Yao Wan
Recently, South Korea opened its visa to China. Thanks to this positive information, the Korean cosmetics market has gradually recovered, and consumers' attention to Korean cosmetics brands has also increased. The reason why these Korean cosmetics brands can cross the business cycle and continue to be recognized by consumers is inseparable from years of in-depth research on products and the courage to transform.
For example, Innisfree, a brand owned by Korean beauty giant Amore, recently launched a new brand logo, rearranging uppercase and lowercase letters to convey brand vitality and freedom. Since 2018, innisfree has optimized the logo, removed the complex graphics, changed to a simple English name, and used a new logo to show consumers the determination to transform the brand.
And that's just the beginning. innisfree demonstrates the determination of Korean cosmetics brands to transform into the market, and also demonstrates the certainty that innisfree can bring new trends to Chinese consumers and the Chinese beauty industry from product to image.
Upgrading Brand Positioning and Transforming "Efficacy Naturalism"
After a period of adjustment, Amorepacific Group's new deployment strategy for the Chinese market has gradually become clear, and it has begun to ride the market trend and focus on effective skincare and beauty technology.
Relying on the strong R&D background of the parent company, innisfree upgraded its brand positioning from "naturalism" to "efficacy naturalism". It is understood that in order to better study the ever-changing naturalism, innisfree has established the "Green Innovation Lab", which focuses on product exploration, innovation and research and development, and continues to carry out full-link and differentiated "efficacy naturalism" research including raw materials, formulas, packaging, etc.
After conducting countless studies and investigations on functional ingredients and market demand, innisfree started from the hot concept of "morning C and evening A" in China in recent years, and took "A white bottle" (innisfree retinol beauty essence) as the leading product for transformation and upgrading. The product was launched in February 2022 and exploded on the Internet as soon as it was launched, quickly ranking in the top 10 of Tmall's pore shrinking essence repurchase list. It has also won the enthusiastic pursuit of well-known ingredient party KOLs such as Delicate Uncle and highly praised by consumers.
While the iron is hot, innisfree launched a new black tea peptide series in February this year, which not only continued the online success of "A White Bottle", but also detonated offline traffic in the offline event of the Shanghai store on February 26, which was loved by many young consumers. Black tea peptide anti-wrinkle eye cream ranked first in the skin care category of Watson's "HWB Must Try".
In fact, innisfree has been deeply involved in black tea research for nearly 30 years. The antioxidant power of tea polyphenols helps delay skin aging, and the polymer theabrownin in black tea is what makes it superior to other tea varieties, and it is also the basis for black tea peptide series to achieve precise and effective skin care.
According to reports, innisfree black tea peptide series carefully selected tea leaves picked from Jeju Island for fermentation, using Amorepacific Group's unique microwave extraction process to obtain Jeju fermented black tea extract rich in high-power theabrownin, the content of theabrownin is 4.21 times higher than that of general extraction.
It is worth mentioning that the new innisfree black tea peptide anti-wrinkle serum adopts double-tube superposition technology to open up a dual skin care pathway with "internal double antibody + external repair".
The latest experimental data show that the antioxidant power of theabrownin extracted from black tea is 8.8 times that of VC, which can be called the "ceiling" of antioxidant in the plant world, stable, mild and efficient, and the black tea polypeptide revitalizing essence composed of 8 layers of peptide components, and achieve the effect of light wrinkles anti-aging, brightening antioxidants through 3 links.
At the same time, the whole Centella Asiatica extract, Ectoin, and Jeju green bean extract hyaluronic acid are added to the outer tube, and the skin is stabilized through 2 links, and the skin is repaired with the help of the essence ingredients derived from triple tea.
The success of a number of new products also once again verifies that innisfree will usher in a new round of development by riding the east wind of effective skin care. According to iResearch data, the scale of the mainland efficacy skin care products industry has reached 26.01 billion yuan in 2020, and will continue to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 29.4% in the next three years, and will reach 58.97 billion yuan this year, becoming a fast-growing sub-category in China's cosmetics industry.
Adjust channel strategy and focus on online
In addition to product and positioning upgrades, innisfree is also increasing its investment in online and offline channels and marketing. While deeply cultivating offline channels, innisfree will shift more focus to online channels, and continue to promote the development of online business through efficient and precise marketing and global refined operation with leading beauty e-commerce operator Beauty Beauty.
At present, innisfree's online channel transformation has obviously begun to bear fruit.
The data shows that during Singles' Day in 2022, innisfree products were hot sellers, winning the third place in the Taobao God Store List, and were also listed in Tmall's "Acne Cleanser List", "Oil Control Essence List" and other categories, as well as major repurchase lists. In addition to platforms such as Tmall and Douyin, innisfree also cooperates with well-known KOLs in different channels and scenarios such as Xiaohongshu and Weibo, effectively reaching consumers, and bringing flexible and effective marketing strategies and methods to brands with high-quality content popular science and large-scale off-site launch.
While the online channel has achieved results, innisfree has also adjusted from a single-store model to enter beauty collection stores and explore new offline market directions. Just in February this year, innisfree announced its presence at Watsons, looking for a breakthrough through its more mature and penetrating channels.
In just half a month since joining Watsons, innisfree's products have been at the top of several categories of Watson's "HWB Required List". The transformation of offline channels is effective because on the one hand, the shopping experience of Watson's online and offline intimate services, on the other hand, the efficacy and use experience of innisfree products allow consumers to see the effect and complete the purchase.
It can be seen that when offline channels are suffering from a cold winter, there are still brands like innisfree, relying on self-hematopoietic ability, actively optimizing offline channels, strengthening online business development, practicing hard and steadily in the transformation, finding a turnaround and vitality in the crisis, and creating greater market opportunities.
At this point, innisfree has come out of the cyclical changes in the beauty industry and entered a new stage of upgrading.
Of course, in the face of the ever-changing Chinese market, Korean cosmetics brands represented by innisfree stand at a fork in the road, only those brands that can adjust their strategic direction in a timely manner can better adapt to consumption upgrades, consumption grading and market segmentation, and better and more concentrated efforts in the Chinese market, and such efforts will definitely be seen by more and more Chinese consumers.