At the start of 2024, Shea Morrison got the call that every small-business owner dreams of: a huge brand wanted to collaborate with her business.
On the other end of the line was sleepwear giant Peter Alexander, and they wanted to stock Shea’s brand, The Goodnight Co., on their shelves come Christmastime.
“You spend your life as a business owner chasing these types of collaborations and coming up with the concepts and presenting ideas,” Shea explains. “And often never getting a return phone call or email. So it’s always lovely when you are approached.”
The call to collaborate may have come out of the blue for Shea, but the two businesses are certainly not an unexpected combination. Shea describes her brand as “a little bit of luxury for sleep-deprived mums”; its silk pillowcases, sleep masks, and essential oils all designed to promote a good night’s sleep. The products were a natural fit in Peter Alexander’s perfumed pajama stores.
“If you think about the synergy of the two brands, first of all, that absolutely makes sense,” says Shea of the collaboration. “I would like to think that we have a good reputation and hope that that is part of the mix.”
Collaborating with a large brand as a SME
Collaborating with a large brand as a small business was an “interesting journey”, says Shea.
“It has been an interesting journey in terms of just having to really change the way we do processes and procedures, and being extremely careful and strict in the way that things are done,” says the entrepreneur.
First of all, The Goodnight Co. had to produce new packaging to align with Peter Alexander’s pink and white branding.
“They wanted specific packaging, which is this beautiful little duo kit of our calm essential oil roll on and our deep sleep mist,” Shea explains. “All of that had to be re-packaged into their packaging, so packaging that they would approve of. Our packaging is black and white, theirs is pink and white. So we had to go and find new bottle suppliers.”
Getting new packaging manufactured turned out to be more of an ordeal than anyone expected. As a small brand ordering a small number of products, The Goodnight Co. couldn’t secure product samples to send to Peter Alexander’s head office. This turned out to be an unfortunate circumstance: after manufacturing hundreds of bottles, Shea learnt they were leaking.
“We had a hairy moment where the samples had been sent to head office and the bottles had leaked,” Shea recounts. “And then we sent another package, and the same thing happened. I was basically beside myself.”
Shea called around – and found that there were, luckily, no defects. Instead, the lids simply weren’t screwed tightly enough.
“I had to manually, with my mum, go to the factory and pull every duo kit of bottles out of the package, and check every single package and then put them back in,” the business owner explains. “Oh my god. Days, it took days and days of work.”
Making it a success
Shea was prepared to do anything she could to make the collaboration a success.
“We’ve been involved in lots of different opportunities over the years,” says Shea. “I’ve learned from my failings of what did and didn’t work to make sure that I can really harness this and give it every bit of my energy and effort that I possibly can.”
To give the products the best possible chance of selling, the business owner and an employee went to as many Peter Alexander stores as they could.
“We went in and introduced ourselves and took one of the products as a sample and had a conversation with how it was all going, talked about where it’s made, and why we do what we do,” Shea explains.
The goal was to make sure that staff would be able to sell her products properly. Shea says she also recorded and sent out a training video to each store she couldn’t get to in person.
In addition to getting out into the stores, the business owner organised as many PR opportunities as possible.
“We’re doing a lot of a lot on our social media, but then also reaching out to organisations like you to find out if there’s further ways to reach audiences,” she says.
Reflections
Shea says the collaboration has been a definite highlight of her business journey.
“It’s been an interesting 10 years,” she says. “I am very grateful to still be here and to still be in business, because there’s lots of roller coaster moments, lots of highs, lots of lows, and a lot in between. And certainly the Peter Alexander collaboration is, you know, one of those absolute highlight moments.”
The business owner hints that The Goodnight Co. isn’t done with Peter Alexander just yet, so there may be plenty more highs to come. Further encouraging Shea is the success of a previous collaboration between the sleepwear juggernaut and a smaller business, Glasshouse Candles.
“[Peter Alexander] has a very big brand partnership with Glasshouse Candles, and I know that that partnership started off a bit like this, from what I’ve been told, where it was a collaboration for Christmas gifting,” says Shea. “So that’s the opportunity that presents itself.”
