Marketing: The War on Wrinkles

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Klein-Becker stumbled on StriVectin's effect on fine facial lines by accident back in 2002, when the company started testing its new stretch-mark cream. Says Klein-Becker's Gay: "There were no directions on the tube. So some of the testers used it on their face and discovered that it smoothed out their skin. It was just dumb luck." Many products throughout the ages, of course, have promised to reverse the aging process. StriVectin's particular solution relies on peptides--strings of amino acids that stimulate enzymes in skin cells to produce more collagen, a protein that restores the skin's structure and keeps it from sagging.

But here's the rub: many other antiaging creams use exactly the same types of compounds that target collagen production. Says Avon's research chief Janice Teal: "We've been using peptides in our products for years." Louis Rinaldi, head of Klein-Becker's new product acquisitions, counters that StriVectin's particular concentration of those compounds and the inclusion of a certain botanical extract make it more effective.

StriVectin certainly isn't the first antiaging cream to spark a frenzy with better-than-the-rest claims. Crème de la Mer, bought by Estée Lauder in 1995, was the first cream to become a cult favorite. Made with sea kelp, La Mer sold for more than $150 for a 2-oz. jar, the first skin-care product to break that price point. Another big push came with the publication of well-known dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone's book, The Wrinkle Cure, in 2000 and the launch of his pricey line of skin-care potions. (Perricone just opened a flagship store on Manhattan's Madison Avenue last month.) At-home alternatives to dermatological procedures have also hit big. Last June, for example, L'Oréal Paris launched ReFinish, a $25 microdermabrasion kit; it's the brand's most expensive--and successful--skin-care product to date.

Meanwhile, Klein-Becker has some wrinkles of its own to worry about. There is competition from alleged knock-off brands, which so far has prompted the firm to file 16 trademark-infringement suits in federal court. Then there's a Federal Trade Commission suit scheduled for trial in July against Klein-Becker and its parent firm, Basic Research, alleging that its ads for several weight-loss supplements and tummy-flattening gels are misleading, although a spokesperson for Klein-Becker (which denies the charges) notes that StriVectin plays no part in that case.