The Success of an Acne Removal Cosmetics Company

I used to believe that forums could help enterprises maintain and develop relationships with old customers and answer online questions promptly, but they were not good at finding new customers. However, one of my friends made it with the help of Douban (a Chinese online database and social networking service) and is still expanding the number of new customers. The following content is based on his personal experience of network marketing in Douban, which can serve as a reference for individuals to start a business or open an online store.

In April 2010, I opened an online store on Taobao with only one type of product for sale, that is, the acne toner formulated by my own company. At that time, I was at a loss because of a lack of sales. I tried Taobao ZTC, but to no effect, except for an unsuccessful transaction. As the saying goes, “Adversity makes a man wise.” I started my clueless browsing in Baidu Tieba (a Chinese online forum) and wrote down the first marketing post in my life as sincerely as I could, which was, unfortunately, deleted in the end. Despite the unsuccessful online promotion, I still obtained 3 customers, which reinforced my belief that it was effective. I just needed to find an appropriate platform to attract consumers and amplify the word-of-mouth effect.

After looking around for a long time, I finally chose Douban as the target platform and dived into it. I had registered on Douban when I was in college and it was like a high-end online community at that time. But now it looked more accessible. During my study, the groups with clear purposes caught my attention. In searching for acne groups, hundreds of related groups were shown on the search result pages. I picked out and joined those that had been created for a long time, had the most members, and were the most active. Learning from the mistakes made in my previous postings, I observed carefully for a while before contacting the group leader through Douban E-mail to ensure good relationships, so that I could settle down to run marketing campaigns here. It turned out feasible. In fact, the group leader didn’t have acne, nor did he care how magical my product was as long as it wouldn’t make the face worse. After receiving the advertising fee, he just stayed out of everything. But I was committed to trusted business operations. After all, the acne products had lost their credibility already. To compete in such a fierce market, we must have our own strengths and not further hype the product like others (which was a risky move). I hoped to get genuine word of mouth from people, but I wasn’t sure if it would work.

If creating a new post needed courage and sincerity, then good interaction between customers from Douban was the key to long-term operation. If the good words of mouth couldn’t be disseminated, I was always a stranger in the eyes of others; but if the dissemination was too commercial, it might also put me at a disadvantage. Therefore, I decided to think in reverse, that is, to stand in customers’ shoes and to think from the point of view of acne sufferers who had been hurt many times but still didn’t give up. I wondered how to gain their trust. After much deliberation, I finally laid down a principle, that is, to tell the truth and not to brag. This was contrary to the current marketing concept in the cosmetic industry. But as I have my own product, and as I was confident of its excellent efficacy, I was not afraid of introducing my only product—Renrui Acne Toner—in the most truthful, accurate language. Also, when the first batch of consumers came to me for consultation on QQ or Aliwangwang, I treated them with the same rigorous attitude. With a good cycle formed, the Internet started to reveal its openness and relative fairness. I was well-received and it seemed less commercial. It was so natural that people could hardly smell the business in it, thus I got rid of the embarrassment of being a businessman. More importantly, the acne sufferers who called themselves guinea pigs when applying the acne toners for the first time were constantly following up with posts about their feelings and the updated conditions. Not all were good words or praises, but that was enough to arouse more people’s interest in trying it. Like the arrival of the harvest season after the hard work of sowing, the first batch of customers had completed the cycle of acne treatment, and words of gratitude and affirmation started to appear. Seeing the previous success of treatment, the customers who came afterwards were not obsessed about how to let me guarantee its efficacy. Instead, they asked for my help eagerly. Such changes occurred two months after the posting. It seemed to have taken root in this small acne group and was going to branch out. At a later stage, there was a dramatic change in the tone of customers coming to me. In the past, they used to question whether it was true. But afterwards, they all turned to me for help with absolute trust.



Relying on the traffic brought by the Douban group, my store, with only one core product for sale and no hype, was gradually upgraded to the store with one diamond, and two diamonds later. There was a lot of recommendation and affirmation from buyers in the accumulated positive feedback. Whether it was the previous follow-up messages or genuine praises afterwards, they complemented each other and boosted the turnover from 6,000 yuan in January to 10,000 yuan in March. Between May and June, the store stabilized at a steady revenue of 20,000 yuan. Everything was moving in a better direction. After the launch of the second generation of the product and a gentle cleanser in response to requests from customers, the business seemed to be brought to the next level. More importantly, the words of mouth brought by retailing, like an endorsement, laid the cornerstone of trust for future wholesale clients, whose doubts were gradually dispelled. And I got to put more of my energy into the publicity of my product.

From the initial turnover of 6,000 yuan to the current one of 30,000 yuan, it only took 9 months to achieve, but the efforts involved were beyond words. Anyway, it is rare to see people receive such a huge benefit simply through a single post. The recipe lies in the precision targeting of people with needs. This is a unique advantage of the Douban group. After all, my company possesses only one core product. Although it is said that “Good wine needs no bush”, who will have the time to savor the fragrance of the wine in the fierce e-commerce environment nowadays? After having a firm foothold in Douban, I tried to make a breakthrough in other marketing channels. But no matter what kind of publicity I used, it would always come back to the post. It’s hard to make people with acne believe you relying on the visual impact of the advertisements, but clean and refreshing messages can make them gladly accept it after rational judgment. To put it bluntly, those messages capture the hearts of people with special needs because they believe in products with good word of mouth.

I am still a beginner in the field of network marketing and have just found a direction. But I believe that in the marketing era with a remarkable diversity of industries, everyone can find a more open road of network marketing whether through Douban groups, marketing business on Taobao, or Baidu keywords. Everyone has the strength to create a better future for their cause.