Business View - November 2014 131
big marketing budgets are everything.
“It’s a difficult fight,” he said. “And we know we’re nev-
er going to win on that ad-spending battlefield, so we
don’t even try to fight there. We put all our resources
into developing a product that is better than any other
product in the marketplace. We know if we get some-
one to try our product, we’ll then have a customer
and we’ll have that customer for a very long time. We
prove this over and over as we continue to grow year
in and year out. We could always grow more, but as a
medium-sized company we don’t have the marketing
dollars of the big guys so we spend our money on our
technology.”
The mindset won’t be changing on his watch going for-
ward. In fact, Steele said, he expects to double-down
on the investment in technology to further position
NeoStrata as the industry’s R&D bellwether, regard-
less of where the competition steers its funds.
“There are so few companies that really have mean-
ingful, innovative new technology in skin care,” he
said. “But we have a portfolio of technology that re-
ally brings benefit to different areas of dermatology,
whether it’s aging or other therapeutic areas. And we
really are the consistent pioneers in developing new
skin care technologies. We currently have a pipeline
of technology that’s truly motivating and meaningful,
unlike any other skin care company you find anywhere,
whether they’re very big or just medium-sized like we
are.”
PREFERRED VENDORS
ALL STAR FULFILLMENT
: Provider of warehouse and ful-
fillment operations that enable companies to eliminate
or drastically reduce many expenses, including payroll,
payroll taxes, unemployment costs, disabilityandhealth
in
, property and liability
insurance, warehouse equipment and software costs.
COSMETIC ESSENCE INNOVATIONS
: The leading provider
of supply chain management services to the person-
al care and household products industries, including
R&D, package design and sourcing, manufacturing
and filling and packa
s
been a strong, reliable partner for us,” Steele said.
UTi
: Develops and implements client-centric, global
solutions for international companies with unique sup-
ply chain requirements. Solutions maximize efficien-
cies and cost-effectiveness. Benefits are also realized
from greater consistency and a more seamless flow of
goods; higher levels of productivity and a lower cost
per unit of production. “They’ve really done an excel-
le
forward to best in class,” Steele
said.
MANUFACTURING
