P&G may very well have said that they were impressed with the Magnemask sales, and it is probably true. But that is within the confines of the test marketing laboratory that they have created in the 3 online retailers in China. They put in $X of promotion and they generated "Y" units of sales.
It has all been carefully run. They have gained the information they need and have now progressed to a full launch in Hong Kong, the first true launch. They now know they need to produce X million units of product A and Y million of product B, C, etc. You will notice that 2 of the eight product sets have been dropped from the series. No doubt a result of their testing in China.
The most important parameter P&G needed to gauge was the re-purchase rate. Did people just buy the small jar+cream? Did they buy the larger refill jar when their small jar ran out? or did they move on to something else. These 3 online retailers will be providing P&G with all those details on individual behavior, and this is perhaps the single biggest reason the China launch was restricted to online for two months and counting.
The promotion that went into the Hong Kong launch tells me that P&G are serious about. The filing of a new trademark in Australia just one week ago tells me P&G are serious about it. I am expecting great things here, but it has only barely started.
(20min delay)