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Friday, March 29, 2024

Beauty industry executive bets on Filipino millennials

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Joanna Therese ‘Sobee’ Dueñas-Choa was the top marketing executive of global cosmetics company Mary Kay Inc. in Asia Pacific in 2016 when she chose to come back home and lead the company in fully tapping the great opportunities in the Philippines.

Her return, after a decade of working in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore and other Asian countries, marked the transformation of the US brand in the Philippines into one that is more accessible to Filipino women, especially millennials.

“I was living in Hong Kong for seven years.  It is just advanced and so high tech there, and the pace of energy is so fast.  When I got home, I thought I would miss it.  And you know what, I don’t.  When I got home, it is like wow, the Philippines is so advanced now, and there is so much opportunity.   The progress here is amazing,” Dueñas says in an interview in Makati City.

Dueñas, who has two decades of experience in the beauty industry, had worked for Avon Asia Pacific and L’Oreal, before joining Mary Kay in 2009 where she rose to become the regional marketing manager based in Hong Kong overseeing 10 Asia-Pacific markets.

“When you say base, it was where I left my clothes.  Because I was traveling every two weeks, every month, to work in other countries,” says Dueñas, who obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing and Asian Studies from De La Salle University Manila in 1991.  She also studied General Management in National University of Singapore and has an MBA degree from Ateneo Graduate School of Business.

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On why she decided to take on the challenge of leading Mary Kay Philippines as the country general manager, she says: “We have come so far as a country.  I am not surprised that people are investing here and we are seeing our business also growing because there is a growing middle class.”

“The Philippines has 100 million people.  If you look at the sheer size of the population, and the economy is growing 6 percent to 7 percent a year, we are going to be the fastest growing country in the world.   Now is the time.  It is a good thing I went back home now,” she says.

As the country head, Dueñas leads thousands of independent beauty consultants and sales directors who are engaged in direct selling of Mary Kay products such as makeup, foundation, lipsticks, pressed powder, facial wash, cleansers, anti-aging and skin care lines. Direct selling is a face-to-face marketing or sale of products without the use of brick-and-mortar stores.

Mary Kay, established by the late American entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash in 1963, is one of the world’s top direct selling companies that focus on cosmetic products.  Based in Addison, Texas just outside Dallas, the company has 3 million independent beauty consultants across 35 countries and generates annual revenues in excess of $3 billion from the sales of over 200 products.

Mary Kay Philippines began commercial operations in May 2000, establishing a head office at Allegro Center along Pasong Tamo Extension in Makati City and two other centers in Davao City and Zamboanga City.

Dueñas says while research and development takes place in Texas, Mary Kay has developed certain products for Asian women.  “Because our seasons and climates are different., we need to use sun protection, especially if you are out running around,” she says.

She says Mary Kay Philippines focuses on skin care and makeup lines.  “When you look at direct selling as an industry, beauty which is the category we are playing in is just a part of it.  We actually chose not to play in apparel or in accessories or in nutrition.  Not yet.  Because we want to focus on our core strength which is skin care and makeup,” she says.

“The reason for that is that we are still in the process of turning the business around,” says Dueñas, who faces the challenge of making Mary Kay one of the top five direct selling companies and beauty brands in the Philippines.

Mary Kay Philippines country general manager Joanna Therese ‘Sobee’ Dueñas-Choa

Dueñas says the beauty and skin care industry in the Philippines is worth billions annually and it continuously grows as the economy expands and the population increases.  “It has been a year and a half since I moved back to Manila, but I have been in this role as country head for two years.   It took two years to reposition our company, make pricing more accessible, make the opportunity more accessible, and now we are seeing progress,” she says.

“At the moment, we are going to stay in beauty because I want to make sure we are stable there first.  And there is so much opportunity.  I would love to have Mary Kay sales director on every island,” she says.

Dueñas says direct selling is a legitimate form of trade, just like retail.  “At the end of the day, direct selling or retail is just a channel.  If you look at it now, we are selling the same products.  Whether you are selling in a store or direct selling, it is just a channel and we are competing in the same industry,” she says.

She says that unlike other multi-level marketing company, one needs to sell in order to make a commission with Mary Kay.  “We need to sell in order to earn in the business. In multi-level marketing, a lot of times, it is dependent on recruiting people.  You earn from bringing in a group of people, but not necessarily making sales,” she says, adding that this causes a negative perception of MLM or even pyramiding in the country.

“In Mary Kay, when we practice direct selling, we really need to sell.  The only way we can earn a commission, even if were bring people under us, is by selling,” she says.

Dueñas says what makes Mary Kay different is its values and principles.  “There are a lot of direct selling companies, and a lot of them carry cosmetics, skin care and accessories, but what makes us different and why did I stay with Mary Kay? At the later point in your career, you want to be with a company that you believe in.  I joined this company because it believes in enriching women’s lives,” she says.

