Domestic perfume in China, looking for its own coordinate system

Domestic perfumes redefine "oriental notes".

Domestic perfumes are experiencing a round of big outbreaks.

From the perspective of investment: a group of local perfume and fragrance brands represented by Scent Library, Guanxia and Wen Xian are experiencing from start-up to rise, and have accepted round after round of investment financing from domestic and foreign capital markets.

Just this past September 2022, Wen Xian won the investment of Meijifang, an investment institution under the L'Oreal Group, which was established in May 2022, and Wen Xian is its first project.

In 2021, the start-up fragrance brand Fencheng won nearly one million US dollars of angel round from the European fund GFC; Scent Library also announced the completion of tens of millions of dollars in Series B financing, funded by Spanish perfume giant PUIG (its well-known perfumes: Artisian, Panheligen, Bred).

Not only that, domestic and foreign beauty groups have also begun to increase the layout of perfumes and fragrances, technology and Internet companies have launched perfume and fragrance brands across borders, as the upstream of the olfactory industry, local flavor and fragrance suppliers have also set off a wave of listings, among which Covestro Chemical and Huaye Fragrance have successfully listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Douyin Group's digital marketing platform Huge Engine also recently released a white paper on the daily chemical industry, taking the new trend of fragrance led by the olfactory economy as the first of the ten new trends, this time, as one of the five senses, the sense of smell can be said to truly stand on the "head of the consumption tide".

From the perspective of people: the fragrance entrepreneurship track is gathering more and more industry elites.

There are media people and advertising people, such as Shen Li, the founder of Guanxia, who was the editor of the magazine "Harper's Bazaar"; Those who have done e-commerce channels and live broadcasts, such as Zhao Yuanyuan, the founder of Fusheng Liuji, was once the head of the operation of Taobao Live; Designing and branding abroad, there is even the "second generation of fragrance" of the perfume family, Feng Tianle, the founder of the domestic salon fragrance brand Tianle, took over the baton of Shuangma fragrance from his father Feng Zhijie. When these people entered the perfume and fragrance industry, they also represented the arrival of a new era of domestic perfumes.

Domestic perfume "rolled up", but not internal consumption

In the 80s of last century, the supply chain of perfume in China was still blank, only Liushen, Longrich and other floral water manufacturers, Shanghai Friendship Store appeared the first batch of imported perfumes, which became a luxury item among modern women.

In 2005, Shanghai's first Sephora store opened on Huaihai Road, Shanghai, at which time international brands officially opened their market education for Chinese consumers to use fragrance to learn incense.

Ten years later, as more international perfume brands entered China, the fragrance habits of domestic consumers were also cultivated, and perfumes began to move from niche to mass consumption. Around 2019, a series of domestic perfume brands such as Santooze Three Rabbits, Scent Library, RE Perfume Room, and Wuduoli rose rapidly.

Three years have passed, as more and more players enter the game, domestic perfume and fragrance brands have also undergone two obvious changes: on the one hand, the trend of focus is becoming more and more obvious, and after the style is highlighted, the track is subdivided. On the other hand, the niche salon fragrance focusing on high-end, expensive and boutique products has also begun to enter the public's field of vision.

For the focus trend of domestic fragrance, Josephka, perfume reviewer and self-media "perfume is not toxic" director has a deep feeling. She said: "At present, many domestic perfume brands have actually chosen the topic of fragrance, they will cut into some relatively niche markets, have their own interpretations of many scenes and concepts, so as to form their own brand fragrance style, not to do big brand replacement." I think that's very encouraging. ”

Next, she gives three more typical examples: the Taste Map, Blank, and the Three Rabbits.

