Chest Soaps available again?
Soon! As I’m re-organizing, some of these will be cut, new ones added! I will announce availability again soon! Subscribing to the newsletter, our blogs, FB, Twitter etc. are your best bets for getting info we send out! Thanks! And again..suggestions always welcome!
BTW….we did get the suggestions for more nut-oil enrichment in our soaps….macadamia nut oil, almond oil etc. The reason we have not used nut oils a lot thus far is, many people have nut allergies and we’ve received far more feedback from customers looking for nut-free soaps. Our favorite soap enrichment is shea butter (also a nut), but seems to elicit far less allergies, as does avocado oil, hempseed oil. But we’ll certainly consider some alternative enrichments for superfatting our soap! Thanks for the suggestion!
Why are there other soap companies using your name “Simply Soap”, did you franchise the business?
No, I have not franchised Simply Soap, although I’ve had many requests to over the years! It’s tempting, but I guess I’m too much of a control-freak to want to mass-produce or turn any aspect of the biz over to others to represent & operate it elsewhere, out of my direct supervision. I’m also not out to conquer the soapmaking world and try to be on every corner, like a certain coffee house chain…*wink*. I don’t have anything against companies that want to expand in a very large way, I’m just not one of them…for a myriad of reasons I won’t list here. But the bottom line (for me) being, I like the Old World ways of HAND-crafting a product and all that goes into that notion, of putting myself into each and every product that leaves my humble lil’ workshop. I think THAT is what has made Simply Soap (USA) the product it is, and the company it’s been this past 18 years.
I have trademarked the name “Simply Soap” in the USA, but not in other countries. So any *skin soap* company in the USA using the business name “Simply Soap” is in trademark violation and subject to litigation….which I have had to pursue before, and won. To date, I’ve had (last count) individuals from nine different countries who have contacted me to say they want to use the name in their country, which would be legal since I have not TM’d the name in other countries, and some even said they already applied for the TM, and asked if I wanted to buy the TM back from them (ownership transfer)for that country, at what I considered to be an extortion price. There are squatters who do this for a living apparently.
So yes….there are others legally using the name Simply Soap, or some very close derivative of the name, in their non-USA country. Does it cause confusion? YES, most certainly! I get confused customers all the time, so I’m certain that these others using the name, or close derivative, also receive *confused customer* contacts. Why? Because whether or not an individual or company is legally using a name in their own country they are doing business in, the internet is still global, and most businesses hang a shingle on the ‘net. Unless someone doing a search online examines the url line for an attached country of origin of a company (uk, au, etc), all they usually see is the name of the company in their search results.
If you want my opinion of all this, it’s this: Any soapmaker with any intention of running an internet-based business has searched the internet already for the desired name they want to use to identify themselves with and build client-base and a reputation. It would be pretty impossible to believe that after myself having been in business and on the internet 18 years, long before most of any of these other Simply Soap name-users have even thought of making soap or creating a business named-as-such, that they would not stumble upon inadvertently, or intentionally, when they searched for the name *already-in-use* that they wanted to use, and see that I come up on the first page of any search in Google, Bing, etc. Truly. It’s impossible to miss. So I completely reject excuses of “I didn’t know anyone else was using the name *anywhere*.” Lame.
While out-of-USA users of the name may technically be functioning legally according to TM law, one can’t help wonder why they would want to attach themselves to a name already-in-use, and even move in the same industry online circles, social networking, etc., and not have others view them as coat-tailing, or causing confusion for customers by using the name…unless of course, creating confusion is their direct hope to get people to their site. (?) How can one not wonder?
For my own 2 cents, I wouldn’t be caught dead using another’s name, whether in the USA or not, technically legal or not, just for reasons of pride and the need for individuality in my identity. I would not want to be even remotely perceived, by global customers, as copying or coat-tailing another. If I couldn’t gain customer-base, based on my own name/identity/quality product, I’d be back to the drawing board re-hashing my identity or product before I’d stoop to rationalizing using another’s name. But that’s me, my personal standards & sense of ethics tend to shoot high.
Enough customers over the years have asked me about others using the Simply Soap name, that it’s clear to me that it does cast other users of the name in a negative or suspicious light by default, even when “legally” used in another country. It seems to come back to what I described above. The internet makes us all sort of “in the same land, in the same industry”, making it less exclusionary to say “I’m doing business out of such-n-such a country so therefore I’m separate.” The global reach of the internet, within industries and search engine algorithms, makes us all less separate, whether TM law acknowledges that or not. People choosing to knowingly use another’s name, whether in their own country or not, will not suffer legal ramifications, but likely will suffer the court of public opinion that questions them, or says nothing but forms opinions at the expense of the perception of that user’s reputation. Kind of karmic in a way, don’t you think?
The other widely asked question: Will you add lotions, creams, bath gels, and other matching products to you line?
I always want to give customers the answer they want to hear and say YES, we’re adding ALL that! But truth is, it’s not likely. I tend to come from the school of “Do one thing and do it well.” To add all those matching products equates for me with being able to match it with manpower. And I do not currently want to have to add employees. I remain a family-based business…I do most of the work, but call upon family members to help when needed. This is to help keep costs down ultimately for YOU (not have to pay employee workers comp ins. etc.) But I never want to say “never”. Perhaps now that I’ll be scaling back on soap offerings somewhat, it might make matching products more feasible. I promise I will reassess after I make already-planned changes!
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As always…thanks for all your feedback and questions! I’m reminded what truly wonderful customers I have and how far back so many of you go with me! Your loyalty and support are priceless gems to me! Thank you!
Sincerely,
~Carol
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