YOU NEVER GET A SECOND CHANCE TO make a first impression. Important ideas should look important. (And if your idea is not important, go back to the front and find one that is). Also, a new idea desperately needs visibility, which is very difficult to achieve without a major media commitment.

People are not sitting around waiting for your new idea or product. You need up-front excitement to get the market’s attention before you can sell them anything. In addition to striking hard, you want to strike so quickly. No good idea stays lonely for very long.

When Age Defying Solutions Philippines Corp. (ADSPHIL) President and CEO Annaliza J. Diuco-Soriano launched the latest breakthrough in skin whitening and wellness, Glutathione + Papaya or Glupa, she invited no other than popular TV celebrity Boy Abunda to be their brand ambassador. “He is the perfect spokesperson for our brand—debonair, health-conscious and can talk extensively about the skin-enhancing qualities of the brand,” she said.

Aiza, as she is fondly called, concocted her creation Glupa after she was asked by an aunt why skin-whitening products in the market cannot make her perpetually white. She asked, “What if we combined the whitening properties of papaya and the ability of glutathione to retain that whiteness for a longer period of time?” You get the picture. It was an idea born out of an entrepreneur’s personal conviction and drive.

Immersing herself in personal research and testing, she has been monitoring the trends for any long-term shifts that may influence the markets. What does the market wants? “There is a vast market for the whitening product. Yet, more and more people are still looking for more. But then again, we wouldn’t want to be a copycat. We wanted to make the brand different,” she said.

In other words, Aiza narrowed her focus. She found the synergy of both papaya and gluta. The fundamental idea is the perfect combination. She knows in her heart that she has a superior product, and is certain to find the right words and strategies to communicate those beliefs to others. It figures.

Using her 12-year background in sales and marketing to good use, she developed Glupa. “Using papaya alone is not enough to keep your skin whiter every day. You need to combine papaya with glutathione, which is a natural ingredient to maintain the whiteness of your skin. This becomes a very powerful skin-whitening product with added side benefits like generating a feeling of overall well-being, increased strength and vigor, brighter glowing and smoother skin, among others,” she said.

Aiza furthered: “On top of the two best whitening agents, glupa soap has additional Alpha Arbutin, vitamins C and E, tiny white complex, grape-seed extract and sunscreen. Glupa also comes in lotion, cream and capsule variants.”

In a way, buzz is essentially a pervasive feeling or communal reputation of a product that is caused by the goodwill of fulfilled expectations. That is, something like “Hey, this really does work!”

“I am happy to say that countless women attest to the skin-whitening capabilities of Glupa already,” Aiza stressed. Because of so many happy users of Glupa and the increasing demand for whitening products in the market now, Glupa partnered up with Watsons Personal Care Stores (Philippines) Inc. to distribute the product to a wider audience.

Glupa’s launch had been carefully planned. If a company demonstrates an ability to think differently, to switch frameworks and function in a range of situations, consumers tend to believe these things are done on their behalf. Innovation shows openness to unconventional ideas instead of rigorous adherence to the status quo.

Is there a secret to good marketing? “There is a tendency,” Aiza replied, “to try many things and hope one of them will work. It’s like hunting for birds with a shotgun. Most of the time you don’t shoot well, but if you aim properly you can hit the target market with a single shot. If there is any secret to good marketing, it is that you have to be well-prepared.”

Aiza started her career in sales and marketing as a young corporate accounts officer in a telecommunications company, followed by a stint as a sales training supervisor of beauty and intimate apparel at Sara Lee Philippines. She further honed her sales and marketing experience at Kanji Foods Corp., a snack foods manufacturer.

Her longest marketing experience was at Duke Food Products Inc. where she largely worked as an executive vice president, managing the company’s marketing and business development needs. It was at Duke Foods that she finally decided to set up her own company. So after seven years, Aiza set up Age-Defying Solutions in 2009, and she never looked back since.

Now, Aiza has set up a marketing template that showed how Glupa fits into people’s skin whitening and wellness: Never let consumers forget the message that Glupa actually works, where they need a perfect combination.

***

AGGRESSIVENESS PAYS

This marketing company hesitates to launch aggressive marketing programs because it doesn’t want to offend its competitors. It seems to value camaraderie at the annual industry convention more than anything else, including the effectiveness of its marketing program. Observers say that’s a mistake. Offend them. Your enemies will respect you for it. Respect loves a lot more merchandise than friendship. One adman says, “If you want someone to love you, be nice to them. If you want someone to respect you…and to buy from you…punch them in the nose.”