KEY POINTS:
A plug in a top fashion magazine, space on the shelves of the right department store - in the beauty business, the best marketing often isn't for sale.
It must be infuriating for the industry's big players. But for Wellington sisters Catherine de Groot and Sarah Gibbs, it's a golden opportunity. They couldn't afford to advertise their natural skincare range in Marie Claire UK, Elle USA or Vogue. Yet the past five years have seen their products in a dozen international glossies and some of the world's biggest department stores.
The sisters went into business just as natural skincare was taking off, determined to take the "hippy dippy" out of natural products. Right from the start, they stumped up to hire experienced Wellington packaging designers and good PR firms in Australia and Britain, carefully crafting their brand to appeal to a new audience.
Since then, De Groot says they've had about $10 million worth of free advertising, in the form of editorial endorsements. One of their products, Everything Balm, sold out overnight after a mention in Britain's Guardian.
Another PR coup saw them win a spot in a small, but hip, New York store where they were spotted by buyers for department stores Lane Crawford of Hong Kong, and Selfridges and Liberty of London.
So far, just a wildly successful example of a common marketing strategy.
But the sisters' speedy entry into the world market has been more than a product of savvy PR.
Gibbs, a chartered accountant, and De Groot, a former journalist, saw no reason not to go for it when they started their business in 2002.
Their fearless approach saw them plunge straight into the Australasian market, ignoring the convention of building a New Zealand brand first.
"We knew that timing would be everything," says De Groot. "With the burgeoning growth in the natural cosmetics area, we thought the sooner we could get into the market, the better."
By 2006, Trilogy was third in the Deloitte Fast 50 list of growing companies, clocking up 690 per cent revenue growth over two years. These days, half their total products are exported, mostly to Britain and Australia.
De Groot says the key to exporting is picking the right distributor, something the sisters are getting better at with time.
Their first Australian distributor collapsed, taking three months of sales with them.
"Luckily we had a Romalpa clause [in our contract] that allowed us to get our stock out of their warehouse," says De Groot. "We've really learned to trust our instincts, and check and double check before we launch into distribution agreements."
Now, the sisters travel to the overseas market as well as asking the distributor to come to them before they sign an agreement. "You need them to carry your brand the same way you would if we were in those markets," says De Groot.
"You can almost feel it within 10 minutes of meeting new potential partners."
The sisters came across their key ingredient - rosehip oil - through their father's business extracting raw ingredients for the cosmetics industry. Gibbs tried the oil and they started thinking. "Sarah said, 'Cath, we really should be doing more with this than putting it in 44 gallon drums and exporting it overseas'," says De Groot.
They developed five products based on rosehip oil with an Auckland cosmetic-maker (a range that has now swelled to 27, almost all manufactured in Auckland) and offered them to pharmacies, health stores and upmarket department stores.
De Groot says their small initial offering made the product a low-risk proposition for retailers.
"We were just asking them to take 60cm of shelf space and give us a go."
But she says that while getting products on shelves isn't as hard as one might think, keeping them there is much tougher. "We've been flattered to be invited to be on the shelves of some prestigious department stores but we've learned that if you don't follow up with really good sales support and good service you don't last long," she says. "Every department store wants to have the latest product, the newest thing but they don't necessarily want to keep them unless they're performing really, really well."
This means constant visits to their stockists to check on displays, train their salespeople and gather feedback. Gibbs was in Britain last week, visiting as many of their London stockists as she could in a five-day trip.
"We're focused on training and education, rewarding [salespeople] and keeping them in the loop," says De Groot.
"They decide what products we're going to develop next, because they're the ones selling them and they give us feedback."
Trilogy has 10 staff in Wellington, two in Australia and one in Britain. Ultimately, they want a staff member in every country where they do business.
Gibbs is Trilogy's CEO, while De Groot looks after product development, communications and marketing. De Groot says the partnership works because the pair have different skills but share essentially the same world view.
Gibbs is entrepreneurial and dynamic, a strategic thinker, focused on sales and "making things happen". De Groot says she is more methodical and creative, with her journalist background making her well-suited to help with the PR and branding. But the two have similar views when it comes to making business decisions, so they've been careful to consult outside mentors to get different perspectives.
As for the company's future, De Groot says natural products are no fad. Trilogy has recently been certified carbon neutral, a process that took about 18 months, and which de Groot highly recommends. "It isn't about us trying to reach a point of being [fully] sustainable, it's about continuing to make sure we can measure and mitigate our effect on the environment," she says.
As for Trilogy's PR success, De Groot's advice to other businesses is to just get their stories out there.
"If any start-up with a great product or a great service to offer wants to create that brand awareness, tell your story, because people are interested," she says.
