Well, I'll Be Damned

In just two years, damnBRAND—a Los Angeles–based Web design and online management company—has landed clients such as Bisou Bisou, Body & Soul, Hot Kiss Inc., Paris Blues, pH Beauty Labs, Philip B., Smashbox Cosmetics and (coming soon) Oliver Peoples.

The company is relatively new, but husband- and-wife principals Ivan and Pooneh Mohajer Arnold—speaking from their office and complete digital-photography studio in The New Mart—said they bring considerable industry experience to the table. Pooneh and her sister founded the Hard Candy nail polish line in 1995, and Ivan has been an innovator in Web development for the fashion industry since 1997.

Ivan said damnBRAND has been successful because the company’s business model costs clients little or no upfront investment. The only stipulation is that clients be either manufacturers of branded products or vertically integrated retailers— no middlemen or licensees.

“We are not a vendor—we are a partner,” said Ivan, who explained that the company name is a kind of insider’s “wink-wink, nod-nod” toward creating effective ways of generating revenue. The name stems from an off-hand comment made by a client who, some time prior to the launch of the company, lamented that there must be some way to further capitalize on “their damned brand name.”

Unlike many Web and e-commerce purveyors, the Arnolds do not design a site at considerable client risk and walk away. They develop and manage the site with a motivated eye toward sales and assume the risk for a piece of the action.

Arrangements, which var y based on clients’ needs and goals, generally fall into three categories:

bull; Some of damnBRAND’s clients eventually go on to manage their own Web sites. The company’s proprietary e-commerce software, which is browser-based and uses Microsoft’s SQL database technology, powers the purchasing and fulfillment processes. The software was specifically created for the apparel and accessories markets and can be easily taught to a client’s employees. It employs an impressive order-processing system via bar-code management, which interfaces seamlessly with UPS-generated shipping and return labels.

bull; For other clients, damnBRAND only manages the fulfillment process.

bull; For still other clients, damn- BRAND manages entire Web sites. In these instances, damnBRAND maintains all fulfillment and marketing responsibilities, including the management of shopping-cart options and order-processing features that one might find in a Yahoo! store. The difference is that damnBRAND avoids typical cookie- cutter looks and template-based Web site design by having its staff of designers—graduates of Pasadena, Calif.–based Art Center College of Design— produce custom sites.

To enhance its services, damnBRAND has added participation in shopping portals to its marketing plans. Expect to see some of damn- BRAND’s clients’ products in Amazon.com’s vast new apparel and accessories store.

Because product sales are the focus of the company’s business model, the Arnolds have developed a variety of proprietary techniques to gain and retain customers. They have eschewed expensive but publicly available methods such as search-engine seeding and affiliate marketing. However they market, they clearly get results.

But what happens when the marketing goal of a client’s Web site is to drive customers to its brickand- mortar stores or catalogs, even when damnBRAND does not benefit from these sales?

Pooneh answers without hesitation: “We’re in the business of building brands. By supporting development both online and off, everyone succeeds.”

So damnBRAND renders its professionally art-directed product photographs in resolutions appropriate not only for the Web but also for print. It’s the synergy of multichannel marketing that governs the company’s work.

For information on damnBRAND and its clients, visit www.damnbrand.com.