NYC’s most successful entrepreneurs reveal their stealth marketing tactics

The best marketing is free — according to some of New York’s most innovative entrepreneurs.

It’s all about “word of mouth… and people telling their friends,” said Lauren Berlingeri, the co-founder and CEO of the buzzy wellness brand Higher Dose.

Here, she and others share how they’ve avoided spending big — or anything at all — on traditional online, print and TV advertising in favor of organic promotion from loyal customers and celebrities.

Doing so has made for businesses that are both sustainable and successful. Have a look.

Higher Dose

These days, Higher Dose is known for at-home wellness technology, such as its popular red-light face masks and sauna blankets.

But, when the company launched in 2016, it was a chainlet of in-persona spas and saunas across the city that took off thanks to social media. (It pivoted to at-home devices with the pandemic.)

“We joke that we never needed to do any marketing because everyone would come in and take a sexy sauna selfie,” Berlingeri told NY Next “And [we] just went viral … [fans just knew that they felt amazing afterwards and it wiped away all their sin from the night before.”

Handily, some of the sauna’s early adopters were big names with large followings.

“We had Bella Hadid [post a picture] showing she’s getting ready with us before the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, We had Katy Perry on her plane with a red light face mask,” Berlingeri added. “And honestly, the list goes on when it comes to celebrities. That’s always my favorite slide when it comes to our investor deck — we’ve never paid any of these celebrities and they’ve all endorsed us and love us.”

In hindsight, Berlingeri believes the fact that she and her co-founder Katie Kaps didn’t have a ton of money to spend on marketing early on may have been a good thing since it forced them to build a following rather than trying to buy one.

“We didn’t have the money to pay a celebrity a ton of money to promote our products, which in a way has been a blessing because it’s built this cult-like following that really just loves the brand,” she said.

Catch Hospitality

In 2007, Eugene Remm opened Catch, a clubby seafood restaurant in the then-burgeoning Meatpacking District that went on to become a hotspot.

There are now eight Catch restaurants around the country, and Remm’s Catch Hospitality group just opened a new concept, the Corner Store, in Soho.

It’s been an instant hit, attracting celebs such as Taylor Swift, Jason Kelce and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Remm credits the success with at least in part to avoiding traditional marketing.

“If you have to market something that means it’s not good,” he told NY Next. “I think it just starts with authenticity. Steve Jobs always says that, you know, marketing is ridiculous.

Remm said that when he’s tried to manufacture a dish or an experience at his restaurants to go viral, it’s always failed.

Instead, he is focused on making the food, the space, and the customer experience as perfect as it can be — and encouraging his friends to come.

“Our marketing is truly just getting the people that we know and love to enjoy the product, and they will do the rest of the work,” he said

Fleur du Mal

The luxury lingerie and apparel brand has high-wattage fans such as Beyoncé, Kendall Jenner, and Anne Hathaway, thanks, in part, to top stylists recommending it to clients.

The company launched in 2012, and early on, sent a handful of their signature slinky pieces to fashion stylists.

But it didn’t truly pay off until 2017 when actress Sienna Miller wore one of their platinum slip dresses to a Golden Globes after party.

“There was this photo of her going to a premiere … and it was just the most iconic photo and it really resonated with people … put us on the map,” CEO Jennifer Zuccarini told NY Next.

“We don’t ever pay anyone to wear anything,” she added “So it’s all, in a sense, organic and through relationships.”

Zuccarini acknowledges it’s a challenge to make sure your product isn’t lost in the noise. But ultimately it isn’t about spending a certain amount on marketing but rather creating something people love and are excited to wear.

“We’ve been lucky just to have that organic following, but it’s something you have to nurture,” she added. “It does require work” — something that can require creating or sending new pieces at the last minute.

Foundrae

While high-end jewelry company Foundrae has paid for a handful of billboards since launching in 2015, the company’s founder Beth Hutchens believes it is her unique flagship product — personalized charms that are each imbued with a symbol like strength or love — that has done the talking.

People who buy the pieces are often the best marketing — telling friends or even strangers about how much they love the brand.

Hutchens credits the beauty of the pieces worn by the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Kaia Gerber — for its following.

“The collection developed from my heart and there’s real soul imbued in each piece,” Hutchens said. “It’s about authenticity.”