Both are soaks we made, but the customer looking for our "mugwort soak" and the customer looking for "HAPPY TEARS" are completely different people.
Customers looking for the mugwort soak want a comfortable bath. They're drawn to a natural, gentle mugwort scent rather than something strong or flashy — mostly people who want to quietly close out the day, resting in the tub.
Customers looking for HAPPY TEARS have a much clearer purpose. Anyone who wants a sweat-driven half-bath ends up finding HAPPY TEARS.
One is a comfortable, calming mugwort soak. The other is a strong-heat, half-bath-specific soak with chili in it.
I assumed one type of customer would like both
At first I thought anyone who likes bath soaks would probably like both of our products. But the reaction split cleanly. Someone wanted a quiet, full-body soak to rest in. Someone else wanted to actually sweat, properly, during a half-bath. Same activity — bathing — but the experience each person was after was completely different.
The mugwort soak is made for customers who want a comfortable, healthy bathing time — it fits the days you want to feel a natural mugwort scent and soak your whole body, unhurried.
HAPPY TEARS is the opposite. It's the product for the day you want definite heat, and sweat. It has chili in it, so a first-time user should start with a small amount and actually read the usage guide — it's a somewhat demanding soak. It's not a universally comfortable product, but for someone bathing with the clear purpose of sweating, that same intensity becomes exactly why they choose it.
Seven jars, on a first order
Not long ago, a first-time customer ordered seven jars of HAPPY TEARS at once, on a friend's recommendation. I was so grateful someone would order seven jars of a product they'd never tried before that I packed a mugwort soak in with the order, too.
On a day you want to sweat: HAPPY TEARS. On a day you want to rest, comfortably: the mugwort soak.
Two completely different products, able to be part of one person's two very different bathing moments. As the person who makes them, that's a genuinely grateful, joyful thing to see.
What running a bath soak brand taught me
Not every product needs to be loved by everyone.
The customer who wants a comfortable full-body soak gets the mugwort soak. The customer who wants sauna-level heat and a sweaty half-bath gets the chili soak, HAPPY TEARS. The customers each product actually meets are clearly, cleanly different.
So what should we be doing? Not pushing both products at everyone at once, but finding where the customer who needs each one actually is. For someone who likes a natural, comfortable mugwort bath, tell the mugwort story. For someone chasing a sweaty half-bath, show them exactly what using HAPPY TEARS is like.
Making the product might matter as much as helping the right product find the right customer — and that means telling the story, continuously.
I'm curious what customers these two very different soaks will meet next. So instead of just waiting around, we're going out to find the customer who matches each one.
