Ignite Institute

Local Entrepreneur’s Presentation to Internet Marketing Class

donnelly and classBy Professor Robert M. Donnelly

Gina Morano, founder and President of Pink Tomato, a company that she founded to make and market fresh, natural, and organic cosmetics for women with skin problems, was a guest speaker at Saint Peter’s University. Gina is from Colombia and initially worked for 4 years at a beauty Spa that went bankrupt. During this period she decided that she wanted to create a company doing what she believed in, which was to create natural skin care products for women.

Following her passion she began Pink Tomato in 2008 with one product and a YouTube video in Spanish. The initial response was surprising and led to Gina beginning a blog on the value of using natural cosmetics for natural beauty. In 2010, after doing extensive research Gina self-published a book and created her website to sell the book and her initial products.

Again, the response was surprising and she sold 500 books online. In addition, she began to receive inquiries and testimonials from women with skin problems and mothers with babies, as to the effectiveness of her natural compounds. In 2011 she began selling more of her products entirely online and increased her blogging activities. This has resulted in over 200,000 total online inquiries from customers and prospects to date.

In 2013 Gina was named one of the top bloggers on cosmetics and in 2015 she was mentioned as one of the top Colombian bloggers outside of Colombia by the leading Colombian newspaper.

In her first year in business she did $1,000 in business, and last year Pink Tomato recorded $35,000 worth of business entirely online, and her product line has expanded from one item in 2008 to 25 products today. Gina also has two new products in development – a completely natural shampoo and conditioner. Plus, she also sells other hair care products (combs, brushes, etc.) as supplemental products from other suppliers on her site, as well.

However, the most amazing part of Gina’s story is that she assembles and ships all the products herself out of her garage with containers from Canada and other packaging materials from other countries. Her passion for maintaining natural products are in the compounds she still prepares herself. And all of this, while raising her son Lucas who is 2 years old now.

While most of her business has come from Colombia, Panama, and Mexico, sales in the U.S. are constantly growing. Gina’s next project is to build an English language website. Her ultimate goal is to get her natural organic products into major U.S. retailers like Target and Trader Joe’s.

Professor Donnelly plans to help Gina achieve her ultimate passion as her mentor. Don’t be surprised if one day in the not too distant future you see more of Pink Tomato, and read about Gina Morano.