A great formulator should be able to formulate a stable and effective product first and foremost, however if that product is costing its sale price it may be great on the skin/hair but won't be great for you as a business owner. With the rising cost of ingredients it is more important than ever to know your TARGET MARKET!!! What do I mean when I say this? Target market is a word that can be very loosely used. To formulate for a profit you need to get specific, VERY specific! It is a lot easier to formulate a product for a specific market and their budget than it is to formulate a product and find its market.
Where do your customers shop? Not just for products but for everything! Are they Walmart shoppers or Luxury Brand Shoppers? Or a bit of both? Do they shop at organic grocery stores or discount ones?
What kind of car do they drive?
Where do they work?
When they splurge what is it on?
What is their age group? (get specific and narrow it down)
Male or Female?
Do they hold any packaging values?
Do cosmo approved ingredients matter?
Are they label readers?
Where do they live?
Whats their income bracket? Disposable Income?
What is their ethnic background? ( this is important as different ethnicities have different needs especially for hair products)
GET IN THE MIND OF YOUR CUSTOMER!!!!
Think of absolutely everything you can about your consumer and develop a product that not only works for them but one they can AFFORD, and you can PROFIT from! Create your ideal customer on paper. If your customer shops primarily at Walmart and you are creating a body butter with upward of 20% of expensive exotic oils and butters you are cutting yourself short. How do places like Walmart still stock products with expensive ingredients like Argan Oil in them? Simple they are 1) Buying In mass bulk and 2) Using Argan Oil at 0.5% - 1.0% of their total formulation, just enough to get it on the label!
With an endless amount of products to formulate it is hard to narrow it down when it comes time to launch your starting line up. Choose a few and find some common denominator ingredients in them and purchase those in bulk!
When launching a product you should know your budget for development of that product. Whether you are formulating it yourself or hiring someone to formulate it for you, you need to know your own budget to launch as well as who and where you plan to sell that product. By doing this you can allocate your funds accordingly. When budgets aren't planned out and allocated accordingly they often get over spent on development and by the time of launch not much is left for labeling and packaging.
If formulating is new to you perhaps have a chemist revise your formulation ( with a non disclosure signed for your protection) to ensure its stable and to see if any adjustments can be made so that you can profit the way you are hoping to ( and deserve to ). Keep in mind that you are responsible for the product that is launched and ensuring it is safe for your customers. If you just started making products in the last couple months then this would be worth doing and could help avoid costly mistakes.
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