STEFFI WERNER in conversation with PETER BICKEL

A unique product promise for “uncompromising effect”, a deep commitment to “sustainability” and the promise to make the world a little better every day with a contemporary luxury.

Because we put our customers and partners first and invest in products and a forward-thinking company without limits.

The company story

STEFFI WERNER
How did the idea for CodeAlpha come about?

It’s not as if there are too few products and manufacturers on the cosmetics market.

PETER BICKEL
That is probably true, but from the very beginning we were driven by the idea, that even in this economic environment, many things can be done not only differently, but also properly right from the start. 

As management consultants, we looked after and accompanied a wide variety of companies – from heavy industry to plant breeders. And from an entrepreneurial point of view, it is not primarily about the product, but about the positioning of the company.

 

STEFFI WERNER
And how did you transfer that to the cosmetics industry?

PETER BICKEL
By approaching the business in exactly the same way as we normally do: At the beginning, cosmetic products were for us, apart from all the emotionality and intimacy of their application on the skin, primarily industrial products. They therefore follow the same economic and commercial constraints in their creation and marketing processes, as all other products.
In most cases companies are founded and first build up a large cost structure. Facilities, employees, an enormous marketing effort with expensive advertising media and influencers, glossy packaging and much, much more. All this has to be paid for. Paid from what the product earns on the market.
Far too often, therefore, product developers are given scrict specification of how much the product may cost in production as a maximum. – And not what it takes to deliver the best product to market. This, however, was our top premise: “DEVELOP THE BEST PRODUCT!”

 

STEFFI WERNER
How do you develop the best product?

How can the quality be determined?

PETER BICKEL
On the one hand, the quality can be measured by the active ingredients used. The interaction of these valuable ingredients and the development of the textures for the different products and applications is then the next step. So in the end, quality is quite simply determined by effectiveness. So it’s not the colourful images of marketing, but the skin and care feeling of the customers.

STEFFI WERNER
How did you specifically proceed with the development of the products?

PETER BICKEL
We first defined the target profile for a product with outstanding effectiveness and the best possible formulation. To do this, we asked our developers what a
cosmetic care line have to do in order to offer its customers a complete and outstanding care experience? How many products does it really take to achieve this?

 

And we asked them what they needed to do this. They were able to incorporate active ingredients and active ingredient concentrations into the products without limits. They developed combinations that exclusively follow one goal:
“UNCOMPROMISING EFFECTIVENESS!”

STEFFI WERNER
You briefly mentioned marketing and colourful images a moment ago. Doesn’t marketing play a huge role in the cosmetics industry? No company would use prominent faces and run TV commercials if it wasn’t necessary.

PETER BICKEL
That’s exactly why we also determined at the beginning how our product would get to the customers and at the same time how it would be optimally applied. We ruled out the approach of entering the so-called retail business in the retail trade with broad product ranges, discount battles, the enormous marketing expenses you described and hundreds of manual operations before a product sale right from the start. From the beginning, the focus was on beauty institutes and specialised perfumeries with a cabin concept. They are the perfect partners for the professional application, the individual guidance and the serious sale of CodeAlpha products.

They have a trusting relationship with their clients and are aware of an effective product.

STEFFI WERNER
Now I would like to point out that the cosmetics market in the area of institute cosmetics is not exactly virgin. Here too, a great deal of effort has to be done to distinguish yourself from other product manufacturers. How do you deal with that?

PETER BICKEL
From the very beginning, we have defined our cosmetic specialists as partners and not as a sales channel. The question of how high an appropriate sales commission should be for our partners requires a completely new view on partnership. CodeAlpha’s partners not only earn something from the use and sale of the products, they profit sustainably and in the long term, and we support them in achieving their own goals and expanding their business.

In addition to an exceptionally high commission, they also profit directly from the online business. If the customer does not buy products in theri shop after a treatment, our partners do not have to be afraid that the business will pass them, if the customer later orders via the internet. Once the customer has registered with us, all commissions – for the life of the partnership – are automatically credited to their individual account. In this way, you can earn a passive income without having to invest in setting up and maintaining an online presence. We extend your counter to 24×7 and develop for and with you a market coverage that is unreachable for most cosmetic institutes and specialist perfumeries today.

STEFFI WERNER
You have defined a triad for the CodeAlpha brand. These are sustainability, effectiveness and premium. Efficacy via the active ingredients and their processing, premium is naturally derived from this. I’d like to interject with sustainability.
In principle, this is not new. Most cosmetics manufacturers have defined statements on sustainability.

PETER BICKEL
When a product and a company are rethought, it is much easier to consistently care on sustainability than to turn a traditional company with many compromises towards sustainability. We were able to design warehouse and logistics processes just as sustainably as the packaging concept, virtually on a greenfield site right from the start. We set ourselves the goal of achieving a state where no CodeAlpha product has to be transported a longer distance than 200 km to its destination. We have formulated the packaging concept just as consistently: No outer packaging. The product arrives pure at our partners’ and customers’ doorsteps in a postal box. We then went one step further and looked at the actual body, which our products absolutely need. How can we concentrate on the essentials and still meet the demand for a pleasant and luxurious haptic feeling and a corresponding look? We have therefore decided on a ReFill concept. When our customers buy for the first time, receive a full body product and in future they only order the refill with minimal packaging and can decide for themselves whether to renew or reuse the dispenser head. This is not the most favourable way for us as a manufacturer, but sustainability also lives from conscious investment and not from greed for maximum profit.

STEFFI WERNER
Do you believe that premium and sustainability can be perfectly combined? Up to now, the approach to a customer in the luxury cosmetics sector has been completely different from that in the natural cosmetics sector, which we usually associate with sustainability.

 

PETER BICKEL
First of all, CodeAlpha is not a natural cosmetic. We use the best ingredients that actually improve the customer’s skin. We don’t achieve this by mixing olives into a texture. We also use biotechnology and the most modern production methods. We have strict rules about what goes into our products. The highest criteria is not “nature”, but sustainability – that has the best impact in combination with an appropriate use of resources. This is real sustainability, but it has nothing to do with the common understanding of natural cosmetics. And secondly: Premium and luxury without sustainability will no longer exist in the future. Just as there is always an E-variant on the table when buying a new car in the luxury segment today. Customers in all other areas of consumption also will be more likely to choose a sustainably produced product than one that has been produced and distributed under conventional, i.e. non-sustainable, conditions.

STEFFI WERNER
So what is the secret of why CodeAlpha is so different? Why can you spend more on the development and production of products and offer your partners significantly higher commissions than other manufacturers? After all, you also have to make money in the end.

PETER BICKEL
We want to, no question, because entrepreneurial success is the basis for further growth and only in this way CodeAlpha gains importance and that in turn helps all partners.  That’s exactly why we thought and built the company very differently than others. It is clear that product, market access, quality management and sales also need an functional structure. But that doesn’t mean for us that we have to rent large office spaces and build a huge infrastructure. We have built CodeAlpha as a lean and fully digitally organised company. All processes and structures have been strategically planned down to the last detail and mapped out online. All ordering and billing processes are handled digitally in real time, quickly and securely. The production and supply chains are fully coordinated with this. We produce in a production chain where we can react quickly to demand instead of filling the warehouses to the limit and ending up with write-offs on rotten products. This saves us what almost a competitor with a more costly organisation has to earn and ultimately cannot put into the product and its effectiveness. It is also clear that these competitors usually have less money for fair commissions and the product.

STEFFI WERNER
Thank you for the interview.