Realize Beauty sells science not wishful thinking.

The name of my company is Selling Science Pty Ltd and not Realize Beauty. Realize Beauty was the name I chose for my blog after realising that the name ‘Selling Science’ was a bit too corporate, hard edged and direct to get traction in the blogisphere – it was a name chosen while I was still in the corporate world and could talk the lingo…..  Anyway, I originally resisted the name change because it felt like I was selling out but after a while I realised that I would only be selling out if what I blogged about was all fluff and frills over substance and I wasn’t about to do any of that.  Also I liked and still like the name Realize Beauty (it is with a z because it ranked higher on google that way – sorry Queen) as it has meaning, feeling and personality.  I write to explore or ‘realize’ truth, I appreciate, celebrate and help to create beauty.  So that is that and that brings me onto my writing and how and what I write and teach brands.

I am a scientist first, a scientist with experience of sales and marketing – especially the sales and marketing of technical ideas and products.  Being a scientist I can’t and don’t make assumptions, jump to conclusions, have faith in something ‘by association’ or get excited by handfuls of anecdotal evidence or ‘testimonials’.

I put this approach into practice by helping to direct brand owners and corporations to make product and ingredient choices and philosophies that support their brand positioning and ethos.  I make it clear what we do and don’t know, can and can’t infer, should and need not measure.  I save brands time and money by bringing structure and logic the their brand offering and increase a brands sales by making sure that every single scientific element underpinning the brand makes sense and does what the brand says it does.  This might sound like marketing but it is not.

I am not the person who tells you that your coffee scrub will  reduce your cellulite just because coffee has been found in one or another study to do that (or similar).  I am the person who will tell you that it was the molecule caffeine and not ‘coffee’ that did that, in some but not all studies and mostly in small studies that were not exactly relevant to what you are doing here as the caffeine was delivered via a specific vehicle into the skin (a leave-on product usually). I will tell you that you can MARKET the product loosely by association and call your brand ‘smoothing scrub’ or similar while depicting a slim and smooth legged beauty on the packet or talking about an attractive appearance but I will not tell you that YOUR product WILL reduce cellulite because there is no evidence for that unless you want to get your product tested…..

I am also not the person who will say that your products are better than anyone else’s on the market because yours contain X, Y or Z wonder ingredient.  I don’t care how amazing that ingredient is or how much evidence there is for its ‘deep cell rejuvenating’ properties I won’t endorse your marketing claims unless you have tested your products and then I will only endorse the claims that you have tested and received a positive, statistically significant pass on.

I am also not the person who will say your products are SAFER than anyone else’s because yours are natural, certified organic or made to TGA standards.  I will happily construct or help you construct a features and benefits list brainstorming this or these key sales points focusing on what we DO and DON’T know and what we CAN and CAN’T find out.

I’m saying all of this because people get confused between what a scientist with a technical sales and marketing background can do vs what marketing can do.

I personally believe that every brand that can afford it should have both.

In the old days what I do would have been covered by the R&D Director or Manager. Depending on their background and experience they would either have an easy time working with marketing or they would hate their guts.  Usually it was the latter as most R&D Directors or Managers have worked their whole life in the scientific environment and haven’t had to deal with the weird and wonderful thing called ‘the public’ or ‘the brand owner with BIG IDEAS’.   Technical Directors with direct customer experience and the ability to communicate what is and isn’t possible without tearing their hair out or needing medication are few and far between as are Marketing Teams that understand science.  But that is where I come in, that is where I can help.

My preferred marketing modus operandi is one of truthful story telling.  I enjoy digging into the background of ingredients, where they are from, their history and their potential.  I love building up a brand by showing the public that it is so much more than just a sum of all its parts.  That the brand has a heart and soul, that the brand identity and vision is present in each and every part of the product, that it all makes sense.   I love exploring the possibilities of the product and its ingredients, what is possible and what has been done to help ensure that the product performs to its very highest potential.  To discuss how the product has been designed to interact with the skin, where it sits and how it feels.  Finally,  if the evidence is available I love to talk about what the product has been proven to do, its efficacy, the results.

But I can only go as far as the science and evidence will let me and then I stop and let marketing take over, sexy it up and emphasise the good bits – make it ZING!

 

So that’s it really.  I’m Selling Science because that is what I am trained to do!

Amanda x