"The cold winter is passing, but the era of passive growth is over. Only high-quality and strong brands are the core guarantee for crossing the cycle in the stock game market."
Jiang Nanchun, the founder and chairman of Focus Media, spoke of the challenges faced by enterprises in the post-epidemic era.
The year of 2023 is a year of seeking certainty in uncertainty and a year of seeking to break the situation in change. Where are the opportunities for brand innovation and growth in the future?
The 2023CiE Beauty Innovation Exhibition, which is in full swing, has invited 100+ industry coffees to deeply analyze the latest trends of beauty through various special activities such as marketing innovation forum, raw material innovation forum and channel growth forum, so as to help enterprises seize the opportunities.
Raw materials:
Exclusive raw materials are the strongest "weapons"
"All major fields are paying more and more attention to the upstream of the industry and research and development. The’ stuck neck’ problem in the cosmetics industry is the innovation of raw materials. China’s innovation in raw materials has great room for development." Deng Min, founder of CiE Beauty Innovation Exhibition and chairman of Pinguan, said the importance of raw material innovation.
In fact, many enterprises have also become strong competitors in the cosmetics market with their own "exclusive raw materials".
Wang pu, General Manager of Shanghai Youren Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
Wang pu, general manager of Shanghai Youren Biotechnology Co., Ltd. said that various product concepts are popular in the skin care market. "But no matter how the market wind changes, safety and efficacy have always been the constant pursuit of consumers." Based on this judgment, Shanghai Youren cooperated with Japan Osaka Active Collagen Innovation Joint Laboratory to launch the "Transdermal Micro Collagen Essence", which focuses on anti-aging effect and is also safe.
As one of the well-known enterprises in the field of collagen, Duan Zhiguang, senior vice president and R&D director of Giant Bio, also shared the development history and efficacy research progress of Giant Bio in the field of recombinant collagen. He pointed out that "recombinant collagen can be used in biomedical materials, dermatology and skin care and beauty, and it is safer and more effective than animal collagen."
In order to establish core barriers, some brands choose to cooperate with raw material suppliers or colleges to develop exclusive raw materials. A typical example is Youshiyan, an anti-aging brand specializing in Chinese skin. According to Du Le, the founder, Youshiyan cooperated with Zhejiang University to develop Gravi-A, a retinol combination anti-aging ingredient suitable for Chinese people, and launched a series of anti-aging products such as "black gravity" essence.
In addition to the "anti-aging" track, "precise skin care" is also a word frequently mentioned by speakers.
Mei Hexiang, the founder of Fortu Medicine and Chapter 14, pointed out that to achieve accurate skin care, we need to have seven elements-accurate insight into the needs of consumers, accurate identification of target pathways, accurate screening of synergistic effects of active ingredients, accurate delivery methods of dosage forms, objective verification of large samples and multi-centers, adverse reaction monitoring, and accurate delivery mode.
Mei Hexiang, founder of "Futu Medicine" and Chapter 14
Li Junxiang, deputy director of the Aging Science Innovation Research and Development Center of Yangtze River Delta Research Institute in Tsinghua, Zhejiang Province, believes that there are still four difficulties in the field of functional skin care: it is difficult to analyze and identify, it is difficult to identify functions, it is difficult to design accurately, and the cost of trial and error is high. Bioinformatics, computational biology and synthetic biology have become the latest biotechnology solutions for functional skin care active ingredients.
Wise men think far and seek deep. In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to green sustainable development. Sun Ling, business director of Fenmeiyi Fragrant Raw Materials in Greater China, said that Fenmeiyi has always taken "sustainability" and "high transparency" as its core values. Wang Ruiyan, director of research and development management of biological bioactive substances in Huaxi, also pointed out that green cosmetics featuring natural environmental protection are becoming a global trend. "We develop synthetic biology, that is, to innovate cell factories, develop green bio-manufacturing and produce six categories of bioactive substances to help peak carbon dioxide emissions and achieve the goal of carbon neutrality."
