Clean Deodorant Brand Type:A Raises $500K And Makes Retail Progress To Fight More Armpit Funk

Type:A’s ambition is to climb to the top of the clean deodorant class – and it’s well on its way.

After launching with Credo in June, the five-month-old brand has broken into the selections at Amazon, Goop and Urban Outfitters, where it’s selling in six doors. Along with the retail rollouts, Type:A has raised in excess of $500,000 from family members, friends and an undisclosed lead investor in the consumer packaged goods segment.

“Each successive retailer was opportunistic, but served a purpose. Being aligned with Goop made perfect sense to gain exposure and build credibility. I’ve always seen Amazon as complementary to our e-commerce business, and there’s a lot of search in the natural deodorant category on Amazon that we’d miss out on if we weren’t there,” says Type:A founder Allison Moss. “Urban Outfitters is an opportunity to reach the gen Z consumer extremely focused on the ingredients used in personal care. It’s an ideal audience for Type:A.”

When she was developing the brand, Moss, a beauty industry veteran who’s held marketing positions at Jurlique, Estée Lauder and L’Oréal, wasn’t big on an early retail push for Type:A. She figured it would stick to its e-commerce website and influencer marketing to start. However, Credo decided it was open to picking up the brand, and Moss didn’t pass up the chance to put Type:A on its shelves. The brand initially entered the retailer with a three-month exclusive, an arrangement Moss feels was beneficial.

“I wanted to minimize distractions and focus on building a healthy foundation for the business, which was going to be primarily on our e-commerce site. I was hesitant to take on any retail distribution, but, when the opportunity at Credo presented itself, I immediately knew it was going to be exceptional for accelerating our growth from a brand awareness perspective and to get more Type:A into people’s hands.”

“I wanted to minimize distractions and focus on building a healthy foundation for the business, which was going to be primarily on our e-commerce site,” she says. “I was hesitant to take on any retail distribution, but, when the opportunity at Credo presented itself, I immediately knew it was going to be exceptional for accelerating our growth from a brand awareness perspective and to get more Type:A into people’s hands.”

To help lift its retail and direct-to-consumer efforts, Type:A has been busy seeding influencers. At the outset, it was trying to engage a wide swath of influencers with interests in lifestyle, food, fitness, pregnancy and motherhood. Today, it’s narrowed the target to mom, pregnancy and fitness influencers. The brand aims to gift products to 20 to 30 bloggers monthly.

In addition to influencers, giving products to investors has been impactful. “Every single investor tried the product, had personal experience seeing how different it is from everything else on the market, and fully believed in the product,” says Moss. “Also, I’ve received feedback that they’re investing and believing in me. As the business has grown, strategic decisions we’ve made have led us to be successful with blogger and influencer mentions, and distribution expansion.”

“Every single investor tried the product, had personal experience seeing how different it is from everything else on the market, and fully believed in the product. Also, I’ve received feedback that they’re investing and believing in me. As the business has grown, strategic decisions we’ve made have led us to be successful with blogger and influencer mentions, and distribution expansion.”

The road so far hasn’t been without hiccups for Type:A. The brand was out of stock for three weeks during the month of July. To prevent out-of-stocks from occurring again, it’s upped its manufacturing cadence and overall output. Instead of producing batches every other month, it’s producing them twice a month. “We realize surges in demand can and will happen,” says Moss. “We need to prepare with more safety stock.”

She declined to discuss Type:A’s revenues or its monthly sales percentage increases, but reveals Amazon and the brand’s e-commerce platform will account for the majority of its sales this year. Moss doesn’t anticipate Type:A moving beyond its current distribution network for six months. She would like to extend its business within Urban Outfitters, and internationally to markets such as Australia, Canada and the U.K. However, she’s holding off stretching abroad at the moment to make certain Type:A is a solid performer at its existing outlets.

The clean deodorant segment is skyrocketing – organic deodorant is projected to advance globally at a compound annual growth rate of 15.07% until 2022 – and Type:A encounters new competitors constantly. Despite the crowds, Moss maintains there’s nothing available similar to Type:A. It relies on tubes unusual in the deodorant space and a dry-touch cream formula activated by sweat. Priced at $10 for a 2.8-oz. size and $6 for a 1.2-oz. size, Type:A deodorant comes in two varieties: unscented The Minimalist and herbal citrus-scented The Visionary, the bestselling option. The number of scents is expected to multiply to around five next year.

“The aluminum-free deodorant category continues to grow at a fast pace. It’s noisy, chaotic and fragmented. It’s exciting to watch some of the bigger brands lead the way, and we hope to catch up with them,” says Moss. “What you need is a winning product that’s truly differentiated and clicks with your audience and, then, the ability to understand and grow the business.”