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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Get your karma — in a can, candle, soap

By Alana Semuels
Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Andrew Loren Klamer knows something about the game of life. His dad invented it, after all.

Now Klamer, whose father Reuben Klamer created the Game of Life for Milton Bradley and came up with an early competitor to the hula hoop, is taking a spin at inventing. His contribution? Karma. In a can. And a candle. And a soap.

Klamer's company, Karma Creatives Inc., is selling novelty cosmetics such as aromatherapy sprays, bath crystals and hand lotions. The products contain a blend of seven "good herbs for good karma" that include ginseng, lavender and peppermint, and come with a trademark karma philosophy about the importance of doing good things.

Klamer is confident that he started his business at an opportune time: at the cusp of a karma trend epitomized by the television show "My Name Is Earl," the Alicia Keys song "Karma" and a Motorola marketing campaign that supposedly helps people improve their karma.

Karma traditionally is defined as the principle of action and reaction that leads to an individual's deeds coming back in one way or another, said Sannyasin Arumugaswami, managing editor of Hinduism Today magazine. "You're not going to protect your karma by spraying something," he said of Karma Creatives' product, which retails for $6 to $8.

Klamer, 32, worked in television for seven years before bringing this venture to investors two years ago. He is the first to explain that simply buying his product won't give consumers good karma.

"It's more of an awareness, about living the clean lifestyle," said Klamer, who meditates regularly and is prone to quoting the Dalai Lama.

The product is appealing because everyone buys into the power of suggestion, said Cina Hodges, owner of manufacturers' representative Showroom 504, which recently agreed to work for Karma Creatives.

"Just with a spritz, everything is OK again," Hodges said. She plans to market the products to hospital gift shops, where people will probably want good karma, as well as beauty supply stores.

Klamer is not the first to try selling the concept of karma. Last year, an assortment of stores stocked Karma Guard, a spray created by music producer Andy Goodmark, who said he created Karma Guard as a joke.

"It was a protective coating for whatever you needed in the (music) business — people cutting each other out of deals, being mean or nasty," Goodmark said. The product had a good run after it got some media attention and celebrity customers, he said, but now is sold mostly online.

Consumers always are willing to buy products that make sure good things will happen to them, said Debbie MacInnis, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. This is especially true today, she said, when consumers are feeling a lot of anxiety.

"People are naturally gravitating to things that assure them that things are going to be good in the future," she said.

When asked whether consumers will pay for the scented karma water in a can that is his signature product, Klamer points to Evian's success with mineral water sprays. He thinks his water mister will do even better: It has principles, after all.

Karma Creatives is focusing on Southern California, which, Klamer said, is the ideal place to launch his business because celebrities are interested in karma and spirituality, and the rest of the country buys what celebrities buy. He hopes his products spread through California "like wildfire" and is making plans to sell in Las Vegas.

Karma Creatives is being sold in boutiques such as Kitson and Planet Blue that are frequented by good-karma-seeking celebrities. Kitson owner Fraser Ross said he had seen people buying Karma in a Can as a gift for friends who might be down on their luck.