EBOOST founder Josh Taekman was featured in Brandweek discussing the window at Henri Bendel. The original article can be found here.

Eboost Is The Latest Luxury At Bendel’s

June 09, 2008

It goes without saying that it’s a coup for brands to be featured in the tony windows of Henri Bendel’s, the trendy luxury department store located in New York. But that’s usually the goal of high-end apparel and accessories brands, not vitamins.

But for Josh Taekman, founder and co-CEO of Eboost, a vitamin and mineral supplement sold in select stores and available at 30,000 luxury hotels worldwide, luxury need not be such an exclusive category.

“At the end of the day, Bendel’s and Eboost are speaking to the same customer . . . a customer who is about beauty from the inside out and who are up on the latest trends and want stuff that’s not available to the masses,” Taekman said.

There’s no doubt that the brand, which carries the tagline, “Jet set without the jet lag,” is definitely geared at the upper crust, and so the brand has tied in with the luxury retailer’s summer programming, popping up in the store’s display windows, and also having a team on hand to distribute samples and information to shoppers who want to know more about the goods.

“It’s the beginning of the summer and a lot of people are going to Bendel’s to load up on summer gear and get stuff for their summer vacations,” said Taekman. “So the timing just made sense with their programming.”

Read the article here.

Marketing Agency Gives ‘E-Boost’ to Its Own Product

Nov 12, 2007
By Kenneth Hein

A deal between rapper 50 Cent and the company that was to manufacture his line of supplements fizzled. This left Josh Taekman, who helped broker it, in a lousy mood.

He headed over to the Lever House to have a cocktail and complain to the restaurant’s owner and his good friend, John McDonald.

McDonald suggested that he and Taekman, who founded his Buzztone marketing agency in 2000, create their own product. Both fans of the popular overseas immunity booster Berocca, they decided to create an American version.

In April 2007, EBoost was born. The product is a vitamin and mineral packet that boosts the immune system and provides energy. EBoost commands a premium of $2 more per 10-pack than Airborne.

The challenge was infiltrating the $3.8 billion cough and cold remedy segment, a category where marketers from Advil to Zycam spent $750 million last year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

The immunity-boosting niche has gotten particularly competitive. Airborne will hit the airports next month to defend its turf by handing out samples.

ImmuneFizz also launched this year and is being sampled at Costco. It sponsors a car in the Nascar Super Stock series and is planning radio and TV for next year, per a company rep.

Looking to position EBoost as a fashionable wellness product, Taekman sampled 50,000 packets prior to launch at high-end events like Fashion Week. Samples also popped up on the sets of TV shows and at modeling agencies.

Following free giveaways at Equinox and Scoop, both elected to sell EBoost. In January, Air New Zealand will begin offering it in its lounges. It is considering adding it to its first class amenities kit.

This summer Buzztone hit local California beaches with aerial banners. The first flew past Malibu the week after Lindsay Lohan was busted for drunk driving. It read: “Hey Lindsay, get boosted, not busted. eBoost.com.”

“I got to leverage all of the expertise and knowledge that I developed over the years,” said Taekman, who has worked on Red Bull, Bacardi, Sprite and other brands.

McDonald did his part, too. The restaurateur slipped a pack to Ross Klein, president of W Hotels Worldwide. By June, EBoost was distributed in all 8,500 rooms in the W’s U.S. properties. He also struck a deal with the Morgan Hotel Group.

EBoost is in discussions with a high-end home goods retailer as well. “We’re targeting fashionable venues,” said Taekman. “We don’t want to be in CVS, not now.”

The strategy appears to be sound. Taekman and his partner expect to pull in $2 million in the product’s first year. Take that, 50 Cent.

–with Mike Beirne

khein@brandweek.com