Khloe Kardashian is sitting on the floor, talking to some 15 million viewers (and counting) as she holds up the product that has changed Australian Tara Simich’s life in a way that most beautypreneurs could only dream of.
“Now I see this on my Explore page and I have my friends who use it all the time and I’m so excited to show you guys just how easy it is,” Khloe says in the Instagram reel, holding up the baby pink Mermade Hair Waver.
“I’m not the best at doing my hair so I like simple easy tools.”
It’s solving a problem simply that has been the winning formula for Simich’s Mermade Waver. Rewind to 2019 and the new mum was spending more time at home than in the salon.
It was while she was watching an Instagram video of Khloe’s sister Kim Kardashian donning a kinky hairstyle that was laborious to recreate using a straightener that Simich spotted a hole in the market.
“I noticed that crimpers on the market were made of very small barrels that created a ‘zig-zag’ look on the hair, rather than the modern soft wave that was becoming increasingly popular,” Simich tells SmartCompany.
“There wasn’t a lot of innovation in this hot tool space and getting this look with alternative curling tongs and straighteners was quite cumbersome.”
Simich worked with a seller on Alibaba to create the prototype and launched the Mermade Waver in 2019, tentatively ordering 1000 units of the tool. She expected it to take a year to move them, but she had sold out in two weeks flat.
Within the first few months, Mermade Hair’s Instagram account — her only shopfront at the time — was moving as many as 2000 Wavers a week, and constantly selling out of its stock.
Simich’s blossoming business was complicated by the pandemic grounding planes from mainland China, where her supplier was based, but within six months, her stock was picked up by international retailers.
“We moved very quickly (despite COVID-19 occurring just as we began our growth phase) to innovate and expand the brand offering to ensure we were able to keep brand momentum, increase average order value and build out a more fulsome offering in stores,” she said.
But the savvy Simich was not looking to blend in a crowd of brands spruiking identical hair tools. Instead, she wanted to create a line of products that “filled gaps in the market, rather than just rebranding mass-produced products”.
Her advice? Spend time perfecting your product.
“For example, our blow dry brush had 12 months of developing the right vegan bristle mix, length and flexibility,” Simich said.
Almost immediately, Simich says, Mermade Hair caught the lucrative attention of “Khloe and the Kardashian clan”.
“We once even sent a Mermade Waver in an Uber to Kylie Jenner at her very urgent request,” Simich added.
When Black Friday 2021 appeared on the horizon of retailers worldwide, Simich knew “the perfect alignment for the brand would be Khloe Kardashian” — someone who already knew about, and loved, the product.
“It’s really important these days to work with influencers that genuinely love your product and there is an authentic synergy with the brand to ensure a strong return on investment,” Simich said.
Despite Simich being the very picture of professionalism about the brand partnership with Khloe, she admits it was “a real pinch-me moment” to see “someone of that note supporting our Aussie brand that was only two years old”.
“It was a very proud moment,” Simich said.
After Khloe posted her reel, sales surged globally almost immediately, and most of the Mermade Waver stock was wiped from the shelves.
Top-tier influencers are expensive business — Kardashian is known to charge nearly $1 million dollars ($953,883) for an Instagram post — but Simich says the benefits are still being felt today, more than 12 months later.
“The interesting part was how far-reaching her influence was with many retailers reaching out to us throughout Europe and South America,” Simich said.
Plus, she says, it’s not just about the sales.
“Direct sales are not the only KPI when working with celebrities. You also want to analyse things like email subscribers, website traffic, digital ad performance, search volume, potential wholesale opportunities and increased PR opportunities,” Simich advised.
“The results of that campaign are still felt today and it continues to be a key driver in much of our global expansion.”
But it’s not like you need a Kardashian to be successful (though it definitely helps). Simich says anyone looking to emulate Mermade Hair’s success with an influencer boost need only start in the comments.
“Look closely at who is commenting on their posts, what sort of media attention they are getting outside of social media and what their audience resonates with the most,” Simich said.
“The costs of digital advertising and influencer has skyrocketed in recent years meaning brands have to be extra smart with who they work with, how they work with them and pay extra attention to their audience data.”
And don’t assume more star power is better. Simich says customers can spot a mile off if an influencer is promoting something just for the pay, rather than a genuine love of the product.
For Khloe, whose net worth is fast approaching a billion dollars, it was probably 50-50.
Emma Elsworthy is Climate Editor at Crikey, SmartCompany, and The Mandarin, and writes daily morning newsletter the Worm. Before joining Crikey in 2021, Emma was a breaking news reporter in ABC’s Sydney newsroom, a journalist at BBC Australia, and a journalist in Fairfax Media’s regional network. She was part of a team awarded a Walkley for coverage of the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire crisis, and won the Australian Press Council prize in 2013.
