How Schmidt's Naturals Made Deodorant In A Jar Fashionable

When entrepreneur Michael Cammarata was considering investing in Jamie Schmidt's natural deodorant, he was skeptical, after all the product was in jars with a popsicle stick as an applicator, but he only had to look at her customer base to understand he had found something unique.

Schmidt's Naturals first began in 2010 as a hobby for Schmidt while she was pregnant and looking for natural products to use as she became more conscious of the ingredients she was putting on and in her body. When Cammarata found Schmidt in 2014, she was still working out of her home in Portland, Ore. and selling at street festivals and farmers markets and co-ops, but was garnering an overwhelmingly positive response from customers for her deodorant which was sold in a jar and applied with an applicator. 

"I couldn't get it out of my head that the consumers were talking about it, spreading it, and so active on social media [about] deodorant," Cammarata said in an interview.  

At the time, Cammarata was interested in investing in a natural product company, having initially made money from online advertising, web hosting, and consumer electronics and also just finished managing the American boy band pop group "Big Time Rush." He learned during his time as manager that the young female demographic was very influential in making purchasing decisions, having seen parents pay a lot of money for "Big Time Rush" merchandise and tickets thousands of times.

He also noticed that demographic's interest in natural products was increasing, and decided he wanted in. But instead of looking at the revenue models for natural product businesses, he decided to look at the customer reviews.

"I thought 'forget the revenue, I can build the businesses. I can build the distribution,'" he said.

Cammarata had his team start looking into natural product brands in the northwest, with a special emphasis on Portland, Ore. It's a place he considers, "The Silicon Valley of natural products."

One day one of his assistants came into his office and said, "'Don't throw me out of the office. This is deodorant,'" Cammarata said, remembering that the packaging was in a jar. His response was one of perplexity. "There was a stick [and jar] and I thought, 'You have to be kidding me,'" he said.

But he looked at the customer reviews for her products, began using the deodorant himself, and saw the potential. He reached out to Jamie by email and from there they began talking and he eventually flew out to Portland, Ore. to meet her.

Very quickly after getting involved Cammarata and Schmidt outgrew her home kitchen and went to a 5,000 square foot facility within three months, and then outgrew that and went to a 14,000 square foot facility six months later. The product started being stocked at Target and Kroger and went through a rebranding as the previous look was what Schmidt described as having, "a homemade look to it," with mason jars and tins.

The dynamic of Cammarata and Schmidt is one they both speak of fondly, saying that each person brings their own strengths and individual ways of looking at things that strengthen the business.

"Michael [Cammarata] has a different way of looking at things...our company has always been a little outside the box and his expertise in strategic big business I find invaluable," Schmidt said in an interview, adding "He's a bigger picture person." 

 When it comes to the creative side he is more hands off, she said, allowing her to focus on the product while he focuses on business.

Now Schmidt's Naturals employees about 45 people and offers 10 different deodorants in stick format, and six in jars. All their products are made from plant-based powders that help absorb wetness without the use of aluminum, propylene glycol, parabens or phthalates and there are no artificial fragrances. The difference between the sticks and the jars is that the sticks contain coconut oil and candelilla wax to provide an increased "glide" often associated with stick applicators, according to the company's FAQ. There is also subscription program and a recycling program for the jars, allowing people to recycle five jars and earn a free one.

Cammarata said that what is unique about Schmidt's is that the brand has not been cannibalizing the natural products space or its competitors like Tom's, but instead growing the category.

"We're seeing people who use Secret and Dove come over, who have never been a natural [product] user. And it's really a testament to the ingredients and the formulation," he said.

But Cammarata also sees Schmidt's Naturals going far beyond bathroom products by expanding further into the household, and eventually even becoming a publicly traded company.

"Ideally, there are not many companies in our space that are publicly traded, and I think there is demand for that. I think the consumers are looking who could come into that and [establish] the standards of the natural products [market]," he said.

But all throughout the process, the customers will be the key to helping Schmidt's Naturals grow and make changes. This customer engagement goes back all the way to when it was just Jamie Schmidt experimenting with formulas and talking with customers face to face.

"It was fun when customers were buying it and I was tweaking [recipes] a bit based on what people were telling me," she said, adding, "Some customers were saying, 'Oh this is softer than last time' or 'This one has more of a creamy consistency' so all of the feedback I was getting was getting put into the tweaking of my formulas."

So how does a growing company like Schmidt's Naturals keep up the level of interaction with customers? Schmidt said it about encouraging customers to talk, share their experiences, and ask questions on social media. Cammarata added that after a product is shipped, a customer will receive an email from the customer service representative making sure the product arrived and asking about the user experience. Each product also has stickers indicating who put it together, adding a personalized touch.

Schmidt's Naturals can be purchased online and found in thousands of retailers such Target, Urban Outfitters, Kroger, Walmart and Amazon.