Taipei, June 15 (CNA) "Although many Muslim women cover their faces with the niqab or hijab, striving for beauty is human nature," an executive of Taiyen Biotech Co., Ltd. said Tuesday when speaking of his company's efforts to break into the vast but conservative Muslim world.
Chen Shi-hui (陳世輝), vice president of Tainan-based Taiyen, formerly known as Taiwan Salt Industrial Corp., which was privatized in 2003 and changed its name after diversifying into the cosmetics and beauty care sector, said he is confident that "Taiyen has great potential to explore the market of the 1.6 billion Muslim population."
According to Chen, his company started to set its sights on the Muslim market in 2012.
"All Taiyen cosmetic factories are Halal-certified and we have developed 61 items of products that will be to our great advantage when trying to find business opportunities in the Muslim market," he said.
Halal certification assures Muslim consumers that certified foods and goods are in compliance with their religious traditions and customs.
"Only married Muslim women wear the niqab to cover their faces, showing only their eyes, and there are many unmarried Muslim women who don't do so," according to Chen, who noted that "they constitute a potential market for Taiyen's cosmetics and beauty care products," because "all human beings are keen to become pretty, whatever their religion or race."
To prove this point, he said, Taiyen began rolling out facial masks in 2013 and conducted a study with the product in Indonesia that same year, the results of which show that not only Indonesia but other Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states with Muslim populations, like Malaysia and Singapore, are markets worth exploring.
Since 2013, Taiyen's products, including lotions, facial masks, skin-balancing mists and creams, have established strongholds in these countries, he said.
"This is just the first step for Taiyen, as it's not that easy to edge into a foreign market," Chen explained.
"At the current stage, we are focusing on taking part in trade fairs in an effort to sharpen brand awareness among consumers in countries and areas that include China, Dubai, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia," he went on.
But compared with South Korean brands which give a strong impression to consumers thanks to intense advertising and full government backing in grabbing foreign market shares, Taiyen can only work step-by-step in building its distribution channels overseas, he pointed out.
After four years of brand-building efforts in Muslim countries, Chen, however, admitted that Taiyen's cosmetic and beauty care products have gained only "limited" awareness in the target markets, and the goal of making the brand a household name in those countries is still far off.
"But I do believe that Taiyen's products, all of which are certified Halal, will eventually win the trust of Muslim consumers due to their high quality, and Taiyen's business outlook in these countries is promising," he concluded.
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