Kelly Love’s business idea was born from the need to live a healthier life free of the toxic chemicals we unknowingly surround ourselves with daily.

As a co-founder of Brand Basics, a plant and mineral-based cleaning product line, Kelly wants to teach consumers how to integrate healthy, non-toxic products into their lives while removing harmful ones.

"I'm just really hoping people understand that what we put in, on and around our bodies everyday matters and it makes a difference for our long-term health and our everyday quality of life," Kelly says.

Her team didn't initially set out to sell soap. At first, they discussed all kinds of products, from water filters to mattresses, but realized people didn't know where to start on their journey to a healthier lifestyle. They ultimately decided on a cleaning product because, as Kelly says, these items are “some of the most toxic products we're exposed to that we bring into our homes.” Plus, they wouldn't be a huge investment for consumers.

After a few years of business with its own white-label cleaning solution, Branch Basics’ manufacturer went proprietary with the formula. This caused serious backlash, leading the company to shut down and take a few years to test over a hundred product formulas to find the safest, most effective one.

However, the team’s unrelenting passion for their brand's mission brought on its successful comeback. With the help of a PR firm, a squad of influencers, loyal customers and educational content, Branch Basics cultivated a strong following.

As a challenger brand all about giving customers the resources to make their own decisions, Branch Basics aims to help consumers take preventative and proactive control over their health.

Prentice’s Challenger Takeaway👉 Transparency is an overused word, but even though we hear it way too much, it has to be a very top priority for your challenger brand.

Today, transparency means being a totally open book. Brand faithfuls want to know everything, and they can smell BS a mile away, especially the younger generation. Think about failure differently, be an open book, and be vocal about your mistakes.

Featured Challenger👩 Name: Kelly Love

⚙️ How she challenges: As the co-founder of Branch Basics, Kelly is challenging the cleaning industry by offering safe plant and mineral-based cleaning products to give consumers a non-toxic choice about what they use inside their homes.

🧼 Company: Branch Basics

💎 Noteworthy: Kelly's mentor is Katie Forest, the co-founder of protein-based bar Epic Provisions, which was acquired by General Mills in 2016.

🔍 Where to find Kelly: LinkedIn

Challenger Wisdom 💡 Start with something consumers can easily get on board with"We did not set out to sell soap — that is not how our company started. We actually started off talking about all kinds of different products: water filters, mattresses, saunas, you name it. We quickly learned that people were very overwhelmed and didn't know where to start. An easy first step that made a huge impact was cleaning products. Cleaning products are some of the most toxic products that we're exposed to that we bring into our homes, and most people don't even think about what's inside the bottle."

💡 Focus on a scalable business model"[We] did not have any business experience, didn't really know what we were doing other than just [having] a lot of passion for wanting to help people use something that was safe. So we started bottling it ourselves, labeling it ourselves, and shipping it ourselves, and really just told our friends and family about it. ... We decided to just focus on the cleaning because it was something that we could private label and make our brand and we could really focus on, because it was very clear early on that trying to spread ourselves too thin across trying to promote too many different products and too many different messages was not going to be good."

💡 Find a niche where products don't currently exist"We really wanted to fit this niche of one product that can replace all of your toxic cleaning products. It's overwhelming when you think about getting rid of stuff and having to research an oven cleaner, a bathroom cleaner, a fruit and veggie wash — you name it. Most people have 17 to 30 different products in their cabinets, so we wanted something that was able to tackle everything … and was something that was super effective and super safe for the chemically sensitive and we did not know of anything at the time that met all that criteria."

💡 Shutting down the brand to realign with its mission "[Our co-founder Marilee] had used this product that we were private-labeling for years and we had a long great history with it, we were very confident in the safety and efficacy of it. However, the owner of the product cut the ingredients proprietary and just disclosed the marketing terms that we were able to use, signed a contract for us to have exclusive licensing agreement … and it just opened this door of we don't know what we're selling and we can't continue on and be a big, successful company if we can't even tell our customers what's in the product — if we can't offer the transparency that we tell them to go look for in other types of products that they're buying. So we just knew it wouldn't work and we made the very tough decision to shut down completely and reformulate something on our own."

💡 Investing in aligning each phase of your marketing funnel "[All of the marketing channels] really all work together. We think of it like a funnel — the top layer is the PR agency that we work with, Jennifer Beck Communications — they've been amazing. When we first started with them, it was a big investment for us, but it has been so worth it. So they get the word out in a broad way, so someone might see an article and then they come in and our next layer is the influencers."

💡 Letting influencers craft their own brand experience "We have a lot of influencers that help us spread the word, and we are really in favor of letting them tell the message of Branch Basics in their own words, in their own way. We don't give them a script. We want them to genuinely love the product, so we sent out a lot of free product and just say, 'Hey, try it, no strings attached. If you don't want to share, don't. No pressure, no worries.' Then let them have their own experience with it and talk about what resonated with them the most or why they love it the most."

💡 Giving customers something they can be obsessed with"Our customers are getting out there on social media and sharing. It's so cool, because most people don't think of their cleaning products as something they love and rave about and want to tell people about but that's the type of customers that we have. They get on social media and start saying why they're obsessed with this cleaning product and why they either got it as a gift or are giving it as a gift. It's so funny because you typically don't think of gifting cleaning products to someone."

💡 Helping consumers become their own advocates "We started a Tulsa Toxins campaign, and we have this information on our website, where we give you what red flag ingredients to look for [in cleaning supplies] and how to vet and become your own advocate because we think if it's on the store shelves, it must be safe — it must be regularly checked for safety. And, unfortunately, that's just not the case. So we have to be our own advocates."

Top quotes from the episode:Quote #1

"I'm just really hoping people understand that what we put in, on, and around our bodies everyday matters and it makes a difference for our long-term health and our everyday quality of life."

Quote #2

"We educate on everything from cookware to how to vet your own supplements ... so it's cool how our content as a cleaning product company that has nothing to do with cleaning products is really getting out there in big ways and bringing in a lot of people. … We are big on education, not just cleaning products."

Quote #3

"We really do want to help people minimize because we don't need all this stuff. You don't need all these dozens of different cleaning products, so you can clear out your entire cabinet under your sink and just have this one Branch Basics kit and just refill it with concentrate."