Text | Vickie
Image source: brand official
Recently, on social media, hundreds of thousands of users shared their sun protection experiences, there were more than 4.3 million sunscreen notes alone, more than 200,000 notes on umbrellas and sunscreen clothes, and even more than 80,000 notes on sunscreen hats.
According to Euromonitor consulting data, the market size of sunscreen products in China will reach 24.4 billion yuan. 58.67% of consumers will take sunscreen as the top 3 product with the highest daily use frequency, and the "hard sunscreen" dominated by sunscreen clothing has become a summer necessity for urban people in the past two years. What is the direction of the sunscreen clothing market? What are the magic weapons of various brands in the "war" of sunscreen clothing? TOPBRAND reporters recently interviewed several sunscreen brands.
Sunscreen = anti-aging?
Image source: brand official
For many urban young people, sun protection is a protracted battle, and "sun protection = old age protection" has become the consensus of sunscreen people. People realize that ultraviolet rays can cause irreversible damage to the skin. Although the ultraviolet rays that people avoid have the effect of sterilization and promoting the synthesis of vitamin D in the human body, too much into the human body will not only make the skin darken, aging and wrinkles, but also lead to skin cancer.
Merchants have taken advantage of UV anxiety to launch a series of sunscreen products. In recent years, "hard sunscreen", which is mainly based on umbrellas, hats, clothes, sunglasses, etc., to block ultraviolet rays, has become widely popular.
Tmall data shows that the hard sunscreen market will increase by nearly 200% year-on-year in 2020 and more than 90% year-on-year in 2021. Tmall clothing a small two said that hard sunscreen is a high-growth category, the current real penetration in China is about 200 million people, compared with the total population of 1.4 billion people, or a blue ocean market.
Under the "first strand" of sunscreen clothing, since its birth, sunscreen has been regarded as the general direction of the product. After the introduction of sun umbrellas, hats and other products, the focus of the product was slowly shifted to sunscreen clothing. In 2021, the proportion of apparel categories and accessories series has climbed to 29.5% and 25.4% year after year, becoming the main product of the brand.
Based on the total retail sales and online retail sales in 2021, Zhaozhi Consulting is the largest sunscreen apparel brand in China, with a market share of 5.0% and 12.9% respectively. The total number of paying customers in the Tmall flagship store increased from 1 million in 2019 to 3 million in 2020, and further increased to 7.5 million in 2021, an increase of 150% year-on-year, and the repurchase rate reached 46.5%.
UV100 from Taiwan focuses on internationally certified sunscreen technology fabrics, advocating environmentally friendly and economical wearing sunscreen. The material is also more versatile in terms of thin and light design, and different series of products have been introduced for scenes such as cycling and commuting.
Image source: brand official
Internet celebrity brand Oh Sunny takes "beauty value" as the main selling point, focuses on the healing aesthetic technology inspired by outdoor protection, adheres to the creative attitude of "unimpeded love", and aims to bring scientific and technological aesthetics daily wear to every urban woman.
The VVC brand logo, which was created in 2011, evolved from the "OK" gesture, symbolizing the belief and persistence of everthing is ok. VVC's main creative team has devoted itself to research, supported by science and technology, designed as a carrier, and launched a number of series of products such as sunscreen, sweating, and warmth.
French professional outdoor equipment brand PELLIOT, born in 1991 in Paris, France, adhering to the "professional, comfortable, environmentally friendly" design concept, encourage consumers to return to nature, discover and enjoy the fun of outdoor sports. The use of ice filament material innovative anti-splash coating on sunscreen clothing can resist light rain or mild water splashes, and when small raindrops fall on the surface of the clothing, there will be no obvious osmosis reaction for a short time.
Leisure sports brands such as Uniqlo, Black Ice, Kailestone, Pathfinder, Tantuo, and Decathlon are also striving to gain a place on the sunscreen track.
Uniqlo's sunscreen is ignited by the fairy sister Liu Yifei, using the exclusive AIRism patented ultraviolet breathable material, and the thumb hole at the cuff is a sunscreen design of the hand, so that its protection against ultraviolet rays has been armed to the back of the hand, protecting the skin in all directions. Kaile stone and pathfinder use the outdoors as the main scene of the product, emphasizing the functionality of wind and sun protection; Decathlon's UPR40+ sunscreen index is not particularly strong in the UV rays, the fabric is light and soft; Even the outdoor flagship store of down jacket brand Bosideng has launched summer outdoor sports items such as sunscreens.
Where is the threshold for sunscreen clothing?
Technical fabrics
Image source: brand official
The sunscreen series of clothing, hats and other products under the banana are labeled as using light and breathable AirLoop fabrics, which are said to maintain the sun protection effect of UPF50+ after 30 washings.
UNIQLO's exclusive patented fabrics are light and breathable, with high sun protection value, and they have also added many technology display devices in some offline physical stores for consumers to experience first-hand.
Kaile stone fabric is soft and skin-friendly, using UI-RCF sunscreen technology, UPF value of 50+, anti-splashing water and light rain, not only the shape of the slim fit, but also pocket reverse storage, etc., armpit ventilation and other functional design, highlighting the scientific and technological propositions.
