When shopping at the grocery store, it’s easy to find yourself price comparing name-brand items vs. generic knock-offs, especially when it comes to beauty products and household supplies. Sure, the generic product is less expensive, but is the quality the same? How close are the ingredients? Will it perform as well as the more expensive name brand?
To help shoppers with this analysis paralysis, entrepreneur Meg Pryde started Brandefy, a startup that’s creating a “product similarity score” to help consumers decide between generic and name-brand items.
“I wondered why we all had to make the same mistake of trying a bad store brand instead of sharing that information and learning from other's experiences," she said.
Coupled with her wealth of experience in consumer product goods (and her desire to better the space), Pryde debuted her startup Brandefy in September of 2018.
The product at hand was an app, one that works via a color system that allows users to compare products.
“You click into the comparison to see a red, yellow or green bar indicating similarity of the two products," Pryde explained. "Green means two products are similar, yellow indicates noticeable differences and red indicates major differences. The differences might not necessarily be bad, so consumers generally read the additional written review.”
The app's current iteration and its comparison process is a bit different than what Pryde initially debuted with; she had time to hammer out the detailed process during her stint in The Brandery accelerator's most recent cohort.
Through the 16-week program, Pryde received not only mentorship, but also seed funding from the entity. The app had been funded by a friends and family round previously.
Now, however, Brandefy is monetizing by getting product "click throughs."
“When you click through to purchase, Brandefy gets a portion of the revenue regardless of whether you buy the store brand or name brand,” Pryde said.
That's been bolstered by more than 30,000 app downloads, with users focusing on lipstick, detergent and mouthwash most specifically in the program's beta launch.
“Brandefy is taking off in the beauty community and enlists makeup mavens to do so through reviews of high-end makeup to value brand or private label makeup," she added.
As for what's the ahead, Brandefy is still working with The Brandery.
“We are currently traveling with [The Brandery] and are so grateful for all of the mentors and people we've been introduced to through the program,” Pryde said. "Carolyn [Cochard, COO] and I are ready to bring more transparency to the beauty and CPG industry with our platform.”
