The Heart Company, a German fragrance brand linking feelings and fragrances, has landed online at Walmart in the United States as part of a wider global expansion for the bootstrapped European business.
Launched in 2020, it has a line of vegan perfumes, including Happiness, Kindness, Positivity and Me Time. Housed in heart-shaped bottles, the perfumes were developed fragrance ingredient supplier Givaudan to spread good cheer. Available on Amazon, TikTok Shop, 1-800-Flowers, Walmart’s website and the brand’s own site, the perfumes retail at $57 for 2.5-oz. bottles.
“Our brand is completely ready to scale,” says Kristina Rasmussen, founder and CEO of The Heart Company. “We did a lot of A/B testing, and I really wanted to have proof of concept, and now…I can say we are ready.”
Befitting its name and heart logo, she explains the brand has “a new approach to perfume, which is all about emotions…We went live with the perfume line in the middle of a global pandemic…and the more the world connected through the pandemic, the stronger the concept became.” She continues, “I am always saying love is the universal language of the world or should be at least, and [our brand] mission is all about elevating beauty for the power of love and kindness.”
Rasmussen asserts The Heart Company’s approach focused on mental health and well-being is often overlooked by larger brands zeroing in on products, branding and functionality. She says, “We built something from scratch. If you build something from scratch, of course, you have more opportunities to do it and fit into the world that we live in versus a 50-year-old brand that you have to shape and try to transform.”
She adds, “Customers these days are very sensitive, they’re very informed, and you cannot just put an ad out and say, ‘Buy it.’ They want to identify with the product, the brand, who’s behind the brand, the message.”
Currently, 95% of The Heart Company’s sales come from the U.S., where it entered first because it offered the biggest market for the brand, but Rasmussen hopes to change that in the coming years. Her ambition is to extend The Heart Company in Europe, with dedicated production and supply chains in place.
“I very much believe in lean, profitable, scalable businesses without too much complexity.”
“I would love to have filling and supply in the U.S. for the U.S. and one supply chain for Europe to avoid shipping and complexities,” says Rasmussen. “That’s a very big goal.”
She foresees The Heart Company following a similar distribution strategy in Europe as it has in the U.S., landing on Amazon, TikTok Shop and its own site, supported by user-generated content. Looking further ahead, the brand envisions pop-up and boutique stores worldwide, creating a network of spaces to uplift and inspire consumers.
While new products are certainly in the pipeline—candles and hand creams, for example, are possibilities—The Heart Company doesn’t plan to release too many stockkeeping units. “I very much believe in lean, profitable, scalable businesses without too much complexity,” says Rasmussen, a Hamburg-based business coach who previously held communications, branding and development positions at Bertelsmann, AOL Europe and Montblanc. “To me, that’s the secret sauce of success.”
At the moment, The Heart Company is financed by friends and family, but onboarding external investors is a long-term objective. The dream is to find an investor with expertise in beauty or fragrance to assist brand with more than simply money.
“I believe very much in strategic partnerships because money is not all you need,” says Rasmussen. “I’m a big fan of also getting advice, help in production, logistics etc. The brand is set—it’s a global trademark—so, the base is kind of done. We laid a very strong foundation, we have a lot of proof of concept, and I think now it’s the question of who is in to spread love and kindness in the beauty world.”
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