There's Beauty in Remnant Space

DermaPlus, an online marketer of genetically engineered skin-rejuvenation cream, has built up a customer base of about 6,000 primarily through direct response space, search and public relations.

With a budget of about $40,000 per month, the Sedona, AZ firm has been running remnant ads in such magazines as Vogue, Family Circle, Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart Living, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, city magazines in Dallas and Houston, and custom publications from Amtrak, Continental Airlines, United Airlines and USAir, said president Bert Ensley.

The customers are mostly upscale women age 45 and older, he said. Lorenzo DeLuca, Ensley's business partner, made all the magazine selections. Ensley didn't disclose how each magazine performed specifically, but noted that some, like Cosmopolitan and Glamour, were not the top producers.

“My daughter told me those weren't right for that age group and they both had too many ads for skin cream anyway,” he said.

The other aspects of DermaPlus' (www.dermalastyl.com) promotions have been search engine marketing and public relations — and one doesn't work without the other, Ensley stressed.

“We bought the keyword ‘wrinkle’ and we only got 1,000 clicks in a week,” he said, adding that for DermaPlus, SEO hasn't worked by itself to this point. However, the company often has seen orders pick up after stories appeared in local newspapers or on TV stations.

Looking ahead, Ensley plans to explore TV shopping channels and direct mail as other possible DM avenues. But he's less likely to try infomercials because the up-front costs (some $500,000) make the medium too risky for a company of DermaPlus' size.

SOME HISTORY

Ensley wasn't always a marketer.

A few years ago Ensley, a microbiologist, developed Elastotropin, a synthetic protein that mimics the skin's elastic properties and can be used to help regenerate wounded skin and reduce wrinkles.

After working at several different biotechnology companies over the past 20 years, he eventually hooked up with DeLuca in 2004 and started the company.

Armed with about $500,000 in venture capital, they looked into getting retail distribution for their first product, Derma-Lastyl anti-aging skin cream. But that proved too difficult. They also were turned off by an advertising agency that said it would establish a “brand” for the product, something Ensley and DeLuca saw as too expensive and unnecessary.

“The agency wanted to give us a ‘brand’ for $250,000,” Ensley said. “But we'd been doing that ourselves all along.”

Eventually the partners opted to go the online route.

Right now the company markets two products, the wrinkle cream and an eye serum that purports to protect skin and also guard against cancer.

Ensley is hoping DermaPlus will clear $1 million in revenue this year but said he won't be too disappointed if it doesn't.