The true test of a cosmetic product’s efficacy is when professionals like cosmetic surgeons prescribe or endorse the product to patients either as alternative to invasive procedures or as a post operative skin treatment.
A lot of cosmetic surgeons stumble on and buy the cosmetic products even without any promotion or advertising push during their “trips” to the malls or to reliable retail shops of cosmetic products. Sometimes, they try the product personally and upon noticing beneficial changes on their skin they recommend it to their patients.
One time, Marshelly Grace Lazaro (owner of Cytherea Global Cosmetics Inc., exclusive distributor of Australian product Skin Doctors) got a surprising call from the store manager of Rustans about a walk-in customer who presented a prescription of a cosmetic surgeon for Skin Doctors’ eye tuck (eye bag remover).
She called the doctor and found out that the doctor bought and used it before, saw it was effective in removing eye bags and recommended it to his patients. So she offered to supply the doctor with Skin Doctors to sell directly (for added income) to his patients but the doctor refused. He said he was happy just endorsing products that work.
“Before I deliberately avoided tapping the cosmetic surgeons thinking that they are my competitors only to find out that they push our products, even giving complimentary samples to their patients,” Lazaro said.
Some cosmetic surgeons offer Skin Doctors for patients who don’t want surgery while others offer it as a complimentary product after a face lift. There were other patients who came from a face lift, botox or other surgical beauty procedures who also obtained complimentary smaller sizes of Skin Doctors products from the clinics to help them recover faster and avoid bruising and reddening of their skins.
“Now I have more clients who are cosmetic surgeons than ordinary dermatologists. Since the ordinary dermatologists sell cheaper products from Korea, Thailand and sometimes sourced locally. I think I am the first distributor of Skin Doctors who went to retail at once. The other Skin Doctors distributors just followed,” Lazaro admitted.
Lazaro began exclusively distributing Skin Doctors in the country in 2004 selling them at first through professional channels, dermatologists and spas or clinics. She discovered Skin Doctors during her travel to Australia when she noticed several pages of full-page ads about the product so she rang the company and had an appointment. After the meeting, she signed a contract, gave downpayment for the stocks to be shipped to her and was given monthly sales quotas, which at first seemed too stiff for her. But later she found out that after educating customers (in workshops done in the outlets), the products would sell themselves.
Skin Doctors is so named because it has 30 products for every conceivable skin concern. “We have three products for the eyes (for eye bags or periorbital puffiness, periorbital dark circles or under eye circles and eye lines); for the face there is a product to remove melasma (or the patchy brown discoloration of the skin on the face), product for whitening, skin firming without the use of collagen; skin renewal; preventing photo aging (from UV exposure); skin resurfacing through gamma hydroxyl; zit zapper that works on pimples overnight; removing and preventing wrinkles; a product for post operative bruising and for the body there are removers of varicose veins and cellulite.
“It is really complete, which is why I am happy with Skin Doctors. But sometimes it is difficult to manage such a wide array of product variants. But Rustan’s is happy since the comprehensive skin care line make customers faithful shoppers,” Lazaro said.
Because of the strength of the brand in Australia and the UK, PharmaCare, the biggest pharma company in Australia bought Skin Doctors but opted to keep Lazaro as exclusive distributor for the Philippines, despite the fact that some offered to distribute the products in the Philippines. The new management saw the feasibility of retailing the products more than selling through professional channels (the old strategy) for most of its country dealerships. In Hongkong, the top market in Asia, retailing is also getting bigger.
Because of her youth and good looks, Lazaro is able to attract equally-attractive and eloquent sales people to man the counters at Rustans in Glorietta and Shangrila (now temporarily being renovated); Cebu and the stand-alone outlet in Davao, which opened two years ago.
The top selling product of Skin Doctors is the eye tuck, increasingly among young call center agents whose jobs require night work. In close second is super facelift – cream for firming and tightness and then skin whitening.
“Some who undergo botox experience a downtime after a treatment. They can’t be presentable for how many weeks only to find out that after some time, they need to go through a firming procedure again. Our cream has no downtime. Just apply daily and you will notice the improvement,” Lazaro said.
She developed a strong friendship with the 75-year old brother (back then) of tycoon John Gokongwei who profusely thanked her for bringing Skin Doctors to Cebu; he no longer had to go through the scheduled eye bag removal by just using the 15ML cream (that he bought for P5,000). Her sales staff convinced Gokongweig to cancel his surgery since Skin Doctors would do the job he needed. “Now he is our product evangelist,” Lazaro said.
source: mb.com.ph