The main focus of the taste map is the geographical smell experience, by restoring the smell of a special scene of the city, the characteristics and impressions of the city are completely expressed, hoping to create a feeling for consumers to yearn for the city and immerse themselves in the experience, "Shanghai sweetheart, Hokkaido forest, Kilimanjaro snow, Seine morning fog" these incense are the main recommendations of the taste map, Josefka commented a little strictly: "Although the topic is not accurate enough, the work is really good." ”

The blank space is a time-themed interpretation of the perfume. It is named after the 24 solar terms in China, each solar term corresponds to a perfume, a total of 24 perfumes have been created, such as Qingming every year when picking new tea, "Qingming" perfume is Longjing jasmine tea fragrance; The heat is the hottest time of the year, and the "big heat" perfume smells cold mint watermelon; Osmanthus flowers are fragrant during the "autumnal equinox"; Plums bloom during the "little cold". The third from the right believes: "The overall smell is very Chinese, the oriental elements are well integrated, and the smell is in line with the topic selection." ”

Santu is different from the first two, focusing on girls' markets, such as "On the Way from School" and "Girls' Flower Room" are very sweet, and the test tube incense packaged by Ferris wheel and carousel can also capture girls' hearts.

Josefka believes: "This is the market's requirement for brands, perfume is to meet the different personalities of different people, each type of group should also have their own brand. ”

The same is true for pricing.

Focus is also to better adapt to the fragrance habits of different groups of people, young consumers who have just entered the perfume track and tasters or perfume collectors who have been playing for ten years are very different in terms of needs, preferences and price sensitivity. This has led to the second feature of domestic perfumes, the increase of high-end brands, and the luxury attributes of perfumes are highlighted.

Li Chengdong, a well-known analyst in the e-commerce field, said in the 2022 "professionalism" e-commerce annual speech: "In the next decade, the wave of domestic substitution will occur in the four major categories of sportswear, FMCG industry, automobiles and luxury goods. ”

Why this order? Sportswear and fast-moving goods belong to the traditional manufacturing industry, with the lowest threshold, and the rise of domestic products is the least difficult on the industrial side; The automotive industry has a certain threshold for technology research and development, and domestic high-end brands have no market foundation and need to accumulate and market for a long time; And the hardest is probably the luxury industry.

The perfume product, from formula to packaging, may be a collection of four sinkholes professional "biochemical ring material" in one. It requires both imaginative perfumers who understand art and visual VI designers with aesthetics, but also has channels and funds to buy expensive fragrances, and has the technology to ensure the retention time. If the brand wants to be sincere every step of the way, then the price of perfume must be ridiculously high, not to mention the cost of marketing.

Hedgehog Commune has manually sorted out the positioning and customer unit price of domestic perfume brands in the past two years. The incense has reached the ceiling of the price of domestic perfumes.

Wen Xian's manager, Meng Zhaoran, is 35 years old, he was born in Chengdu and went to France to study photography when he grew up. After returning to China, Meng Zhaoran ran a floral studio in Beijing, and from 2018 to 2019, he partnered with Korean trend eyewear brand GENTLE MONSTER to create the creative art dessert brand NUDAKE, and also opened 4 stores in China.

Meng Zhaoran mentioned in media interviews that perfume is to a certain extent like luxury and fashion companies, and there must be an internal person in charge who can dominate at the product, content and visual levels, that is, an art director or creative director, who can lead the team to produce textured content, and cannot be led by a founder who is biased towards business thinking.

Hedgehog Commune once visited Wen Xian's only offline store in Beijing, which is on the second floor of SKP-S and is named "Cellar Space". In the middle of the store, there is a row of inky black wine bottles, which are designed to match the theme of the secret cellar space, and the diffuser carrier is not the usual spar, but a piece of black charcoal that emits a little starlight. The overall selection of aromatic materials is also very bold, basil, star anise, walnut and sorghum have been skillfully played, which can be said to fill the gap of domestic neutral fragrance to a certain extent.

In the brand of Wenxian, it can actually be seen that from the product to the brand expression, and then to the person behind it, its content attributes are consistent.

