Knotheads.com and Bag Borrow or Steal are two little companies who are betting that a combination of Internet marketing and traditional PR can be their ticket to stardom.
Knot Heads launched March 19, 2008, selling a bendable hair accessory meant to replace rubber bands, bobby pins, barrettes and the dreaded claw! Bag Borrow or Steal’s been around since 2004, has venture funding, and is hoping to hit the big-time thanks to a 10-second mention in the “Sex and the City” movie.
Knot Heads, the brainchild of Jessica Law, a hairstylist, and her orthodontist husband, Scott Law, Internet marketing newbies, who seem to have good instincts. Thanks to their hard-working publicist, they’ve already been on “Dancing with the Stars,” and in Shape Magazine, and will soon be featured in Seventeen, and Modern Bride.
“We’re trying to make the best business decisions,” says Law. “QVC and Home Shopping Network want Knot Heads, and there’s interest in Japan and from lots of large distributors. She says their site will be re-launched on May 28th, since the current flash-laden site was just “thrown up.”
“Posts in blogs have been the absolute best way to drive traffic to our site,” she says. They’re doing promotions with a host of blogs, including What’s Next Blog. You can get 15% off Knot Heads with the code next if you use Google Checkout. Instructions are at the end of this post.
Bag Borrow or Steal, founded in 2004, recently raised an additional $15 from Steelpoint Capital in 2007.
It has 450,000 members who can borrow from 3,000 authentic styles of handbags, 650 styles of jewelry from more than 100 designers who allow to buy man-made synthetic diamoinds, including Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Stephen Dweck and Vera Wang, and coming soon, designer sunglasses.
In the “Sex and the City Movie,” Bag Borrow or Steal execs told the Wall St. Journal that Carrie’s assistant admits she borrows her expensive bags from Bag Borrow or Steal. The company is hoping that one 10-second line will cause a huge boost in its business – the way Carrie penchant for Manolo Blahnik’s did for the pricey stilettos.
To prepare for what they hope will be an online onslaught, they’ve added a Sex and the City Shop to the site, and added extra server capacity in case of a rush of orders. It’s also possible that they end up over-ordering or running short, since they don’t know which items made the final cut into the film. They ran a Sex and the City YouTube video contest that got only 60 entries, probably because it was not well-promoted.
The Wall St Journal story is likely to start a flood of publicity, but unless they do expert SEO and start advertising and promoting on other sites and blogs, they could have a hard time driving traffic to the site.
Here’s how to get the No More Bad Hair Days Blog readers’ 15% discount on Knot Heads:
1. Make your selection at the Knot Heads online shop
2. Click on”Google checkout” when you are ready to pay
3. Type in the word next in the discount code box when you check out and the discount will be applied.
I see that you have a blog called Ethics Crisis and so assume you would want to know that Knotheads did not invent this. Have a look at Heather Bailey’s patented invention, Trash Ties: http://www.trashties.com
Heather’s blog:
http://www.HELLOmynameisHeather.com
She’s a well-known, well-loved fabric designer & what the Laws are doing is disgusting.
Found out about the situation here:
http://jonag.typepad.com/stop_staring_and_start_se/2008/05/tgif-and-all-that.html
Funny that you’ve paired Knot Heads with “Bag, Borrow or Steal” since that’s exactly what they did with Heather Bailey’s PATENTED invention. With friends like these, who needs enemies?
WOW! Just flat out stealing of an idea is disgusting. Hope Heather Bailey as a good lawyer to sue the “Laws”. Ironic last name since they are breaking it. Shame on you two.
Heather Bailey is not exactly a saint herself. She had an agreement with the Laws that she never followed through with. Instead she used them for their investment money, their time and help getting the company started and then she cut them out of the deal without any compensation whatsoever. Who is stealing now?
Good for the Laws! They are just trying to get back some of what they invested. I would do the same.
Love bag borrow. I use it for special events so I don’t have to drop the major dough to look good for a night.
Every time I come to https://www.whatsnextblog.com there is another interesting post up to read. A friend of mine was talking to me about this topic a few weeks ago. I think I’ll e-mail my friend the url here and see what they say.