“Your brands have to offer functional benefits and emotional benefits,” and with that idea in mind, Laurie Ann Goldman took Spanx shapewear from a startup with five employees to a billion dollar worldwide business.
Now, she’s sharing her marketing and branding expertise with the entrepreneurs of Colorado. She knows a thing or two about the subject.
Spanx inventor Sara Blakely solved the “muffintop” problem when she cut the feet off of a pair of panty hose to smooth out the shape of her body. But, it wasn’t until a chance meeting with Goldman that Spanx exploded in the international marketplace. Goldman was shopping for a pair of panty hose at a Neiman Marcus in Atlanta, when she ran into Blakely’s ex-boyfriend, who was working for what was then a small startup company operating out of Blakely’s apartment. One thing led to another.
Goldman left her job as an executive at Coca-Cola the next year and took her marketing and branding knowledge with her to Spanx. Using the mantra “think big, start small, scale fast,” Spanx grew to have 300 products in more than 11,000 retail outlets around the world.
She recently spoke with Denver Post TV and offered some branding and marketing tips for the large number of inventors and startup business in Colorado.