Xiaohongshu perfume blogger "Smell Diary" believes: "From the brand's fragrance, naming and appearance design, you can actually see the spiritual connotation of the team behind it. Just like when you look at a literary work, you can see the author's value tendency from his words. For perfume, the differentiation of its value expression and the depth of content expression are related to whether a brand can achieve a higher price band and a more core category. ”

Watching the Summer: A "Balanced" Business Sample

Hedgehog Commune asked the same question to 10 perfume bloggers on Little Red Book, "Name what you think is the most commercially successful domestic perfume and fragrance brand", and the answer was surprisingly consistent - Guanxia.

Guanxia was founded in 2019, but there was already a two-year research and development process before 2019, and the team and products were launched after a long period of polishing. According to the observation of the Hedgehog Commune, Guanxia has been in a state of "high fire" as soon as it is listed, and it is often criticized as "hunger marketing" because it cannot be grabbed, why can Guanxia sing all the way from its inception to rise, and maintain an evergreen state for three years?

In January 2019, an article "In two years, we finally came to market..." was sent from the public account of Guanxia. This is the first article after the establishment of the Guanxia brand, and it also lays the beginning of "rushing goods" for the newly founded Guanxia. Readers can enter the mall to buy products from the mini program at the end of the article, but because of the limited sale, this perfume quickly fell out of stock, and many customers left messages on their public accounts saying that they did not grab it.

According to its founder's statement, the article did not have any marketing promotion, the article was read 60,000 times, and the first users were completely "tap water", from the circle of friends of several founders, including friends, colleagues, family, etc. As a result, 1,000 pieces were sold on the first day of the product's launch, and its signature "Yihe Jingui" set a record of being sold out within 3 seconds of its launch.

Of course, this is not the circle of friends of ordinary people. Shen Li, one of the founders of Guanxia, is a media person of the well-known fashion magazine "Harper's Bazaar", Dai Yusen is the co-founder and vice president of products of Jumei Youpin, and its legal representative Liu Huipu is the vice president of Jiayuan and the former vice president of Jumei Youpin, Liu Huipu is the first generation of China's first generation to do beauty cross-border e-commerce. The other two members of the team, Wang Qian and Khoon, are the founders of HeyJuice, a light fruit and vegetable juice brand, and a Korean designer who graduated from Yale University's design department.

From the perspective of the team composition of Guanxia, founders with different industry backgrounds in content, channels, marketing, and design work together, it is difficult to see where the brand's shortcomings are, and Guanxia is indeed a perfume and fragrance brand with solid comprehensive strength and balance.

The "balance" of summer viewing is reflected in the product power and marketing strategy, which is a balance between aesthetics and practicality.

Guanxia is based on the sense of smell, connects the five senses, and makes an almost perfect combination with the content expression. For example, the classic perfume series "Kunlun Boiling Snow", its appearance design is the use of Jiangnan courtyard's unique flower window eight-sided cover, each texture is different, 26 facets are hand-polished; The invisible nozzle is designed, and the pump head spraying is as delicate and uniform as possible. In terms of raw materials, it adopts a fusion of Chinese and Western methods, including Chinese Himalayan cedar essential oil and French juniper berry essential oil, which integrates and expresses the beauty of the East.

The original intention of this incense is to stay in a cabin at the foot of the snow mountain on a long trip, feeling the fragrance of pine wood burning inside the house and the cold wind and snow outside, so the aroma inspiration of this classic "Kunlun boiling snow" was produced, which refers to the image of the Chinese sacred mountain Kunlun, interweaving the vast and warm northern temperament.

The copy of the public account describes: "When you return to people at night in the wind and snow, you will know the snow when you listen to the pine." It is a prosperous city, a spiritual aspirin at your fingertips, accompanying you and warming your bed. With such a picture, the atmosphere is instantly full.