New products:
Exclusive formula/black technology becomes standard
In this CiE Beauty Innovation Exhibition, companies have brought new products to the show, and many brands also use the exhibition as a competitive platform for the first show of new products.
At the new product launch conference, Mibel not only invited famous experts and scholars to discuss the sensitive skin care market in depth, but also released a new product "3A Purple Essence". According to reports, this product adopts the exclusive patented technology ECT- HA of Mibel, and the essence of Yuefuning and Black Rose to achieve defensive and anti-aging. It is a rare A alcohol essence available for sensitive muscles in China.
Mibel’s new product "3A Purple Essence"
Dr. Ling, a scientist brand specializing in dry skin anti-aging, made a heavy appearance with "one new technology and two new products". According to reports, "full molecular weight hyaluronic acid technology" can fundamentally solve the anti-aging problem that traditional hyaluronic acid can’t solve, and two new products, "Dr. Ling’s light eye mask (pilot’s eye mask)" and "Dr. Ling’s light and compact double extraction essence", have created a new era of effective anti-aging for dry skin.
In the innovation exhibition, there is also Zhang Yuya who "shows muscles" in a high-profile way. According to reports, Zhan Xiya created the high-permeability delivery technology of Polypeptide based on the intelligent targeted supramolecular technology platform, which can guarantee the activity of polypeptide, realize accurate delivery and multi-dimensional anti-aging. The transformation result of this technology-Zhaneya’s "4-dimensional light lines" series also shocked the appearance, which is said to solve the problem of skin aging from the inside out.
Zhan Xiuya’s "4-dimensional light pattern" series
As an innovator in the category of beauty tools, Jiuhao Jiapin shared its innovation in intelligent and automated production of beauty tools and research and development of new products. According to reports, Jiuhao Jiapin’s original powder puff raw materials create a special research formula, with more than 20 patented products, and has created a number of best-selling explosives such as 9++Rubycell air cushion powder puff and lotus root velvet powder puff.
Category:
Abandon "Big and Complete" and Focus on "Small and Beautiful"
Timely understanding and insight into the trend of the global cosmetics market means that enterprises can ride the wind and get twice the result with half the effort.
With the rise of the "ingredient party", ingredients with efficacy have become the standard for young people to buy skin care products. At the data trend forum on February 22nd, Xu Hong, the partner of Beauty Practice, released the "TOP30 list of effective ingredients in 2022", and nicotinamide, sodium hyaluronate and Centella asiatica extract ranked in the TOP3.
Xu Hong, partner of beautiful practice.
"The rankings of these three classic ingredients have not changed much, and they are’ evergreen trees’ in the ingredient world. Xu Hong pointed out that in recent years, there have also been some new phenomena, such as the soaring popularity of olive ingredients, the continuous fiery heat of plant ingredients, and the popularity of new raw materials, among which psoralen is highly concerned.
Du Lei, deputy director of beauty and personal care research at Mintel, shared three major trends of beauty and personal care in 2023 from a global perspective: first, the development of beautiful prescriptions, that is, communicating with consumers in a scientific and transparent way to meet their individual needs, such as a Newpage; The second is the advanced self-care, that is, to provide consumers with products with rich sensory experience and enhance their sense of self-care, such as Amore Pacific’s brand Longtake；; Third, the interactive mode is rejuvenated. Offline retail is no longer just a place to sell goods, but needs to be fun, such as Harmay’s plum blossom market.
According to Lin Kaizhuo, the founder &CEO of Shanghai Language Analysis Information Consulting Co., Ltd. (users said), there will be five categories of opportunities in 2023: essential oil, body cleansing, beauty tools, men’s make-up and travel/experience clothes, as well as four hot trends: pure beauty, precise skin care, skin barrier, multi-effect integration, and three development opportunities: minimalist skin care, aromatherapy, and so on.
