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What color are the baby’s cheeks? According to Yvonne Bock, it’s Hegen pink – the distinctly millennial shade of blush that covers the walls of her brand’s first experience center, a 15,000 sq ft office, store, event space and consulting space in South Singapore.
“Pink is a specially chosen Pantone that is close to parents’ hearts,” says Bock, 43. Wearing blush for this interview, it’s hard to believe the mother of four wore all black. At least until a branding agency revamped her look to match the lighter hues of the bottles, teats and breast pumps her company makes that are taking Asia by storm.
The shade now dominates her wardrobe. It’s also the highlight of Hegen’s flagship online store on Alibaba-owned e-commerce megasite Tmall, where it’s No. 1 in the baby bottle category. China is its biggest market, where it can sell over 200,000 bottles on Singles Day alone.
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Reaching the goal of serving 100 million mothers in 35 markets
If 7-year-old Hegen had a report, he would have nothing to cry about: 10 million bottles sold, 25 million pacifiers sucked and a presence in 17 markets. Based on revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. The Straits Times and Statista ranked it as the 10th fastest growing company in Singapore. It is currently on track to resume triple-digit growth by next year, despite being bogged down by Covid-19.
Nevertheless, Bock, like a true Asian parent, admits with a laugh that he “keeps moving the beam.” With a U.S. launch later this year — it will be retailed at Pottery Barn Kids, buybuy BABY, Nordstrom and online at Kohl’s and Target — and with upcoming expansion into Japan and six Middle Eastern markets, it plans to double its sales by next year.
Still, her goal of serving 100 million moms in 35 markets — represented by pins on a “Hegen map” that she and her co-founder and husband Leon have had since day one — is only halfway accomplished. “I envisioned a global brand from the beginning,” says the CEO. “Motherhood is universal. I feel that if you want to make a difference, make it big.”
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Create a breastfeeding brand based on her personal experience
The Hegen Experiential Center (HEC) is just the latest milestone in Bock’s brand history, which began in 2004 after she said goodbye to her career in corporate banking.
Her father, Chan Ching, owns equipment manufacturer Fitson Singapore, whose factory in Malaysia produces baby care products for global brands. A few years into her career at Fitson, a painful miscarriage led to an epiphany: why not launch a breastfeeding brand based on her personal experience? With this in mind, Hegen’s now instantly recognizable ‘sqround’ bottles and teats were developed over five years, funded by bank loans, government grants and company loans. In 2015, Hegen made his official debut.
Bock understands that there are no other baby bottle brands designed by mothers, for mothers. “Many times I’ve noticed that projects are focused on product development because of a business opportunity, not because of a pain point,” she says. “For Hagen, it’s not about how many bottles we can sell, it’s about how many mothers we can serve. The first thing is: what does a mother need? If we put a product in front of our users and they don’t see it as solving a problem, we go back to the drawing board.”
Hegen is a family business. I’m not here to build and sell. I am here to create a future for the next generation so they can build this empire together.
Yvonne Bock, Founder and CEO, Hegen
This approach is at the heart of the brand’s success. In its early days, with most of its $5 million seed capital spent on product design and intellectual property protection, Hegen relied on word of mouth for its marketing. “As long as the product is world-class, it will speak for itself,” says Bock. “Being a true Singapore brand is a brand in itself.” The strategy worked as consumers started talking about her bottles both on social media and with their sisters, cousins and colleagues. “We realized that if we did well in Singapore, word of mouth would spread to neighboring markets,” she adds.
“VIP customers said to retailers, ‘I use this product, it’s excellent. Can you bring this?’ Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines started knocking on our door,” she says, recounting Hegen’s regional expansion in its second year, which saw its growth jump 11-fold.
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Building a niche in the saturated baby bottle market
Why are Hegen bottles so rave-worthy? In addition to an elliptical teat that minimizes nipple confusion (when a nursing baby may have difficulty latching after bottle feeding), a lid that closes and opens with one hand, a stackable square-round design that grips more easy, cute customization options, and lids that convert grown-up bottles into drinking glasses, coffee mugs, snack containers, and sauce dispensers. Each of these distinctive features and more have helped the brand carve out a niche in the saturated baby bottle market.
“Everyone thinks the round is the solution. We defy convention,” quips Bock, who has spoken publicly about how altering her original design after it expired led to a new form of signature — and an obsession with intellectual property rights.
“Our design failed more than a hundred times and prototyping was so expensive. But we just kept trying and trying. It was very scary,” she admits. “However, despite the R&D rollercoaster, I had unwavering support from my father and Leon. I realized that blind faith is very important.
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The secret to successful expansion
By the third year, Hegen was able to break even and the brand went international, participating in trade shows and conventions in Germany and China.
The secret to successful expansion, its CEO reveals, is to be patient and wait for the right partner to break into a new market. Rather than focusing on industry players as distributors, Hegen works with companies spanning skin care, pharmaceuticals, bedding and logistics. The only criterion? Partners must share the brand’s belief that making a difference in people’s lives is key.
“Most of our partners have no previous experience in the industry,” says Bock. “We met a lot of them at trade shows or they approached us. We are all about improving the quality of life.”
Through their expertise in cultural and linguistic nuances, these capable partners greatly accelerated customer acquisition. “Every market is unique,” says Bock. “However, implementation is much faster when partners fully understand our philosophy.”
Today, this network of partners operates thousands of Hegen outlets, including around 7,000 in China. As Covid-19 forced people to buy essentials online and keep them at home, brick-and-mortar stores — once the brand’s main method of attracting customers — lost ground to digital sales, both of which are equally critical.
As a result, Bock opened the HEC and its in-house breastfeeding center this May. This represents the next stage in the company’s evolution, moving away from simply selling products to a journey with consumers as they embrace parenthood.
The importance of information for modern parents has never been greater and Hegen prides itself on being a trusted source of evidence-based knowledge and practical skills. A full range of breastfeeding consultations, antenatal and postnatal classes are available at the Breastfeeding Centre, while workshops on wider topics such as positive parenting, sleep training and nappy weaning are also available.
In case of doubt about the search, note that most of its classes are full.
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What’s next for Hegen
Of course, Bock’s answer to the question of what’s next is, naturally, more experienced centers. It is working on a franchise system that will standardize quality among global partners. As she lists business goals including educating women about the science of breastfeeding and creating a supportive community for parents, she adds, “We need to provide moms with not only breastfeeding tools, but also information on how to use them.”
The more developed the market, she says, the shorter the time women have to breastfeed because of work pressure. “It was very heartbreaking for me,” Bock says of his experience. “I want to support working mothers like me.” For this reason, fast-paced and urban Singapore – while not Hagen’s biggest opportunity – remains his heart.
“It’s very important to go global because the growth is exponential. But even when we go out, we want to make sure we have our own turf,” says Bock. “My journey to foster and extend the family bond through breastfeeding is here.”
In this context, the evolution of her father’s legacy in her hands is even more significant. “Hegen is a family business. I’m not here to build and sell. I’m here to create a future for the next generation so they can build this empire together.”
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Yvonne Bock wears Montblanc Bohème Day & Night 34mm.
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