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The core of Najell is to give new parents the opportunity to continue living life according to their own rules. This has become the basis for the development of several products that are today the obvious choice for many new parents, not least the famous SleepCarrier. We spoke to Najell's CEO and founder Niklas Najafi Kristensen to hear what he has learned about the target group of pregnant women and new families with children over the years, and where he thinks the baby and children's industry is heading.
Becoming a parent is one of the biggest changes we humans can go through. It's easy to get a little lost in yourself when going through big changes and our ambition is to design and market products to allow the parent to continue to find their own way in life together with their child. We believe that happy parents are better parents. Our most popular product categories are baby nests, baby carriers and pregnancy pillows.
We think it's important to stand for something and dare to do it all the way. This is something we notice very clearly in the customer relationships we have today. We get strong reactions and relationships when we do things that are real and don't become too smooth and well adapted. I don't know if it's something new, but it's an insight that we learn and have to remind ourselves of all the time. It's good to be a bit edgy and offbeat so that people react and not just be middle ground.
Right now, retail as a whole is going through a pretty tough time and it seems to be even tougher for our particular industry with a number of retailers on their knees. I think it's because we brands collectively create too little innovation. There are too many products that are barely worth a shrug. It hardly feels like brands believe in their own innovations sometimes, but everything is about offering what the competition offers and I think that's a dead end.
My most common question internally in our product development is what we add that is not already on the market. If it doesn't add anything, I don't know if we should do it. Then of course there are blankets, etc. that may not need to offer as much functionality, but as a whole I hope that more people create something new instead of just copying each other. It could make the industry take off.
Then retailers need to find ways to sell that don't involve the price wars that have been key for many e-retailers, or the customer having to go out to the "buy shop" to find products for the coming baby. What exactly is a good shopping experience in our industry?
Today we are relatively well established in Scandinavia and are working to gain a firm foothold in the major European markets of Germany, France and the UK. My ambition is that within 3 years we will also have succeeded in establishing ourselves in some Asian markets and/or in the USA. Then I hope we will have become even better at building through our brand and values that encourage independence and that each person should be allowed to go their own way on their own terms.
Jhere are many companies and brands that inspire me. My friend Gustav, who runs the shoe and bag company Flattered, thinks I'm doing a lot of good things in an industry that is extremely competitive. Then I have looked a lot at Toteme and their journey. Their CEO Johanna is very driven and clear in how they will chart their way forward.
On a personal level, I am an old basketball fan and Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were very important to me growing up and they often talked a lot about how hard they worked to achieve success which is something I still carry with me.
Linnéa Olsson
Creative Sales, Baby Journey
