The Amalfi Coast business that chose to invest in local ingredients is now a globally sustainable beauty brand.
January 26th, 2021. By Priscilla Santos da Silva
Jamalfi is a bio-cosmetics brand created by Martina Rispoli and Rosario Riccio. The name comes from the Arabic word Jamal, meaning beauty, and it encloses the essence of their project. The brand expresses its love for the Amalfi Coast and celebrates its tradition of biodiversity and cosmetics.
First steps
Cosmetology can be defined as the study and application of beauty treatments, and cosmetics is one of its specialty branches. Studying fragrances, active ingredients, and the overall composition is essential while creating a product for the personal care of the face, body, and hair, such as creams, oils, and shampoos. Also, to create a product that meets market needs, it is necessary to understand the composition of raw materials, the qualities of vitamins, and the effects of a specific active ingredient.
The two founders of Jamalfi understood all that and found the perfect way to work with the fantastic biodiversity already on the Amalfi Coast, turning the raw materials into bioproducts. But when Ms. Rispoli started moving her fists steps in this field, beauty was already a flourishing business around here.
Evidence about a time when Amalfi wasn’t known as Amalfi yet and found by the Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana tells us that acquiring cosmetics products from the Middle East was common. Moreover, on the same topic, research by the Scuola Medica Salernitana found a manuscript mentioning that these kinds of trades dated back to the Middle Ages.
Challenge accepted!
With the explicit aim of entering the cosmetics world, Martina started researching the market and saw great future growth potential. At the core of her idea, there was mainly the desire to celebrate the qualities of local ingredients and showcase the territory’s excellence. “Opening an organic company means following the same steps of any other business but knowing that it will require more time and that it will be necessary to abandon the typical entrepreneur mindset,» says Marina.
Jamalfi’s products are created with ingredients that count on necessary local certifications. That is the case for the Amalfi Sfusato lemon from the Salvatore Aceto company, which has a protected geographical status, and the bio extra virgin olive oil by the Azienda Agricola Raffaele Palma in Maiori.
Think globally, act locally
The slogan “think globally, act locally” was coined by David Brewer at the end of the 70s. The motto embodies the message to focus on our community’s treasures while considering the global ecosystem. The marketing sector has adopted this principle: the companies are encouraged to have a global strategy when selling in the international market while, at the same time, they should adopt a more tactical approach to the local market they are targeting. That’s the philosophy followed by Jamalfi, which built a network of local and overseas business collaborations.
Initially, the products were destined for the Amalfi Coast locals and tourists, but they could expand their client base, reaching national recognition. It was possible thanks to the participation in the SANA (international exhibition of organic and natural products) in Bologna, together with new telemarketing activities.
“Without a clear strategy, it would have been impossible to enter into e-commerce, but we managed to do it thanks to marketing campaigns, logistics, and social media. Today our company is in the international market and has more than 70 retail locations all over Italy,» says Rispoli. At the moment, the biggest buyers for them are the United States of America. «Our business to do well outside Italy had to be adaptable. In 2020, we were able to sell to France, Germany, and Great Britain, ” says the founder of Jamalfi.
2030 Agenda
Various restrictions and regulations guide countries, companies, and organizations to become more sustainable, eco-friendly, and generally more aware of how to protect the world and the population. That is the case for numerous companies that based their business model on the UN resolution called the 2030 Agenda, a plan of action that presents sustainable development goals for bettering our world.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has forced all of us to consider what is important for our future, and we need to understand that sustainability must be at the core of any social and financial solution”, explains Martina. 2020 has been a challenging year, defined by doubts and fear.
Experiencing this new way of living has shaped how we think, consume, and buy and pushed us to consider our needs and the needs of our world. That’s why we must reflect more deeply on the importance of choosing sustainable, ecological, and organic products; through these everyday decisions, we show real change.