Ongoing mandate · both directions
Your brand does not travel. Your claims travel even less.
A brand that works in Europe rarely reads the same way in China, and the sentence you are allowed to say about your product changes at the border. Getting that wrong is not a marketing problem — it decides which channel will carry you and whether a pharmacist, a dermatologist or a platform will list you at all.
Engage us for this if
- Your category is understood differently in the market you are entering
- You need claims that are compliant locally and still say something
- Your distributor is doing your marketing and you have no view of it
- You are launching and need a playbook rather than a campaign
This is not the right engagement if
- You want a creative agency — we bring one, and we do not pretend to be one
- You want media buying as a standalone service
- You have no regulatory route yet, in which case the claim question is premature
What you get
Named deliverables, not a scope of intent.
- Category analysis: how your product is actually understood by buyers in the target market
- Brand house localisation — positioning, naming and architecture that survive translation
- A claims and communication framework that is compliant locally and still differentiating
- Persona work for the buyers who matter: consumer, pharmacist, prescriber, platform
- A launch playbook and an omnichannel plan, with the sequence and the budget shape
- Distributor and retailer marketing governance, so your brand is not run by someone else
- KOL, HCP and influencer activation designed within the rules of a regulated category
- Agency selection and coordination — briefing, arbitration and quality control on your behalf
Why this is hard
The category is not the same category
Dermocosmetics, supplements and OTC sit in different regulatory and retail worlds on either side of the corridor. A positioning that is premium in one market can be unlisted in the other.
The claim decides the channel
What you are permitted to say determines where you are permitted to sell. That is why the claims framework comes before the campaign, not after it.
Marketing run by your distributor is marketing you do not control
It is the fastest route to a brand you no longer recognise, and it is the norm rather than the exception. Governance here is worth more than budget.
Execution needs an agency; arbitration needs someone on your side
We bring the production capability through an agency partner and stay on your side of the table — briefing it, arbitrating it and checking it, rather than selling it to you.
Duration. Annual mandate, or a scoped launch programme of three to six months.
What this costs
From €6,000 per month for the advisory and coordination mandate. Production and media budgets are quoted separately and paid to the producer, not to us.
Why we publish it
Because you need to know which internal approval route to open before you spend half an hour finding out. A range is not a quote, and nobody has ever been offended by a range. Yours is quoted line by line — named people, day counts — so you can remove anything you do not want.
What you can hold us to
You always know who pays us
Some engagements are fee-only; business development can carry success-linked compensation. Whichever applies, the structure is agreed with you in writing before the work starts and it is in the Scope of Work.
Priced before you commit
A detailed, line-by-line quote — named people, day rates, day counts — so you can remove anything you do not want and benchmark what is left.
A partner replies, not a salesperson
The partner who scopes the work is the partner who does it. Expect an answer within two working days.
All three appear in every Scope of Work. If we are not the right firm for the question, we say so — and, where we can, say who is.
Who leads this
Delphine Yan
Partner · Consumer Health
Today, Delphine brings over 13 years of experience in strategy consulting and cross-border project management across healthcare and luxury between Europe and China. Her focus is on helping outstanding European consumer health brands build trusted, sustainable businesses in China — combining strategic market entry, strong local partnerships and a deep understanding of Chinese consumers.
This work, already done
How do Chinese dermatologists actually recommend?
Ninety dermatologist interviews across ten cities, and a sequence that explains why scientific credibility was not converting into recommendations.
Read the case → ISRP · Education · allied healthIntroducing a discipline that did not exist in the market
Branding, naming, three signed memoranda with Chinese institutions, and a psychomotricity curriculum adapted to the Chinese context.
Read the case →What people ask us
- Do you do the creative work yourselves?
- No. We hold the strategy, the claims and the governance, and we bring production capability through an agency partner. Keeping those separate is the point: the person arbitrating the work should not be the person selling it.
- How are the agency costs handled?
- Production and media are quoted separately and paid to the producer. Our fee is the mandate. You see both.
- Does this work in the other direction?
- Yes. A Chinese brand entering Europe faces the same problem in reverse, with a stricter claims regime and a fragmented retail landscape.
- Can this be bought with the market mandate?
- Usually it should be. Brand governance and distributor governance are the same argument seen from two sides, and clients who buy one often find they needed the other.
The next step
Discuss a brand mandate.
Tell us the market, the product and the decision in front of you. A partner replies within two working days with either a scoped, line-by-line quote — or the reason we are not the right firm for it.