Feb 1, 1992

Best Face Forward

New business tries to enter the Asian market with their cosmetic line for Asian women.

 

What's the best way to break into the Asian market? First, establish your product as a premium American brand, then let the foreign markets clamor for it, contends Arlyn Morse, president of Kayla Cosmetics, in Burbank, Calif. The year-old privately funded Kayla hopes to create a demand-pull for its makeup and skin-care products -- designed for the Asian face -- by letting the Asian American market of an estimated 7.5 million consumers seed the way to a much larger market in the Pacific Rim. Phase one of the strategy seems to be working. Ringing up $3 million in first-year sales through a single Beverly Hills boutique as well as direct-mail catalogs, the company eschews slick-image advertising in favor of a grass-roots approach using multilingual sales reps. After introducing its line in upscale U.S. retail stores this year, the company intends to expand to Singapore, Malaysia, and Korea by 1994.

-- Anne Murphy