“This one’s not as bad
as some of the others,” grimaced Instagram influencer Jennifer Amy in a video earlier this month after swallowing a tablespoon of Organically Kismet’s Immuniberry Sea Moss Gel.
“Love this!,” replied the brand, while adding a suggestion that putting the gel in tea “with a bit of honey or preferred sweetener would help so much.”
That,
readers, illustrates the use of a “genuine review compared to a paid review,” which is how Organically Kismet CEO-Founder Cita Salazar describes her brand’s strategy of using
influencers as affiliate marketers rather than paying them directly.
Through the Impact affiliate marketing platform, influencers make a commission from sales they bring to the brand, thanks
to the use of their own discount codes.
Influencer Amy’s code gives users 10% off purchases from the Organically Kismet website, while the site itself offers 20% off to anyone signing up
for the brand’s email list.
The use of Organically Kismet’s website to fuel nationwide sales is a relatively new emphasis by the five-year-old brand, which has prided itself on
being available in brick-and-mortar retailers in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California.
Salazar tells Pharma & Marketing Insider that Organically Kismet launched after she had
noticed “a huge gap” in the marketplace. Sea moss gel, she says, was trending online, but hardly available in brick-and-mortar, “especially out here in L.A. which is such a big
market for health food stores.”
“We didn't have to do a lot of cold outreaching,” she recalls, as a lot of local retailers “came to us directly and wanted to carry our
product.”
Now, Organically Kismet is carried in some 30 California stores, where the bulk of its revenue comes from, “but direct-to-consumer is catching up,” she says. That
allows the brand to sell its refrigerated product everywhere, while retail expansion is limited by the brand’s rejection of preservatives.
“We have about a four-week shelf life,
which is extremely short in the brick-and-mortar CPG space,” she notes. “We haven’t found a distributor that I personally feel is in alignment with taking us nationwide,
brick-and-mortar-wise.”
Why has sea moss gel become so popular, beyond such high-profile La La Land endorsements by the likes of Hailey Bieber (whose Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie is
sold by L.A. health food retailer Erewhon, which doesn’t carry Organically Kismet)?
We'll let lower-profile affiliate marketer Jennifer Amy count the purported benefits of Organically
Kismet’s six varieties, which blend in various flavors and ingredients to create what the brand terms functional products. Among those benefits: heart health, gut health, thyroid health, weight
management, anti-aging, skin health, improved blood circulation, and improved muscle recovery.
“Sea moss has over 90% of the minerals our body needs daily for proper function,”
says Salazar. “We’re just not getting the minerals we need from our food, no matter how clean and healthy you eat. And a lot of mineral deficiency shows up in low immune systems, chronic
disease.”
Sea moss gel can not only be ingested but also used on the skin and hair.
Not using preservatives is only one aspect of Organically Kismet’s commitment to being a
whole-food product -- and to being safe, Salazar relates. “We third-party test for heavy metals, mold, salmonella, e. coli, etc.”
Consumers want testing, she says, because
they’re “really doing their due diligence. “The supplement industry is not regulated as it should be, so it’s kind of an actual scary thing.
Consumers, Salazar
explains, want to know that companies “are testing and doing what they should on their end as a supplement brand, and making sure whatever product they’re bringing to the market is safe
for consumers.
And safe for affiliate marketer influencers as well.
At least Amy just grimaced from sea moss gel, and didn’t gag, which Salazar says has been trending as
click-bait on social media.
“We’re trying to change that narrative,” she explains.