An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Confront to real life. Go on the field: there you will really understand the stakes of your business. Exchange and meet your customers and partners. It’s your brand, but in a way, it’s also theirs. They are the ones who will allow you to grow your brand in line with reality.
As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Julien Revol.
Julien Revol is the CEO and Co-Founder of ALPAHSCIENCE Skincare and has developed a 20-year experience in cosmetics, both in leading worldwide companies and innovative SMEs. During his tenor at L’Oréal he successfully launched La Roche-Posay in Mexico before switching to marketing strategy at the L’Oréal headquarters in Paris, where he started working on Vitamin C and skin aging. In 2015 he met Dr. Alfred Marchal at a medical congress and was immediately impressed by his deep knowledge in anti-aging and antioxidants. When Dr. Marchal sold his company to a major skincare firm from Spain, they decided to co-create Alphascience to bring to life all his new ideas. Since its launch at the end 2016, ALPHASCIENCE has been a success. The brand is present in more than 30 countries worldwide and is very much appreciated for its high efficiency on the visible signs of aging.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I started working in cosmetics in 1999 at L’Oréal. I launched Vitamin C skincare products, but they were not really stable at that time.
In 2015, I worked for a Swiss anti-aging company and met Dr. Alfred Marchal at a medical congress. As a scientist, Dr. Marchal is a renowned expert for antioxidants and Vitamin C stability.
I was really impressed by his deep knowledge in anti-aging. He had already created famous formulas based on Vitamin C and Vitamin K, and he still had many innovations in his mind.
I have always wanted to build my own company with innovative products. When Dr. Marchal sold his company to a major skincare firm, I jumped on the opportunity and convinced him to create ALPHASCIENCE together, to bring to life all his new ideas.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I sold a product to our distributors that was still in development. But during heat stability tests, the product oxidized and looked more like a chocolate cream than a cosmetic product. Since we weren’t called Nestlé, we really hesitated to launch it. The lesson is that developing products as complex as ours takes a lot of time and you have to be very patient!
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
ALPHASCIENCE stands out by innovation. Its particularity is its scientist Dr. Alfred Marchal who is an internationally recognized antioxidants and aesthetic medicine expert with a lot of innovative ideas. He has the ability to observe nature, to understand it, and to make state-of-the-art products by working on the associations between complex ingredients.
Tannic Acid is a good example. Dr. Marchal got this idea when he visited the Yosemite National park with the giant sequoia trees which get their red color from Tannic Acid, a very interesting active compound. It protects them from external aggressors such as UV exposure, oxidative stress, bacteria, parasites and fungi. This protection explains their exceptional lifespan; some sequoias are 3,000 years old.
This molecule is really unstable. By observing how it interacts in its natural environment, Dr. Marchal has been able to stabilize it. We couldn’t believe the fantastic results we got when we tested its stability.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We have just succeeded in stabilizing pure glutamine in a cream. Glutamine is well-known to physicians as a supplemental drug to repair tissue damage after accidents or intestinal damages. This is a major breakthrough as our consumers will have the opportunity to use this pharmaceutical ingredient to treat their skin for a wide range of indications such as wound healing, wrinkle reduction, vascular fragility, rosacea and more.
Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
I believe that brand marketing is the foundation and identity of a company. For ALPHASCIENCE, our identity is rooted in innovative medical aesthetic treatments to accompany physicians’ protocols. Product marketing focuses on product communication: benefits, recommendations for use, results for our clients.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
In a world that is moving and evolving with so many new brands supported by influencers, it is essential for us to stay firm on our foundations. We always avoid going into areas that are far from our identity. This is very important because we want to reinforce the trust that the consumer has placed in our brand. Supporting our brand means investing a lot in R&D to bring innovations and working closely with skin specialists such as aesthetic doctors, dermatologists and plastic surgeons. We then move on to product marketing, always keeping in mind the brand’s identity.
Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.
1st “think different”. This very famous Apple slogan is essential to me. You build a specific brand because you believe that you can bring something different, new, and better to your customers.
2nd: Try to reach perfection and be exigent. Carl Lewis said: “No limits but the sky”. Set your goals higher and higher and be confident that you will achieve them. Don’t be afraid to think big for your brand. After five years, ALPHASCIENCE is now present in more than 30 countries worldwide.
3rd Keep your promise. When a consumer gives us his trust by buying our product, we must never disappoint him. I try to encourage everyone in the company to keep this promise.
4th Confront to real life. Go on the field: there you will really understand the stakes of your business. Exchange and meet your customers and partners. It’s your brand, but in a way, it’s also theirs. They are the ones who will allow you to grow your brand in line with reality.
5th Have the best team that shares your values and the brand’s values. Surround yourself with people who believe in the future of the brand, in its strengths and who want to take it to the next level. Work with people who are consistent with your brand’s mindset. Take for instance our marketing manager, Carmen, who is a pharmacist with a passion for cosmetics. At the age of four, she was already mixing ingredients to make her own cosmetics for her dolls.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
I would say Apple.
The brand is so strong, they differentiate themselves with the highest quality. Remember that in the 90s they were on the verge of bankruptcy when they started trying to clone PCs and abandon their identity. Steve Jobs came back to a shell of a nearly bankrupt company and decided to focus on revamping the Mac. He managed to get Apple up and turn it into a global icon. He refocused the company on its original beliefs and promises: an innovative brand with cutting-edge technology and a unique identity.
In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand building campaign? Is it similar, is it different?
First of all, we have to see if we have reached the objectives set for this brand building campaign. It’s really about promoting your brand in a strategic and tactical way.
I would also say that a successful campaign is one that uses means that are in line with the brand’s philosophy. For example, if I want to have a lot of visibility, I’m not going to work with very famous influencers that might make us a lot of money but don’t really relate to our brand promises. Stay consistent and it will work.
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
The importance of social media should not be overlooked, even for a medical cosmetics brand. It is certainly a way for us to reinforce our notoriety, but it is above all an opportunity to make our customers talk and to let them testify about our products by sharing their feelings.
Our doctors are our influencers: they are the ones who use our products, who trust us and who talk about them honestly on social networks.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
That would be corporate responsibility. By this I mean a company that grows, creates good jobs, establishes fair relationships with its local partners and satisfies its customers to make its modest contribution to a responsible economic environment.
Our logistics, packaging and packing are managed by a team of disabled people. This is also our way of being responsible and creating meaningful jobs.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite quote is from Darwin: “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself”. I think it speaks for itself.
We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have a lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would like to meet Katalyn Kariko, an outstanding scientist. She always believed in her revolutionary ideas. Despite failures and lack of support, she kept firm for decades and eventually invented a technology that saved millions of lives.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
@alphascience_international
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Julien Revol Of Alphascience: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