Lin Kaizhuo, founder and &CEO of Shanghai Analytical Information Consulting Co., Ltd. (user said)
Huang Keming, a senior analyst of Xieshu Consulting, deeply dismantled the gameplay and highlights of various e-commerce platforms through data. She pointed out that Tmall is still the main platform for consumers to buy beauty cosmetics, and the decline of makeup is obvious, and skin care has entered the stage of stock competition. "On the product side, before the economy recovers completely, brands can pay attention to the track they just need, abandon’ big and complete’, focus on’ small and beautiful’, and achieve overtaking in corners in terms of sub-categories and personalized needs. "
In the era when face value is justice, a good product cannot be separated from eye-catching packaging design. Huang Xiaojing, strategic director and partner of YANG DESIGN, analyzed the design trend of cosmetics packaging in China in 2023 from an aesthetic perspective. "With a huge amount of information and burnout, young consumers are eager to find emotional outlets. Packaging design should pay attention to the same frequency of senses and emotional resonance, and fight against mediocre daily life with sincere poetic beauty."
Marketing:
"Point-line-surface" combination to play a good combination boxing
Under the epidemic situation, enterprises are struggling, but there are still many brands growing against the trend. For example, Kwadi, a brand owned by Huaxi Bio, has become a domestic brand with annual sales exceeding 1 billion in three years.
The person in charge of Quadi brand believes that products are the soul of the brand, and at the same time, it also needs innovation in marketing, "opening the channel between product creators and consumers."
Quady brand managers are numerous and complicated.
Branches with multiple identities share the secrets of how to use the IP of the manager to incite the new growth leverage of brand retail: one is sincerity, and the other is being yourself. "Sincerity is always a killer skill." She said that when sincere communication with fans and sharing within their capabilities benefit them, the brand will have growth points and opportunities to incite traffic.
As the originator of the beauty and skin care ingredients party and the best-selling author of beauty, Kenjijoel believes that beauty experts are actually the influencer of a decision, and professionalism and deep cultivation of vertical fields have become the basic requirements. Creating personal IP and stalk-making ability to gain the resonance of consumers is the key to finally get traffic.
In addition to empowering brands with personal IP, bilibili and Xiaohongshu are also new heights for the rapid growth of beauty care brands.
Xu Qianya, senior director of the marketing center and FMCG industry, pointed out that brands can link young consumers and convey brand opinions and attitudes through three ways: brand rejuvenation, IP co-creation, and planting grass to bring goods, so as to gain the value recognition of the Z generation.
Qian Yue, director of South China Beauty Care Industry of Xiaohongshu Commercial Company, took three brands, namely corlorkey Laqi, Estee Lauder and Nature Hall, as examples to tell the whole story about how beauty brands play in Xiaohongshu. If you want to "grow" a good product in Xiaohongshu, you need to follow the "IDEA methodology", that is, Insight (insight into product opportunities), Define (define product strategy) and Expand (breakdown category track).
Qian Yue, Director of Xiaohongshu Commercial South China Beauty Care Industry
For a long time, big promotion is an unavoidable node in brand marketing strategy. In this regard, Millennium reminds that it is no longer feasible to invest only in the small red book in the form of pulse of large nodes in today’s market. "Only by relying on the daily marketing accumulation throughout the year, combined with the combination of pulse-burst of big promotion nodes, the full-link marketing of’ point-line-surface’ can help the brand grow in a long-term manner. "
In addition, He Ling, Marketing Director of Wanmei Mobile in China, shared a new paradigm of empowering online sales of beauty cosmetics with Meta-Universe AI/AR technology. He Ling pointed out that the Meta-Universe is still in a booming stage in China, and Play Beauty Mobile can provide consumers with a real digital AR virtual makeup online shopping experience through AgileFace? face detection and tracking technology, thereby enhancing the sales transformation and revenue of platforms or brands.
