For China’s beauty industry, marketing and R & D have always been the two “lifelines” of enterprises. In the past, influenced by factors such as industrial foundation and brand thickness, international first-line brands occupied a dominant position in the market for a long time. Left hand “black technology” and right hand new retail. In recent years, many Chinese local beauty OEM enterprises have made full use of the accumulated industry advantages, successfully walked out of an OBM (operating their own brands) road, and accumulated valuable experience for the rise of domestic beauty.
beauty OEM moves from “behind the scenes” to “in front of the stage”
“If China’s local beauty makeup wants to rise, it must establish its own brand.” Wei Changyou, chairman of Shanghai Lebao Daily Chemical Co., Ltd., said that with the continuous expansion of the beauty market and the rise of new retail, OEM enterprises holding core technologies are welcoming the “spring” of brand building.
Shanghai Lebao daily chemical is a company with more than ten years of OEM experience. Its upstream customer brands include Henkel, Qingyan, Elizabeth Arden, dotry, Anna sue, Victoria’s secret, etc. its own brand “magic introduction” launched in 2016 has nearly 100 products in a single beauty protection field, and the number of peripheral products is about 400.
According to the data of iResearch consulting, in 2020, the scale of China’s local beauty market will reach 157.6 billion yuan; It is estimated that by 2023, the scale of China’s local beauty market will reach 252.7 billion yuan, and the compound growth rate from 2021 to 2023 is expected to reach 16.6%.
In fact, this has also become the consensus of the industry. In recent years, the gradual rise of domestic beauty products, young consumers’ recognition of the quality of local beauty products and the enhancement of national cultural self-confidence have bred many brands from OEM factories.
Such as hair dyeing, toiletries and other products, meiais has launched three own brands: meiais cosmetics, Shuixiang beauty mask and duoai washing products; Taiwan Quanli group, which has cooperated with baicaoji and Morita cosmetics, also has two own brands caimushi and zhuzhujia; Taihe biotechnology, which has been OEM for L’Oreal, Revlon and Estee Lauder, has also launched its own brand of Chinese herbal skin care products, Dr. Taihe.
Insiders pointed out that with the increasing scale of China’s local skin care and beauty market, Internet information makes the industry chain more transparent. It is an inevitable trend for OEM enterprises to go to the front of the stage and face consumers directly.
“Objectively speaking, OEM (traditional OEM) has low profits, which is not a long-term plan for enterprises; at the same time, the current cosmetics industry is very hot, and the rise of cutting-edge brands has also encouraged traditional OEM factories.” Chen Shaojun, director of the China perfume and fragrance cosmetics industry association, looks at this phenomenon as a reflection of the thriving and innovative development of the industry.
black technology + new retail, breaking the stereotype of “emphasizing marketing and neglecting R & D”
Industry insiders believe that, unlike medicine, cosmetics have their particularity – the brand effect is particularly prominent, and there is a lack of rigid evaluation indicators in terms of efficacy. For domestic beauty brands, we should pay particular attention to avoiding the development idea of emphasizing marketing and neglecting R & D.
“To build a high-rise building, we must lay a good foundation. The quality of R & D and products is the foundation.” This is a general consensus in the beauty industry. Now that the professionalism of Chinese consumers is further improved and the “component party” is rising, it is a “golden period” for R & D enterprises to cultivate user loyalty.
In recent years, more and more beauty enterprises have realized the importance of R & D and continuously improved the proportion of R & D in marketing. Pan Qiusheng, chairman of Shanghai Jahwa United Co.Ltd(600315) , previously said that Shanghai Jahwa United Co.Ltd(600315) has actively increased R & D investment in recent years. In the first half of this year, the R & D cost was 79.16 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.3%.
Wei Changyou also said that the new supersedes the old. The development of magic has long ensured that R & D accounts for 5% of the total sales. In Japan, Korea, France, Switzerland and Italy, there are cooperative R & D laboratories, and many black technology applications have been launched, such as self heating cream that can accelerate the metabolism of skin organs and absorb nutrients. Drinkable makeup remover and “black technology” that can “press” oxygen into cosmetic cream.
There are also many beauty salons that have established cooperation with foreign scientific research institutions. For example, Proya Cosmetics Co.Ltd(603605) has established a laboratory in cooperation with the French national seaweed Research Institute to deeply integrate global marine resources; Han Shu relies on the R & D advantages of the parent company Shangmei group to carry out R & D on the core components of products with Japanese laboratories.
At the same time, some people in the industry also reminded that the transformation of agent factories as brands and holding cutting-edge core technologies also need to strengthen the understanding of consumers and truly solve problems from the perspective of consumers.
One end is to invest heavily in R & D, and the other end is to reduce channel costs. Mojie also “played” a new trick. Wei Changyou said that in addition to launching tmall and JD flagship stores, Mojie abandoned the traditional distribution mode and focused on private traffic communication. “On the one hand, it is to reduce costs and better invest in R & D, on the other hand, it is to give full play to word-of-mouth marketing.” It is reported that in view of the gradual rise of the experience economy, Mojie has also opened a 200 square meter experience center in Shenzhen. In the future, it will open a flagship store in Shanghai and gradually enter the community scene.
(Xinhua Finance)
