We caught up with Hind Al Khatrash, founder of Leap Loves Green, an e-commerce platform for sustainable period care products based in Kuwait.

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Leap Loves Green started out as a local Instagram green guide, sharing environmental resources and eco-friendly alternatives to everyday products. Hind soon realised that there was a gap in the market for sustainable period care. And a chance encounter on a trip to Australia led her to become a distributor of period care brand Tsuno.

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Over the past three years, Hind has taken the brand from an online resource, to an online store and official retail distributor.

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Check out the full conversation on LinkedIn, and read on for our top takeaways:

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⚡Start small and understand the market

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Leap Loves Green's first incarnation as an Instagram account included tips for green living, how to find local recycling centres and how to upcycle. Hind says this gave her a great insight to the market by getting to know what people cared about and where gaps could be filled. The biggest gap, that no one was filling, was sustainable period care.

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In the Middle East, sustainable period care appeared to be a new concept. Hind experimented with various marketing approaches and found that simply being herself on Instagram - a woman who has periods - was what really resonated with her audience, and so this is what dominates her content. She builds trust and connection by being relatable, like showing that she knows what it’s like to have to hide your pads while walking around the shops or a workplace.

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⚡Focus on product packaging

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Hind aims to reimagine the period experience and move away from hyper-feminised packaging which is synonymous with shame and stigma still surrounding the period experience. One way she does this is through innovative product design and presentation.  

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Tsuno dedicates half of its box design to female artists, and they collaborated with Leap Loves Green to bring this concept to the Middle East. Hind worked with four female Arab artists to have their work featured on the box, with the text available in both English and Arabic. Not only did this create a more appealing product, but the brand was also front-and-centre. It’s even extended the life of the product, the boxes are so beautiful in themselves, once they’re empty they’re being used as decorative items.

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⚡Use your brand positioning as your guide

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After establishing a core category in sustainable period care, Leap Loves Green expanded to offer sustainable cleaning products and personal care items. Hind says that even though her customers asked for these products, it took the brand off track as they lost their focus and ended up spending time on less valuable activities.

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Hind could see that period care was a best seller and generated the most engagement with her audience. She now has a clear brand purpose - to heal women's relationships with their periods, which acts as a guide when assessing opportunities.

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Hind’s parting advice to founders is “Branding, branding and branding through and through”. This applies to your founder brand too. We definitely agree that spending time defining your brand and what you stand for, and constantly checking in with your audience to make sure you’re delivering on it, is a great way to keep you focused on the things that will get you closer to your goal.

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I’d love to know, how has brand positioning helped to guide you when it comes to making decisions for your business?

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