Bonita Fierce Candles

Melissa Gallardo, CEO and Founder of Bonita Fierce Candles came to me when she was in the first year of her business, just trying to get her footing and get noticed in what she described as a saturated market. She was struggling with increasing monthly B2C sales and had big dreams of starting to do wholesale and eventually work with a national retailer. Within just a few months she began getting featured in national media outlets like Univision, Good Morning America and Cosmopolitan - and within a year, she had hit her first 100K in sales, had partnered with companies like Google and Disney for corporate gifting and events, and had become the first Latina owned candle brand to be sold on the digital and in store shelves at Nordstrom’s across the country.

Here’s how we got her there:

A full rebrand. We spent the first three months doing an in depth assessment of what was working, what wasn’t working and creating new systems and strategies in place in order to be able to grow. From creating a new customer journey to reevaluating her prices - we had set up the base of a solid foundation for her to build upon.

Playing to her strengths when it came to brand awareness. Once we had an updated site, messaging and systems in place, it was time to start attracting some new customers. So we played to her strengths in communication. I quickly learned that Melissa was a natural at research contacts and wasn’t afraid of sending cold emails. We used this to build a PR strategy that would show off everything Bonita Fierce Candles had to offer: an ambitious and creative founder, a unique product that was sustainable, lasted and smelled like home, and representation for the Latin@ community.

Diversifying our approach to sales. Once the PR strategy took off, monthly sales started slowly increasing through more customers but that still wasn’t enough for her to quit her day job. We started thinking about how we could package things differently to increase sales per customer, established a loyalty program, and put together a wholesale packet. We focused on not only growing our customer base but also keeping who we had for reorders and referrals.

We got creative with our collaborations. We knew that building a partnership strategy that included a mix of different ways to reach several different buyer personas would be the way to make an impact. Custom candle collaborations, reaching out to boutiques and working with other Latin@ owned businesses to reach their audiences were just the beginning.

And we’re just getting started.
This is what Melissa has to say about working together:

“Ashley is an incredible business strategist with years of expertise. She truly cares about her clients and I always know I can count on her. Ashley always considers my business needs and goals to create a plan every time we meet. She has been able to identify areas of my business that I should develop and took her advice and saw immediate results. I’d recommend Ashley to any small business owner who’s ready to take their business to the next level.”