For those health conscious, however, it’s a pain: antiperspirant’s active ingredient contains aluminum, which has been linked or not linked (depending whether you read independent studies or those published by industry ‘arms’) to Alzheimer’s. I like my brain non-spongy, so I moved to deodorant, which was useless. Even tea tree oil deodorant (available at health shops) didn’t suit me – and burned.
Eventually I found a solution: baking soda and lemon juice. Put a bit of powder in your hand, mix in the juice, and apply. Aside from the slight bleaching effect on your underarms and clothes (wear white or expect the colors to fade with time), it’s a perfect solution, and incredibly effective.
(And I’ve got a million of these: for a simple aftershave, use 50/50 water and apple cider vinegar – it does the cleansing effect of the others, but it’s natural and effective. Plus, for those couple of minutes till it evaporates you smell like a chip shop).
So why is natural deodorant a business lesson? Simple. I can tell you about this idea, and you can make it available to others, freely. And they can very inexpensively tame their armpits with a quick trick to the food store.
BUT NO ONE MAKES REAL MONEY.
This in a nutshell is why natural products don’t often catch the interest of big business:
- If the product is freely available, a company has no control over it, so it’s competing with others.
- Any time companies compete, price comes into the equation – eventually with a price war, everyone loses (even the customer, since quality and availability drops when companies can’t afford to offer it).
Now compare this with a company with a patent or trade secret – they have an exclusive market, can charge what they want, and can make more money suing infringers, none of which is possible with a generic product like my deodorant recipe.
This isn’t to say nothing can be done about it. A company could market something like this, and as long as no one decides to compete, they could do well. But a competitor will mean they have to cut prices, and the spiral begins (and if you’re successful, there WILL be competitors).
Compare the worry of competition for a generic product to the money-making of an exclusive (patented/trade secret) market, and you see why it’s so hard to get healthy products out there.
The solution? Either get used to competition, or find another way to get the news out – say, by posting about a cheap product on your blog and letting people know they can save while still getting quality.
Hey – not a bad idea – perhaps I’ll try something like that…
