Can two women who aren’t chemists, dermatologists or facialists create a skin care product that actually helps us power through the day?
That’s the exact pursuit of Rose Herceg and business partner, Michaela Chanmugam, who together, recently launched a new facial spritz called Koffee Fix; a light, coffee-scented mist, sprayed directly on your face and neck.
However, unlike so many beauty products women have brandished in their faces, Koffee Fix doesn’t claim to move mountains. It’s not going to Benjamin Button you back to pre-pubescence. It’s not going to make you supple as a baby’s bum.
It’s designed purely to give you a boost of energy, a quick “pick-me-up” to help you get through those days that feel like they may never end.
Koffee Fix was born in the place where the best ideas come from: the kitchen.
Both Herceg and Chanmugam found that the “mid-afternoon slump” was getting the better of them. The lethargy they felt after lunchtime made them feel like they needed to drink a second cup of coffee.
But if they did, they would be up all night, affected too much by the caffeine.
Research shows that even just the smell of coffee creates a “placebo effect”.
“Just to smell it is enough to get you to the finish line,” Herceg said.
“It’s like when people smell cut grass – they think about their childhood because they played on the grass when they were little kids.
“Smell is such a huge reminder of feeling good. And coffee makes you feel awake, alive, able to take on the day – which is why a lot of people brew it.”
That’s where they got the idea of the coffee-scented spritz, a product that didn’t exist at the time.
“We just literally cooked it up on a kitchen sink,” Herceg said.
“We just looked at different flavours, strength and coffee smells – we looked at rose, we looked at lemon, all these other scents – and we just made one.”
It took a few goes to get it right, but once they did, the pair didn’t look back. The spray formula of Koffee Fix is a mix of coffee, water and other antioxidant ingredients that just the smell of can energise you for the rest of the day.
“It’s what it says on the can,” Herceg said. “There’s no tricks, or bells and whistles. It’s very transparent and very direct.”
Herceg and Chanmugam aren’t interested in expanding their product line either.
“It’s only one product,” she said. “We just want one thing.
“There’s something really nice about the fact that we’re saying it’s only coffee, just a spritz – there’s not 20 other coffee products that we’re selling.”
Rose Herceg innately understands good business.
As the country president of the global, creative tech company, WPP in Australia and New Zealand, Rose is well known as a sharp strategist and keen collaborator.
But there’s also something else that distinguishes her unique leadership: she applies a “small business mindset” to everything she does, no matter how hard it gets.
“There’s something very earthy about being grounded in a business,” Herceg said.
“I think it’s easier to be a big business, to be honest, than it is to be a small business. Because you’ve got to do everything yourself.”
A small business mindset is something that comes naturally to Herceg, whose career has traversed various entrepreneurial endeavours including founding Pophouse in 1999, which became known as Australia’s best-regarded company for innovation, social trends and business strategy. In 2007, Herceg sold her company to the STW Group.
She then joined STW as a strategic consultant, and it wasn’t long before she became the Chief Strategy Officer of WPP AUNZ in 2016, the role she holds now.
Herceg has three published books on business leadership and innovation to add to her impressive resume.
Koffee Fix was something she said she and Chanmugam needed. So they made it.
This article was first published by Women’s Agenda.
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