on Mother's Day. The male fragrance, Geir Ness, is
named after its creator, of course.
sell it based on name recognition. But for Ness, he had
no investors, no name recognition and no advertising
budget. So he hit the morning show
circuit and explored other free options to
push his on product line. After pitching
to several department stores--and getting
turned down--Nordstrom stuck a deal
that changed everything.
didn't have the advertising budget needed
to get the word out," he remarks, adding
that he borrowed money and maxed out
his credit cards waiting for his big break.
He persuaded the buyers of Nordstrom
to give him space on their sales floor to
promote his fragrance in their Beverly Hills location.
Nordstrom agreed to let him display 100 bottles of his
perfume and gave him 30 days to prove it could sell.
So, Ness bought a used piece of red carpet, hired a
friend to pretend to take pictures of him (because they
couldn't afford film) in front of the display on a busy
hours. Today Ness' signature fragrance is sold in every
Nordstrom store in the United States.
outside the box does work," says Ness. In America it's
called "fake it until you make it!" Now Disney Properties
Geir Ness perfume for men and Laila for
women. Also, the entire line of products,
including fragrance, body lotions, lip
tingle, deodorants, body powders and
shower gels, are sold on www.laila.com.
According to Ness, his fragrance became
the number one selling fragrance at Epcot
Center in Orlando last May.
His products will be featured in the fall on
the new reality TV show Women Pastors--
Ladies in the Pulpit. In the meantime,
Ness still travels the world promoting
his product line. To give back to the
shelters. Ness is single and because of his business, he
travels too much to have a committed relationship. But
he can be reached via twitter@geirness, on Facebook or
via email on www.laila.com.