Andrew Au says digital marketing is playing a bigger role in promoting cosmetics brands on the Chinese mainland. Provided to China Daily

Hong Kong-based company helps global cosmetics major find its marketing niche in China

Global cosmetics and personal care products maker Estee Lauder believes in doing things differently and China has been no exception to this rule.

When the US-based company decided to launch a range of skincare products exclusively for Chinese women, not much was made of it initially. The skincare product range Osaio, which debuted to strong sales, was the company's first cosmetic brand for Asian women.

Andrew Au, the managing director of Hong Kong-based creative agency Fluid, and the brains behind the new range, however, says that more than the uniqueness of his gender, it is the pioneering effort that his team took to ensure that the word "Osaio" did not carry negative connotations in Asia, that has translated into good market response.

With the beauty industry worth more than $17 billion (13 billion euros) annually and 21 percent of its global sales coming from Asia, Estee Lauder chief executive Fabrizio Freda has often dubbed China the company's "second home market".

The Osaio launch was part of the company's larger expansion plan for Asia, including the addition of several thousand employees in the next few years and an anticipated annual growth rate in excess of 8 percent.

According to Au, when the global company decided to launch an exclusive range of products in China, the first thing they realized was that the products should strike a chord with the biggest influencers and decision-makers, which in this case happened to be Chinese women.

"It was an exhaustive process to find a product that appealed to Asian women," the 35-year-old Hong Kong native says.

"The brand concept we were working on revolved around Asian women seeking balance in all areas of their life, including their skin and that when the skin is perfectly balanced it radiates beauty."

Au says he was approached by Estee Lauder in 2008 for work on the new brand, and since then he and his team of 35 employees have worked with focus groups to understand exactly what Chinese women want-something that often takes a lifetime to comprehend.

"Asian skin has its own unique attributes and therefore needs its own special type of skincare. We had to understand what was most desirable for Asian women in their skin," he says.

"Based on extensive focus group studies, we discovered that the key attribute we need to focus on was clarity luminosity or, in other words, radiance."

Au says that the branding work was such an intricate process that one of the things when they came up with the new name was to ensure that the word Osaio was balanced.

"The Os at either end of the name visually balance out the name as well as, of course, representing a perfect balance," he says

Making it easy to pronounce, memorable and unique were also other important attributes, he says.

And having a good name is essential in a market where a moniker can mean the difference between success, failure and, at times, pure embarrassment. Coming up with a successful brand name has not been the case for all companies entering China, Au says.

But avoiding the potential pitfalls of misbranding a product is easy work for the advertisement prodigy, who has spent more than a decade helping some of the biggest brands market their goods, both domestically and internationally.

Prior to joining Fluid, Au spent 10 years split between working as marketing manager for the Economist group and Fortune magazine, as well working for Time Warner.

He says his shift from working at large multinational companies to a medium-sized enterprise like Fluid had very little impact on how he operated; rather it was a close-knit environment that encouraged him to step into his role as a leader at Fluid.

"What it really boils down to are the individuals one has to interact with on a day-to-day basis and ultimately the potential Fluid offered was too good for me to pass up," he says.

While his normal focus is helping bring Chinese brands overseas-he said helping Estee Lauder break into the Chinese mainland offered a pleasant change and put the vast difference between consumers in the East and West into perspective.

"The strategy for inbound and outbound growth broadly is the same -everything starts and ends with understanding your target audience," he says.

"But Chinese consumers tend to like a lot of information. So advertisements and packaging need to make sure the benefits are clearly on display. Whereas in the West, advertising messages tend to be more subtle and less in your face."

He says he is also fascinated with the change that digital marketing has brought to the industry.

"What is great about digital is that so much information and data is available about different segments," he says.

"Overall there is a lot of information that already exists that simply needs to be captured and interpreted to unearth actionable insights."

Technology has helped add to the ability to understand customers, both Chinese and others.

"Now you can literally see, via heat signatures, where people tend to let their eyes dwell-and that is very informative as to what grabs attention in the first place.

"In digital, the ability to track dwell time and click through rates is also very helpful when determining what resonates and what doesn't."

But ultimately it's the creative process that keeps him fascinated, he says.

While working at large companies had its benefits, it's the ability to collaborate with a small team without the need for the "dreaded decision by committee" that keeps his ideas fresh and his company attracting big name accounts like Estee Lauder.

"IT can be a death knell for creativity and often dilutes what was a good idea into a mediocre idea," he says.

"In order for creative work to be allowed to happen, clients with courage and common sense must be allowed to take ownership for their area of responsibility."

And while still reveling in success seen so far with Estee Lauder's Osaio launch, he says he looks forward to the continual evolution of being part of a small but strong creative agency.

"In the grand scheme of things, we are a small company, but don't discount the little guys, as it is the little guys like Fluid who dream big and act boldly to change the world."

toddbalazovic@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/05/2013 page22)