

Ask HN: Review my startup, BeautyBloc.com - IdeaGarage

We're positioning BeautyBloc.com as the "Groupon for beauty products and services." The idea is that by being more targeted, we will get higher quality customers for our merchants and also provide deals that are more relevant for the our opt in subscribers. Would love to get any and all feedback you may have on the business model, the best way to merchant leads, drive traffic to the site, the site itself, etc.!<p>Thanks so much!
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HackrNwsDesignr
clickable <http://www.BeautyBloc.com/>

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Mz
Wondering why you chose the "bloc" part of the name. (For me, it has
unfortunate implications.)

Thanks.

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IdeaGarage
We chose it to reflect a group of people coming together to collectively reach
a common objective. In this case, a deal. What implications does it have for
you?

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Mz
I hear "This site is some means to block out beauty" -- you know, kind of like
"ad blocker", only somehow for "beauty". Not sure what on earth that would
mean but it does not sound like a good thing if you are trying to sell beauty
products (or coupons for beauty products or whatever). I also just think
"beauty" sounds vain, so for me it is offputting.

I also associate the term "bloc" with "Soviet bloc countries", which is a real
negative thing historically in the US. So I wouldn't be very comfortable with
joining a "bloc", even without subliminally wondering if joining this "bloc"
would ensure I became uglier. (Edit: I will add that in that context, the idea
of a "beauty bloc" brings to mind very unflattering cold war images of Soviet
Bloc women. Not anything I would aspire to look like.)

However, my mind isn't normal. So take that opinion as a sampling of one, and
no reason to think it is representative of your target market (since I don't
wear any make-up ever as I am allergic to everything).

Good luck with this.

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IdeaGarage
That makes a lot of sense - thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback!

I certainly didn't think of the negative Cold War implications, since I am
originally from Ukraine and the Soviet Bloc was not perceived as a negative
thing on our side of the world.

I will do some more research with others to see if this is enough of a deal-
breaker to require a name change.

Thanks again!

~~~
Mz
I have been thinking that something like "beauty buying bloc" would probably
be fine. It would clarify things enormously (ie not imply "this is a means to
block out beauty"). And it's possible that changing the name like that
wouldn't really require changing the domain name.

Also, women who are younger than me wouldn't be likely to have Cold War
associations. So I think the demographic of your target market may impact
this.

Good luck with this.

~~~
IdeaGarage
That is a really good suggestion - we'll see how we can incorporate it! Thanks
again for your feedback!

