Here's the heart of this story:
- Baltimore wellness brand Harp Vision, founded by April and Tyron Harper, opened a brick-and-mortar shop in Highlandtown after customers asked for a physical space to relax and use their products.
- To boost foot traffic, the Harpers posted a TikTok asking for marketing suggestions—and quickly went viral with practical, low-cost ideas.
- Harp Vision offers wellness products, services, and community events.
WATCH: TikTok Delivers Business Ideas to Baltimore Wellness Brand
Here's the whole story:
How do you bring people into a brick and mortar?
The owners of Harp Vision have gone viral on TikTok after they posted a video looking for recommendations to help spread their wellness brand in the community.
April and Tyron Harper are co-founders. “Harp Vision is a wellness brand right here in Baltimore.”
In about three years, Tyron and April Harper have taken their business from the home to the farmers market, to Lexington Market, and now to their own store. But brick and mortar wasn’t in their original plan.
April, “No. Hahahaha.”Tyron explains, “It wasn’t part of the plan. It was actually Ex’d out of the plan. Like we didn’t want a brick and mortar. We knew the overhead that came with it. We knew that we’d have to hire employees, that we’d have to get foot traffic in the building.”
But being customer focused, they heard it when people said they wanted a place to sit in the Harp Vision vibe.
They would tell Tyron, “I need to be in a space. I don’t want to just come up to your counter. I want you guys to have some place that I can come and drink some tea or a place where I can do my foot soaks so you can teach me how to use your products and stuff like that.”
So Tyron and April stepped off, applied for a grant, got it, and opened this space in Highlandtown. They not only offer their tried-and-true wellness products but also offer a place for customers to come and relax.
Plus, they’re doing events that create light and positivity in the community.
April says it’s giving them a place to grow, “so having those services and being able to pull back into the community and educators and different people on the corporate level is the goal for this space.”
Being brick and mortar, they need customers to walk through their door. Something that Tyron says has been a challenge:
“We felt like we wasn’t getting the visibility because we’re great, this business is great, and it’s for the community, and when the people see it, they love it. It’s like a disservice to have this in the community and the people not know about it.
So bringing out that hustle, Tyron posted a video to TikTok asking their online community what kind of subtle changes they could make to bring feet looking for a good soak through their door. Tyron: “People told us, ‘You need to put color out there. Maybe some bubbles’.”
Almost instantly the Harpers had an action list of low-cost things to try. Tyron: “It was all great feedback. It was nothing that was telling us we were doing anything wrong; it was just them giving us opinions about how we could do it right.” April saw the advantage as well: “Yeah, so TikTok became our marketing team.”
Harp Vision has a goal of about eight thousand in revenue a month to consider this space sustainable. So if you’re in need of a place to relax, maybe stop in and see how their online community is helping bring wellness to the real world.