Some users left a message on the official account of Guanxia Xiaohongshu: "I really like millions of copywriters and photographers who like watching summer!" It can be seen that the cost of summer viewing is naturally not only the excavation of the smell itself, but also the design and integrated marketing of the product.

And the cleverness of watching summer does not stop there, its "balance" is also reflected in the understanding of "lifestyle", which is actually the organic unity of "tonality" and "rigid needs".

Guanxia takes smell as a way of life, can not only use perfume as a symbol to show itself, to maximize the role of smell, can not be limited to a single category, but to explore more and more practical application scenarios. Taking the smell of Kunlun boiling snow as an example, there are extensions of perfume, rattan aromatherapy, fireless aromatherapy, car aromatherapy, candles and other categories in summer watching.

Many people think that Guanxia's flagship store in Beijing Guozijian is an art space, but it is true, and on the day of the visit to the Hedgehog Commune, Guozijian was holding a salon art exhibition about "porcelain". But more than that, the flagship store of Guozijian has a clean hand pool, and a row of hand sanitizer, essential oil soap and hand cream for watching summer is placed next to the pool, which is very good at cutting into the handwashing scene in life, turning handwashing into a comfortable and relaxing experience, and may reduce some tension and anxiety through a simple minute, which is also the perfect unity of "rigid need and tonality".

In general, summer viewing does expand the practical value of the sense of smell. In a sense, aesthetics is niche, practicality is popular, and there is no practical consumption, which can only be reduced to a symbol in the end.

"Commercially successful perfume brands often bridge the gap between the unspeakable medium of smell and the perception of the consumer public, and spread the unspeakable parts in a popular and commercial way to make it easy to understand." Feng Tianle, the founder of the domestic salon incense brand Tianle, once told the media.

Someone is ready to go, and someone leaves the field halfway

Hua Hua is a former product manager of a domestic perfumer brand, at first she was only an assistant perfumer, and then she was promoted when the industry was booming, but chose to bless and leave.

When Hua Hua talks about why she entered the industry, her whole person comes to life – it was a happy and dreamy time: "There are very few things that satisfy my intellectual curiosity, curiosity, practicality and romantic reverie about the world at the same time." For me, perfume is technology + art, a combination of rationality and irrationality, and when you smell a fragrance, you actually enter a world constructed by perfumers. ”

When Hua Hua started doing this job, it was "probably" 2017, and domestic perfume brands were not so prosperous.

At that time, the working environment in which Hua Hua lived was also enviable, in a small French-style garden, with a perfume shop area in front and an office area in the back. During work, music is constantly sounding, and occasionally guests come with flowers, pastries or wine, and they will temporarily put aside their work and enjoy a meal together.

She went on to say something that sounded more "Versailles": "I never felt that work was painful or healed, because work is the source of my happiness." ”

Later, after domestic and foreign capital entered this track, it was difficult to be small and beautiful. Hua Hua told me that the most immediate feeling is "it has changed its taste".

She said: "We used to admire aroma culture, which had a deep impact on me. Later, profit became the first criterion of product research and development, not only us, the entire industry is growing savagely. Maybe this matter has caused confusion in the boss. She guessed.

Looking back on that experience, she felt a little sad: "Occasionally, we work with luxury brands like Dior and LV, and I also get in touch with investment companies, which makes me feel that everyone is creating an unstoppable carnival." Constantly create symbols, constantly cater to market demand, and then create bigger symbols. I felt very vain, very frothy, and it was painful to 'roll' with them. ”

"Confused, chaotic, and trapped" is my most intuitive feeling about Hua Hua.

And the sense of smell itself is a medium, an information carrier, and there is no need for "myth" to give more meaning. In any case, perfume should return to the essence of smell.

Perfume fragrance as a high-growth track, starting fast may not necessarily run far, "story", "concept" are gimmicks, domestic perfume brands want to run a long distance, or to honestly polish the product, the market will eventually only pay for high quality.

This article originated from the Hedgehog Commune