Bella Katz on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

ecostore is a New Zealand brand of sustainable household and personal care products that was founded in 1993 although I’ve only come across the products on Australian supermarket shelves quite recently. As they’re priced at the premium end of their category, I wonder how they will do and wonder whether the world needs and will buy into another eco household brand. How will this one stand out in a busy category?

New Zealand does have a knack at this enviro branding thing and this is another of those companies that has seemingly come from nowhere (or as they say on their website “from an eco village in New Zealand”) and it is generating significant buzz.

I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for products with environmental declarations and as a new(ish) mum am no doubt bang on their target market. I approach every product with the words organic and natural with suspicion, given how little we customers know of what goes on behind the scenes. For example, I got very excited about the big no parabens marketing schtick adopted by many skincare brands and was later told by colleagues in that industry that products without it can be more harmful unless very short use-by dates are strictly adhered to - and they usually aren’t. It’s a confusing category for customers and one rife with imposters.

ecostore has entered this space with an expanding, expensive range of natural products, a great look and their marketing strategy seems clever indeed.

For instance, founder Malcolm Rands, who started the company together with his wife Melanie, is apparently referred to as “ecoman” in New Zealand. He has an interesting bio and strong ties to environmental causes and councils. He is a believable ambassador for the brand.

Speaking of ambassadors, when launching the ecostore brand into the US, the company took the low budget approach of engaging with “mommy bloggers”. This strategy of sending numerous targetted emails and samples of product appears to have been incredibly successful. I am making assumptions of success because every time I came across a blog that mentioned ecostore, the write up was full of breathless praise. See here, here and here for starters - all randomly found by typing ‘ecostore’ into Google.

ecostore are priced at a premium and are open and unashamed about this. Their positioning is value for money via concentrated formulations and on their website they argue that cost per use often works out to be lower than ‘cheaper looking’ supermarket brands.

If you’re going for the top end of the market there need to be clear justifications for what customers are getting. I suspect we’ve all been broken in and naturally assume organic and environmental products carry a premium, in that way the category has been opened up for ecostore by previous players.

Looking ahead I wonder whether there is a place in the (still) relatively niche market of natural household products for a big player? ecostore is not big yet, but looks set for serious growth.

Will the market continue to embrace a brand that had such humble beginnings as it grows on an international scale? What happens when production moves, as it is shortly due, from New Zealand to include the US? Do we believe that big successful companies can continue to have the same ethical responsibility as a little backyard brand started by an enviro-happy couple?

Look at the demise of Macro Wholefoods in Australia and the very different mood around Anita Roddick’s Body Shop versus L’Oreal’s Body Shop.

ecostore has all the makings of a small business about to hit the big time, but I wonder whether its rapid growth will be its undoing? Hopefully NOT.

NOTE: I work with New Zealand companies but thought I should add that ecostore is NOT one of my clients. I’m a recent buyer of their products via Safeway/Woolworths as it seems to be on sale most of the time. Sale price is still more expensive than most competitive products, but I’m always happy to trial a new brand and pay a premium if it does the job better.