From Launch to Vogue in Four Months by Persheng Babaheidari
The 25th of March 2021 was the day of our launch. I was nervous, I had worked on developing the bag since fall of 2019, and finally it was time to go live. A project that felt as if it was all in my head, and now we were going to share our vision with the world.
I’m passionate about entrepreneurship, I love e-commerce and I wanted to create a purpose-driven brand rooted in a common problem among business women – the struggle of finding the perfect work bag. It’s so frustrating that we live in a society where both men and women work, but a simple thing such as having a good work bag seems to be missing for women. If you browse common fashion brands, they almost never have a business bag category for women, whilst having them for men - how twisted is this? We want to empower business women all over the world, make them feel confident and strong to take on any challenge of their choice. We know we can do it. Therefore we created BY BANOO.
Currently, BY BANOO consists of me and my sister Perdica (you see us together on the first picture). We didn’t have any prior experience on building a brand. I’m going to be honest and say that most of my e-commerce experience in terms of branding comes from millions of podcast episodes as well as my personal love for online shopping – something I’ve explored since I was 15 years old. To be seen in Vogue was something I dreamed about, but nothing that we thought was going to happen so early on – especially since I’m working full-time as a management consultant and needed to dedicate evenings and weekends to build BY BANOO. Therefore, I can’t say that we had a clear strategy on how to get Vogue to notice us. We just worked in a way that we really believed in.
On a Thursday, May 27th to be precise, which was two months after our launch, I was on my way home from my regular job when I opened my email. I’ve received an email with the subject “British Vogue | By Banoo”. My first reaction was this high rush of excitement, that strikes instantly and very intensely. My second reaction was “no, this must be spam”. I read the email, called Perdica and we both screamed - could this be true? I replied later the same evening and when I got an email back I knew this was for real - Vogue had found BY BANOO.
In July, we were seen on their August issue and online. Besides the fact to be seen in Vogue, it has also driven a lot of traffic from the UK to our website, where some of the traffic has converted to actual sales. This opportunity changed our expansion strategy to focus on the UK earlier than planned.
I’m trying to figure out how they discovered us among thousands of brands and what caught their attention. Here are some possible reasons.
Having a clear niche and brand identity. It was important to us that when people visited our Instagram or website, they would know immediately what we are doing and why we are doing it.
Starting to post on our Instagram long before our launch. I see many brands starting to post on their Instagram one week before launch. The downside with this is that you have a very small following in the beginning (if you’re not a well-known influencer) and it can take longer time to build your community. When we launched we already had +500 followers.
Offering a good-looking product. In the end, no matter what purpose your company has, either if it’s healthy protein bars or functional bags, the most important thing is that it tastes delicious or looks good.
High-quality pictures. Since there is so much competition on Instagram you really need to stand out in order to catch people’s attention. I’ve gotten a lot of help from the fantastic photographer Marilia Bognandi.
Engaging with Vogue on Instagram. We followed them, liked their pictures, commented sometimes etc. Even if we weren’t the only brand doing this, I still believe it’s a good thing. It doesn’t hurt, right?
Starting BY BANOO is the best thing I’ve done in my life. For so many years I’ve dreamed about becoming an entrepreneur – and being able to pursue that dream is the best feeling. Now I’m excited for the journey ahead. For all entrepreneurs running an e-commerce, it’s really worth it to work on getting media attention by having a proactive approach. When you pass the first threshold the rest will become easier - don’t give up - you will achieve any goal you set as long as you continue to work for it. Lastly, I’m so grateful to be a part of Business & Dreams Membership Club. Having a community of driven and smart women to connect with has been truly amazing in so many ways.
If you want to get in touch with me, contact me through my IG account @persheng or on LinkedIn. If you want to follow our journey and support BY BANOO, follow us on IG @bybanoo and subscribe to our newsletter through our website www.bybanoo.com.
Persheng Babaheidari
Founder and CEO, BY BANOO
