Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amber and Marx Succès. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Amber and Marx, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

One of my favorite stories to tell is our 2018 story. Our second son was born in January, we moved to Austin, TX in February and released our first product, Did Baby Poopie, in April. We were doing our best to pivot our business in the midst of personal transition and push things forward. What came next was not expected. The original concept was to create a baby shower activity kit/box that would have tons of playable games within, but I overprinted the amount of Did Baby Poopie cards that would be needed to create the kits. We made the decision to put the extras up on a separate listing and assess the game’s independent performance…the result was amazing! 

I remember we put 13 units out to start and they sold out in three days! Then, I printed 25 more and those sold out in a week. Realizing that we had a legitimate opportunity, we decided to go all in. I contacted an internet printing company and had these cards produced in mass. These cards were then delivered to the house where we would then heat seal and shrink wrap them using my wife’s hairdryer and put a sticker on the top and a barcode on the back. Looking at where we are now, I often feel a bit of embarrassment about our original packaging, but it was a very special time. For the next six months we would rise every day at around 5 AM to begin assembling product and ship every afternoon to Amazon in an attempt to keep up with the growing demand. Our whole living room became a manufacturing line. I can still remember watching Amber work to assemble these packs while simultaneously breastfeeding our newborn. It would be six months before we found the proper manufacturer to handle our needs. Those humble beginnings paved the way for the company we now have today. I will never forget 2018, nor would I trade it for anything else. 

Amber and Marx, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am Marx Succes Jr., Co-Founder of Côtier Brand, modern party goods and games company, and an electrical engineer by trade with an established career sales. My wife and Co-Founder of Côtier Brand, Amber Succes, has a business management degree and a commercial pilots license. 

We met at Purdue University and shortly after graduation, we got married. Marx’s employment took him to San Diego California, where we concepted and founded Côtier Brand. We created our party supply and home entertaining lifestyle brand due to the distance from our friends and loved ones that we began to experience after we got married and relocated. We did our best to cherish every moment with friends and loved ones. Eventually, we developed our own philosophy on what it meant to gather and have a good time, no matter the circumstance.  

What sets us apart from other party supply companies is that while they focus on having all the themes, colors and variations of aesthetics, we focus on the guest experience. We create products are uniquely designed to spark meaningful connection, provide ridiculous fun, and lessen the stress that comes with hosting. We speak to that aspirational, everyday super-hostess – that may not necessarily have the time or expertise to throw an epic event in a flash – by providing her with the things that really matter to make her event unforgettable, human interactions. 

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2020, the pandemic broke out. Needless to say, this was devastating to a business that depends on gatherings and celebrations for sales. 2020 really forced us to dig deep and truly believe in our ethos. We believe that human beings crave real human connection and this ultimately would be true once again. We doubled down and decided to find a way to be of more value to our customer. We did not just want to be a company looking to flip product to them, but we wanted to become a resource to them during this difficult time. We decided to launch a blog, showing our consumers how to celebrate remotely during the pandemic. We instructed them on how to creatively accomplish this using a mixture of technology and our products. This turned out to be the effort that sustained our company during that time and allowed us to continue selling. We learned to always focus on bringing value to your customers and you will never lose. No matter what the climate might be. 

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Ecommerce is the phenomenon that allows businesses like ours to exist. In our company, we take advantage of as many online sales channels as we can. Especially Amazon. The advantage of being online is amazing for small businesses because it gives you the opportunity to sell outside of your location and be omnipresent to your customers. Never before in human history has an average seller had this number of resources at their disposal. Access to the marketplace has truly been democratized. 

The side of Ecommerce that is challenging is that marketing is often sold separately. When it isn’t, access to the customer is very restricted. Very quickly when you start your business, you will realize that you need marketing to get the word out about your products. Being listed on marketplaces like Amazon gives you the opportunity to take advantage of hundreds of millions of organic shoppers who are ready to buy. The problem is that you are dependent on them to gain access to the customer. They will not give you access to your end customer information and any quick rule change can see your listing removed or inaccessible. You will have to be very creative and savvy to get around this as an owner and do what you must to build a direct relationship with your consumers. Using platforms like Shopify allow you the most freedom, but you will need to be very adroit with your marketing spend because traffic to your product is 100% dependent on your efforts. It’s best to have a raving fan base around your brand and products first in my opinion. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cotierbrand.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cotierbrand
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cotierbrand