VVC sunscreen products use a special fabric Rayona cloth that combines medicine and optical beauty. This special fabric can separate different rays of light, block 99% ultraviolet rays, and extract red/yellow/blue beneficial light to achieve sunscreen and anti-aging purposes.
PELLIOT products widely use the latest technology in the world today's fabrics, materials and production technology, the latest fabric brand Storm Breath has covered Multiple Series, Energy Protection, Quick-Dry and other series, and designed and produced outdoor equipment suitable for regional market sales for the global market and developed a professional product line.
Social media and live streaming
Like all brands in the Internet age, social networks and live broadcast rooms are also the "battlegrounds" for sunscreens.
Banana has made great investment in brand promotion and marketing, and marketing and promotion fees will account for almost half of the revenue in 2021. According to its prospectus, from 2019 to 2021, the advertising and marketing expenses under bananas were 36.917 million yuan, 119 million yuan and 586 million yuan, accounting for 9.6%, 15.0% and 24.4% of the total revenue, respectively.
In 2021 alone, the company worked with more than 600 KOLs and generated 4.5 billion views across the web. In addition to cooperating with KOLs to bring goods, it also continuously published grass posts on social platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Weibo, bringing 4.5 billion views. On the Little Red Book, there are more than 50,000 notes on planting grass under the banana.
During the period from May 10 to June 10 last year, Li Jiaqi broadcast a total of 25 live broadcasts, during which he brought goods for banana three times, and during the same period, banana cooperated with 63 anchors in Taobao live broadcast, with total sales of 117 million yuan.
Banana also signed the popular small flower Zhao Lusi as the brand spokesperson. And The banana invited Zhou Dongyu and Wang Yibo; Even people with only a few hundred fans on social media will be invited by brands to cooperate in promotion because they have shared sunscreen-related content, and this tactic of KOL and KOC making sunscreen clothes quickly become a hit on social networks.
The value of the face is the way
Image source: brand official
Hard sunscreen products mainly include sunscreen umbrellas, sunscreen clothing, sunscreen hats, sunscreen masks, ice sleeves and other clothing and accessories products, its clothing attributes are stronger, consumers have higher requirements for the appearance of products, and hope that sunscreen products can become a bright match in summer.
In addition to outdoor sportswear, there are also capes, long-shirts and trench coats, shirts, beach sunscreens, knitted sunscreens, chiffon sunscreen shirts and other styles.
The UV100's thin breathable sunscreen is lightweight and portable, with a versatile color that's perfect for everyday commuting.
OhSunny is available in both long and short versions, from slim shorts to long silhouettes.
The color under the banana is gentle and clear, and the design inside the banana is full of sports technology, which is convenient for matching different LOOKS.
VVC's design style is biased towards simplicity and crispness, and his minimalist line design, bright color matching, and strong sunscreen quality allow him to quickly occupy the sunscreen market.
Sunscreen hats and sunscreen masks not only assume the sun protection function, but also visually make the face thinner, which is convenient for beauty lovers to take pictures of concave shapes.
In terms of color matching, in addition to the solid color version, there are also letters, fluorescent models, gradient models and so on. In terms of style, there are those with thumbs, without thumbs, with gloves, and without gloves. In addition, ice sleeves can not only be used for sun protection, but also with short-sleeved T-shirts to wear out the layering, which is a plus careful machine for summer hipsters.
Extend from a single category to multiple categories
Image source: brand official
After all, sunscreen is a "time limit" demand, if the brand wants to expand profitability must expand the product category. In addition to the traditional sunscreen clothing, sunhats and other products that focus on sun protection, the brand will also launch more subdivided and scenario-based products such as umbrellas and ice sleeves.
For example, banana has launched a variety of double-layer small black umbrella products, sunscreen hats, sunscreen outerwear underwear series, each brand can continue to subdivide men's and women's and children's models, and optimize the sunscreen scene, crowd, and parts.
Ohsunny first started with sunscreen clothing, but with the changes in the air environment, it has been constantly innovating to create a series of protective products with anti-virus, anti-smog, anti-mosquito, anti-pollen. It also launched seasonal products such as self-heating scarves, warm hats, warm scarves, gloves and leggings last winter.
Inside the banana, there are not only sunscreen clothes and sunscreen slacks supported by cooling technology, but also accessories such as sunscreen hats, sunscreen masks, and ice sleeves. In 2021 alone, Banana has successively launched more than 10 new products that have nothing to do with sunscreen, such as shell hats, sizeless underwear, folding sunglasses, shark pants, and thick-soled canvas shoes.
tail
From upstream production, research and development, to downstream sales, sunscreen clothing may have a more segmented development in terms of crowds, scenes, categories, etc., and subdivided categories will also extend more products.
There are still many problems in the sunscreen track, such as marketing investment is much greater than scientific research investment, product homogenization between different brands is serious, and the profitability of a single category is limited.
The benign competition of the sunscreen track still falls on the quality and research and development of the product, in order to attract the favor of consumers and capital, only in the product design, research and development, supply chain has an advantage, the brand's life can be long, not eliminated by the market.
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