Channel:
Change from "managing goods" to "managing customers"
With the recovery of the market and the rising of fireworks at the consumer end, how should the channels be adjusted? In the channel growth forum, leaders from different online and offline formats and different tracks in the public domain and private domain shared their business ideas from many dimensions such as store design, product selection, customer maintenance and private domain.
It is the consensus of many speakers to build "people-goods-field" based on the needs of consumers.
As the "benchmark" of beauty chain stores, Wu Qinglin, the founder of Merrill Lynch Beauty, shared the internal logic of the company’s growth. The key is to insist on choosing products from the perspective of consumers and change from "managing goods" to "managing customers". "You think that good things are not easy to sell, and ordinary things are easy to sell, which means that your aesthetics, consumption concept and level are different from those of young people." The way to break through the beauty of Merrill Lynch is to understand the needs of consumers, select bar codes and increase the purchase volume of single products.
Wu Qinglin, founder of Merrill Lynch Beauty Cosmetics
Grace Cheng, director of brand development of HARMAY Huamei, also holds the same view. In her view, Huamei reconstructs the "people-goods-field" of beauty retail with new operational logic, and creates a differentiated and recognizable store image on the basis of selected products, "all in order to better meet the needs of young consumers, including skin care demands and spiritual needs."
Grace Cheng, Director of Brand Development of HARMAY Huamei
Meituan flash shopping, which captures young consumers with "30-minute delivery", has become one of the fast-growing new retail channels. Zhu Lin, the person in charge of the beauty care of Meituan Flash Shopping, said that the consumption habits of young people have changed, gradually shifting from planned consumption to instant consumption. "This means that instant retail will play an increasingly important role in daily life."
Nowadays, the importance of online channels is becoming increasingly prominent. Chu Qingge, an expert on beauty products from afar, pointed out that with the simultaneous promotion of technology, supply, demand and policy, the scale of the live e-commerce market is expanding, and it is estimated that it will be nearly 500 million yuan in 2023. In this fast-growing track, beauty occupies an important position. "The future growth point of domestic beauty may be hidden in live e-commerce."
Brandy Wang Xingran, the manager of the Goddess Group, who is good at private domain operation, gave her own suggestions on how to build a private domain community with high customer unit price. She said that the core of the community is nothing more than two major factors: IP staffing and trust. "The head of the team should first establish his own staffing, and then consider how to sell after-sales, not only to effectively solve problems, but also to make consumers feel satisfied and surprised."
e-commerce platform
Aauto Quicker, JD.COM and Pinduoduo collectively sought change.
The trend of beauty e-commerce platform largely determines the success or failure of beauty online business. What are the innovations in the e-commerce platform in 2023?
"The biggest change this year is that Aauto Quicker e-commerce will change from the dimension of operators to the dimension of operating goods. "Jiu ‘an, the person in charge of Aauto Quicker e-commerce beauty industry, said that, specifically, the operation of" goods "will start from three dimensions: recruiting high-growth categories, recruiting brands that are scarce in price segments or categories, and helping brands to make a big single product strategy.
Jiu ‘an pointed out that under such changes, in 2023, Aauto Quicker Beauty will usher in seven innovations, including new supply, new distribution, new users, new scenes, new marketing and new experiences.
"In 2023, JD.COM Beauty will regain its low-price strategy, pay more attention to the three dimensions of cost, efficiency and empowerment, and strive to provide businesses with more and more optimized platform policies, as well as more flexible operation and business models to help beauty businesses find more certain and sustainable growth opportunities in an uncertain market environment." Hou Chuangfeng, investment manager of JD.COM Retail Investment Promotion Department, said.
Hou Chuangfeng, Investment Manager of JD.COM Retail Investment Promotion Department
"The marketing structure of JD.COM Beauty throughout the year revolves around three points. The first is a strong outbreak, the second is a strong user experience, and the third is the satisfaction of strong demand." Wang Ze, multi-brand category operation manager of JD.COM Retail Beauty Department and Beauty Brand POP Department, added. In his view, "sinking the market will become an important source of business growth this year."
