How a ‘flawless’ product sells itself

No one is more surprised, or for that matter pleased, than An Apple A Day, Inc. president, Rosanna Tan, at the success of Flawless Herbal Papaya Soap. With hardly any effort, minimal trial and a one man sales force, the skin whitening soap and its subsequent variants have gone from being a modest direct sales operation to hitting grocery shelves and supermarkets throughout Luzon within a matter of months.

"Every week, we get more and more inquiries about where to buy Flawless," says Tan.

Word of mouth about Flawless Herbal Papaya Soap has been so favorable that inquiries have been reported from all over the Philippines, as well Dubai and Guam. Inquiries and orders simply arrive despite the absence of a recognized agent in those areas. Not bad for a product that was only available in a few parts of North Luzon just last year.

Equally remarkable is the fact that although Tan always knew she had an excellent product she, along with business partner, Monica Ching, began selling Flawless in 2005 without fanfare or any attempt at marketing the new brand.

It was shrewd decision that allowed the relatively young company to remain lean and efficient while setting its own rate of growth.

"We wanted to avoid the perception that Flawless was about hype. We wanted people to try it out first so we could get an idea what the demand was before investing more into it," explains Tan.

As it turned out, the demand exceeded all of their expectation even in areas where the leading papaya soap brand was already well known.

Somewhat at a loss to explain the reason for the popularity of Flawless, Tan and Ching contracted the services of marketing analysis specialists to conduct a focused group discussion (FGD) among long time users of the leading papaya soap.

According to Tan, "Although there are other brands in the market, we wanted to know how our product would stand up against the leading brand." She also points out that she implicitly asked the people conducting the study not to sugarcoat their findings in any way in order to get a truly accurate account of the FGD.

Although Tan is quick to point out the qualitative nature of the findings, she can’t help but be ecstatic over the positive comments for Flawless Herbal Papaya Soap. She takes particular pride that participants describing Flawless often used the word "hiyang," connoting that the product is particularly suited to the user. "If this is the reaction from leading brand users, then imagine the market’s reaction to Flawless if we were to market our product more aggressively," enthused Tan.

"When we began selling Flawless, we had no way of predicting that people would respond this favorably to it. We knew we had a good product that had all the qualities people looked for in the leading brand but at a more affordable price. So it’s good to hear that people find our products hiyang and not merely more affordable," concludes Tan.

The success of the original Flawless Herbal Papaya Soap has since prompted the introduction of variants like Flawless Green Papaya Herbal Soap and Flawless Extreme Herbal Papaya Soap with Tea Tree Oil, which is designed for men. Sales for the new variants, according to Tan, have been brisk, with Flawless Extreme quickly catching up to their original herbal papaya soap formula.

When asked if this was because more Filipino men now want fairer skin, Tan smiles with a shrug, then adds, "or maybe it’s because both men and women recognize a great product when they try it…maybe it’s just a matter of being hiyang."

Insight gleaned from the FGD supports Tan’s hypothesis. The FGD revealed that men appreciated Flawless Extreme papaya soap because it contains Tea Tree oil, which has been found to be effective in combating bacteria that causes body odor. Other benefits, according to the male participants, include: "Not smelling like they borrowed their sister’s soap;" and "Masculine packaging that wasn’t embarrassing to buy on their own."

On the other hand, women who tried Flawless Herbal Papaya soap over the test period expressed appreciation for "effective skin whitening that did not dry out their skin." Some expressed interest in switching from their old papaya soap to Flawless.

With such positive feedback, Tan and Ching are optimistic that flawless will soon become a household name as more people discover what it means to have flawless skin.