Key Takeaways
- Bozigian’s business hit $100,000 in sales, driven by TikTok, during its launch month.
- Weeks before its flagship store opening, the brand found itself facing a lawsuit.
- Bozigian harnessed the power of social media — and sales have been better than ever.
Kelly Bozigian and her husband, Colt Bozigian, were living out an entrepreneur’s dream. The handmade jewelry company Kelly founded in 2024 — then called Coastal Caviar — had taken social media by storm with its charm necklaces and bracelets. After a spotlight from influencer Alix Earle, the business enjoyed “pretty instant success” during its first month live — $100,000 in sales from its reach on TikTok alone.
The couple continued growing Coastal Caviar. But as the Bozigians prepared to open a flagship store in Charleston, South Carolina earlier this year, disaster struck.
The day they picked up the keys for their new store, Kelly received an email: Lagos, a jewelry brand founded in 1977, had filed a lawsuit against her business, alleging trademark infringement over use of the word “caviar.” Lagos obtained a federal registration for its “caviar” line of jewelry in 1992. What she felt in that moment, Kelly says, was “panic” and “complete devastation.”
Business “panic” in the wake of a lawsuit and three-year lease
Kelly recalls, “The following couple months were the hardest of my life. I thought this was going to be the end of the brand. Because of social media and the brand awareness we’d generated, I felt like a name change would completely derail the business, and there would be no way to recover.”
In fact, the potential trademark conflict had surfaced earlier when the Bozigians filed for “caviar” in 2024. At that time, their legal counsel advised them to continue growing, citing no evidence of customer confusion.
Now, as the lawsuit unfolded, the couple had just signed a three-year lease for their Charleston store. Initially, they planned to fight the lawsuit in court. But two months into the legal battle, they realized the financial strain was too great. “That’s when the light went off in my head,” Kelly says. “We have to use this [challenge] as a content engine — as a way to strengthen the loyalty of the community that we’ve built.”
Choosing a name for the rebrand: Club Coastal
Within six weeks, the Bozigians transitioned from announcing the lawsuit to unveiling a rebrand. Wanting to preserve the brand’s coastal essence — inspired by Kelly’s own experience of finding a necklace while at the beach — they renamed the company “Club Coastal.”
Kelly explains, “We started thinking about what word could replace Caviar, and we realized it was really our community that built the brand. Our story is unique in that it was everybody on social media rallying behind us, sharing their necklaces and what they made, and we realized it was this club we’ve created online that’s the real heart of the brand.”
Their transparency and engagement paid off quickly. Club Coastal’s TikTok following surged from 80,000 to nearly 125,000. Kelly adds, “We were just pumping out so much content around the lawsuit, the rebrand and also leaning into humor. Obviously, this is a very serious situation. But we felt like, How can we get our audience engaged? They shop because of me and my husband. We’re the brand, and we couldn’t let that spark die.”
Club Coastal’s followers got an inside look into the “very stressful” process of rebranding just as they were preparing for their flagship store launch. Signage, packaging, bags — nearly everything required an update. Yet the timing turned out to be pivotal, marking what Kelly calls the brand’s “biggest brand building moment yet.”
The grand opening in Charleston on April 25 was a celebrated event — complete with caviar served as a humorous nod to their former name. Club Coastal experienced a 114% sales increase in the six weeks between the lawsuit announcement and the rebrand. On opening day alone, daily sales hit a record $30,000, with a charm necklace selling every 70 seconds.
Reflecting on the experience, Kelly shares, “Now I have a completely different outlook on content in general. Anything good or bad that’s going on behind the scenes, there’s an opportunity to use it for content, to tell a unique story, to strengthen the community that you already have and acquire new customers.”
Using social media and storytelling to break sales records
Though the lawsuit triggered “anxiety-inducing” moments, Kelly regards the rebrand as a blessing in disguise. Club Coastal’s sales are now higher than ever, and the Bozigians feel energized about future plans, including packaging upgrades, a loungewear launch, and the prospect of opening another store.
Their journey illustrates how even challenging moments can have silver linings when founders are ready to transform negatives into positives.
“Document everything because storytelling is probably one of the strongest marketing tools,” Kelly advises. “We’ve found a great way to storytell on social media. A lot of the time it’s just propping up the phone and filming what’s going on. Honestly, sometimes bad things end up making the most interesting content. Use it to your advantage.”