Pinduoduo set his sights on overseas. Ben Chao, head of investment promotion in Pinduoduo’s beauty industry, said, "Consumption downgrade will become the overall consumption trend in Europe and the United States, and foreign consumers will have a more cautious attitude towards their own consumption expenditure, which also provides a broad market space for Pinduoduo’s cross-border e-commerce platform Temu."
In addition, the cicada master & the person in charge of cicada mother shared the new opportunities and challenges faced by the make-up and skin care track around the trend analysis and brand case analysis of Tik Tok e-commerce beauty and skin care business. The product selection activities organized by Magic Horse Club also gathered more than 20 live delivery agencies and private group buying agencies to directly cooperate and negotiate with brands, and the atmosphere was warm.
MCN mechanism
It’s time to test refined operation.
Based on years of experience and strong operating system, Lu Xi, a partner of Tusu, said that the quickest way for a new brand to achieve a positive cycle of product efficiency is to "arrange and combine", that is, a label, and the selling point of the product should be clear; Two kinds of content, that is, planting grass content for consumers to see, endorsement content for consumers to trust; Three-dimensional form, the natural attention obtained after short video instant exposure, the search traffic intercepted after long-term grass planting accumulation, and the sales conversion obtained by sowing grass; N times of contact is to deepen brand awareness and word of mouth after repeatedly reaching consumers through various forms.
Using this methodology, Tisu has helped 220+new brands to achieve a starting point from 0 to 1.
So, how should beauty bloggers empower brands through content? Wang Qian, VP of Tissu, believes that on the one hand, it is necessary to provide interesting and useful content to consumers; On the other hand, it provides effective value to the brand.
Chen Mengqi, VP of Chenfan Hongren Business Department, divides the development of e-commerce channels into three eras: the era when products are king, and good products bring their own traffic; In the era when traffic is king, MCN institutions attract traffic through contracted or self-hatched KOL/KOC; Now entering the era of e-commerce 3.0, users’ access mode, insight into consumers’ needs, traffic conversion efficiency, and differentiation of goods selection are all issues that need to be paid attention to and solved by MCN organizations.
"In the era of e-commerce 3.0, although Daren plays a new role and has new value in the link of brand marketing, product strength is the first priority." Chen Mengqi said.
Da Renwen, co-founder of the new culture and well-known e-commerce.
Daren Renwen, the co-founder of the new culture and a well-known e-commerce, admits that he is more like a marathon runner walking side by side with the brand than the "short-lived" traffic. She has been thinking about how to maximize the efficiency of the brand to achieve the integration of product and effect, and finally found that "star single product+one product and one policy integrated marketing is the key to cooperation with the brand." Since then, the new culture has used this methodology to create a number of explosions.
Yichuan, director of the new culture planning at the beginning of the year, believes that the public’s attention is constantly shifted, the life cycle of the explosion is shortened, and the content is exploding, while the content iteration is also accelerating. Beauty brands are eager for refined operation ability, so it is time to test the refined operation of MCN institutions, and MCN institutions should pay more attention to the improvement of efficiency.
"What Kuaimei is doing is to use short videos as a fulcrum to incite the commercial marketing value from planting grass to pulling grass." Fang Zhi, general manager of Kuaimei Marketing Center, said that the commercialization of short videos is actually like a banking model, where brands experience the storage of content assets and reap the wealth brought by content assets.
Liu Ling, general manager of Kuaimei E-commerce Center, shared the model of Kuaimei’s new brand growth 3.0, "content-centered product efficiency and sales synergy."
Based on the three dimensions of brand, effect and sales, this model provides multiple services for brands, including short video content planting, information flow advertising and live broadcast with goods.
(Note: The "anti-aging" and "anti-aging" mentioned in this article refer to the functions of anti-wrinkle and firming skin. )
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