“That makes it super different from all these other companies.  It is family-owned.  You can see the values and principles being practiced.  Our founder is Mary Kay Ash who passed on.  This May, we are celebrating her 100th birthday if she had been here.  So we have these events happening.  As a company, it will be celebrating 55 years around the world next year.  In the Philippines, we are turning 18 this May,” she says.

Dueñas says the cosmetic market in the Philippines continues to grow, attracting global players, including almost all Korean beauty brands.  But many of these companies are repositioning to take advantage of the mass market.

“Ninety percent of our population look for more affordable products.  If you look at our positioning in Mary Kay, it is very wide.  We have products that can cater to anyone from 18 up to their 50s or 60s, so it serves all generations. But in terms of the pricing, we have prices that we call ‘door openers’.  That is something that I worked on when I came home,” she says.

Dueñas says she worked on making Mary Kay products more accessible in the country.  “Some of our products are quite affordable.  So we repositioned ourselves so that people will know that our prices are quite friendly.  We actually took risk and looked at what products in our line now which Filipinas love using and which we can make more approachable—things like lipsticks, or cleansers, or pressed powder.  We don’t want them to think that they are not affordable,” she says.

“We adjusted the pricing for these.  Once people are able to try, they do either one of two things.  They become a happy or loyal customer or they decide to sign up with us to become beauty consultants.  They eventually work their way up to become sales directors,” she says.

“Some of these women are so successful now and  I am inspired by them.  Like we have some people who decided not to leave the country to pursue other jobs abroad, but decided to stay here, because they see that their Mary Kay business is doing so well,” says Dueñas.

Dueñas says that over the past two years, Mary Kay posted double-digit growth in sales, a trend which she expects to continue in the coming years.  “Officially, we have thousands and thousands of people distributing our products, and that number has grown, double-digit.  It has been growing at double-digit since last year, and we are seeing continuous growth.”

On how Mary Kay Philippines achieved that level of growth, Dueñas says: “We really looked at our positioning.  What was very important for us was the perception of people.  People knew who Mary Kay was.  They knew we are a US company with high quality.  The misconception is it is expensive or mahal.  When I came home, I said mahal in my country can mean two things—it can mean expensive or it can mean love.  At the end of the day, we had to change that message from mahal as expensive to ‘I love my Mary Kay’.  The end goal was 100 million people, 50 million were women, and maybe 25 million to 30 million were in the age bracket that we are looking at,” she says.

“In order to do that, we had to change some of our pricing.  It was also a whole 360 exercise.  We had to look at how we are communicating with people.  We had to make the opportunity easier and we had to make sure our branding was out there,” says Dueñas.

“It is all about accessibility and penetration.  We have to make sure we are accessible.  At the same time, we have to create access.  We had to make sure our brand awareness improves,” she says. “What really motivated me to come back is I saw how successful Mary Kay was in other countries. Now, we are the fastest growing market in Asia-Pacific.”

Dueñas says starting a Mary Kay independent business now costs as low as P1,500 for a starter kit and education materials.

“I am now very happy.  I would like for us to be happier.  There is so much opportunity.  We have over 100 million people.  Our country has a huge opportunity as a population,” she says.

The Philippines, she says, has a young population, with an average age of 24 which belongs to the millennial generation.  “Millennials are not just a big market for Mary Kay.  Millennials are the market.  That is the majority of our population.  It is a huge market for any industry, especially for beauty,” she says.

“When I look at the percentage of people distributing our products, our sales directors and beauty consultants, majority is between 24 and 34, so we have captured a huge chunk of millennials which is important because once you are loyal to a skin care brand and your business is doing well, you are going to stay,” she says.

“What I would like to have in the future is the next batch.  Who are the next millennials?  Or the young people graduating from college now.  Our goal is to stay relevant.  When I look at the population, I can see that it is mirrored in our own company. The triangle is like that.  I think it is important to stay relevant especially in this country,” she says.

To cater to the young generation, Mary Kay Philippines pursued digital initiatives, says Dueñas.  The company now provides online ordering for its sales force to help them grow the business.

“Right now, we are doing a lot of things on Facebook.  We have digital tools for our sales persons.  You can order online.  Pretty soon we will be launching beauty analysis digitally,” she says.

What do not change, she says, are the values of Mary Kay.  “We are here to enrich women’s lives.  When I came home I told the team we are here to enrich Filipinas lives.  That is what keeps us going. Everybody who joins the company, we talk about the values.  These values I also personally believe in,” she says.

Dueñas says her goal is to achieve a stable, sustainable growth for Mary Kay Philippines, along with an increase in beauty consultants and sales directors.  “For direct selling, I would like us to be one of the top five skin care brands,” she says.

“There is no way to go but up.  It is not just about sales, but being able to reach more people.  We are growing, and I would like to continue that growth and to be able to sustain it.  I would love to have hundreds of thousands of distributors.  I would love to have a sales director on every island.  We have 7,107 islands.  That is the dream,” says Dueñas.

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