One of the effects of my multitude of disabilities is respiratory sensitivity. Without divulging any specifics, suffice it to say my breathing is heavily influenced by certain chemicals found in solutions like household cleaners, air fresheners, and the like. The smoke from wildfires, most recently from those in Northern California and into Oregon, drifted southward to the Bay Area in the last couple weeks. In the few days when the air quality was truly terrible, I certainly felt the particulate matter trying to get into my lungs. It was pretty awful.
To be sure, I’m firmly entrenched in the “sensitive groups” camp.
For Allison Evans and Branch Basics, building non-toxic cleaning products is a nod to people such as myself. On its website, the company explains its product as a concentrate that, when mixed with water, creates plant- and mineral-based cleaning solutions that are safe to humans, biodegradable, and most importantly in an accessibility context, free of fragrance. Branch Basics operates on the direct-to-consumer model, whereby interested customers can either opt for a one-time order or sign up for a recurring subscription. A starter kit costs $75, and Branch Basics offers miniaturized versions for traveling, accessories such as bottles, soap dispensers, dryer balls, and many more items.
“We never set out to sell soap,” Evans said to me in describing her company’s raison d’être earlier this week in an interview conducted over email. “Our mission is to help people heal by sharing information that will transform their lives. We are experiencing exponential growth and have an amazingly dedicated customer base. We are so thankful to be leading the clean home industry forward while building an incredibly loyal and engaged community as a result.”
Evans, who lives in Texas with her husband and three daughters, co-founded Branch Basics with her aunt, Marilee Nelson, and best friend Kelly Love. For Evans, her impetus for starting Branch Basics comes from a place of disability. In her junior year of college, Evans experienced what she described as a “health crisis” which caused her chronic pain and impaired her motor skills; as a result, she traversed the country in search of specialists who could provide her with relief. A breakthrough would eventually come when Evans resolved to remove toxic chemicals from her home—pesticides, synthetic fragrances, and more—as well as changing her diet so as to only eat wholesome foods.
These changes, Evans said, caused her symptoms to disappear. “This experience inspired me to start Branch Basics,” she said.
Evans was emphatic in telling me her company’s products are for everyone. The research and development phases included what she said were “over 100 iterations and 18 months to develop a formula that met our high ingredient standards.” Evans explained Branch Basics was truly born from her experiences, as well as those of her co-founders in Nelson and Love. The three women, Evans said, discovered through their experiences what is now supported by science: the removal of harmful chemicals from the home, whether in food or other goods, can have a profound effect on a person’s health. Evans distilled Branch Basics’ mission as helping people “toss the toxins and live healthier lives.”
“We believe it’s essential to recognize that certain elements of traditional cleaning products, like synthetic fragrances, can have immediate and long-term health effects,” Evans said of Branch Basics’ ethos. “In a world where fragrance has become akin to the new secondhand smoke, we want consumers to know the power and health benefits of truly living fragrance-free. By creating a home free of these harmful fragrances, we can keep ourselves and our loved ones healthy through the winter!”
According to Evans, Branch Basics differentiates itself from its competitors in the marketplace in a slew of ways. She said the company has positioned itself to have what she termed an “education-first” business model, by which they offer “plethora of online resources designed to help people improve their health through intentional lifestyle changes and clean product recommendations.” Moreover, Evans told me Branch Basics invests much time to educating people on topics that seemingly have no correlation to cleaning products but which are eminently relevant. Topics include non-toxic mattresses, home renovation, safer pest extermination options, and much more.
“We’ve been able to build an incredibly loyal and engaged community as a result [of the educational initiatives],” Evans said.
Other differentiators for Branch Basics, Evans said, include the company’s focus on fragrance-free products, as well as a special video course they produced called “Toss the Toxins.” The course provides step-by-step instructions on how to create a healthier home. Evans, Nelson, and Love all teach viewers best practices on reading labels, the storage of toxic materials, and many more subjects. Of the video, Evans told me the team hasn’t found similar videos anywhere else on the market, adding that “it was an investment into making people’s lives better and we were absolutely blown away at the response from our community.”
“People can’t seem to get enough of [the video],” she said.
Branch Basics’ pertinence to accessibility (and assistive technology) is easy to suss with deeper exploration. For one thing, the medical conditions that myself and Evans cope with, for instance, indeed are disabilities; chronic pain and respiratory sensitivity both are things that are disabling to many people and must be constantly managed. Likewise, technologically speaking, the fact Branch Basics ships its products directly to doorsteps is an assistive technology unto itself because it removes logistical and/or medical barriers with going out to a brick-and-mortar retail store, which may be infeasible or downright impossible.
Evans said Branch Basics successes can be attributed in large part to “selling directly to consumers and building community relations.”
“We identified early on that there were enough direct-to-consumer opportunities to build an identity and distinctive strategy to engage consumers directly,” she said of the company’s business strategies. “We market our multi-purpose, toxin-free cleaning products via a sustainable concentrate model to make cleaning simple yet effective. The products can be bought through a one-time purchase or by subscription where customers can save on every refill delivered to their door.”
Evans added social media plays a sizable role in reaching customers. Evans and her co-founders are active on networks such as Instagram and TikTok, as well as in the video course discussed earlier. All told, the activity has led Branch Basics to see what Evans described as “exponential growth”—550% growth in three years—without taking the brand offline, into the physical world via partnerships and the like.
“Our ability to build a distinctive identity and grow a community of loyal customers around our products without veering from our digital native roots sets us apart in a highly competitive market and technology has been a critical part of our growth and transformation,” Evans said. “[This enables] us to connect with so many people in minutes.”
She added: “We are constantly helping people from all socioeconomic backgrounds create a healthy home through our free education. We respond to every direct message and email, even if it has nothing to do with our cleaning products.”
As to the reception towards Branch Basics, Evans called feedback “astoundingly positive.” The company has a “incredibly dedicated and engaged community of customers” that includes an ever-burgeoning Slack group that Evans described as people “passionate about their health and eager to learn more about how to remove toxins from their life.” Elsewhere, Evans told me the team “continuously receives” feedback from users, who praise the company for going above and beyond expectations and how appreciated the team is. Evans and her co-founders spend a lot of time on Instagram sharing their stories, which Evans said helps customers feel connected to the brand—a connection that, in turn, inspires the team to push further along on their work.
“The success of our unique business model and intimate consumer relationships has led us to launch more products tailored directly to our community with a new fragrance free product coming later this year,” Evans said. “We’re so excited to launch this new product that was created to address specific industry and customer needs and can’t wait to see it out in the world and in homes nationwide.”
Looking towards the future, Evans expressed excitement for an announcement slated for next month around product expansion. She also noted the Branch Basics team genuinely hopes other companies will see what they’re doing and feel motivation to “rise to the challenge of creating safer formulas that present zero harm to our people.”
“We want people to know that our bodies are designed to heal,” Evans said. “When we’re in a state of sickness [or] disease [or] chronic illness, it’s often due to our diet and environment. In fact, studies point to the impact that our lifestyle—versus genetics—has on our health. This is good news, as we as consumers have so much power over our own health. By removing toxic products from our homes and chemicals from our diets, we can experience life changing shifts in our lives.”
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