Highlights of this article
1. The unexpected popularity of "Chinese makeup" in Japan has become an opportunity for many brands to go overseas, and Japan has also become the first choice for many brands to go overseas. In addition, due to the large population base and similar consumption situation in China, many brands choose Southeast Asia and launch products based on local climate characteristics and consumer demand.
2. In addition to relying on overseas e-commerce platforms, social media promotion is also an effective tool to link consumers, but there are still differences between domestic and foreign markets, and some countries are still dominated by offline consumption.
3. In view of the characteristics of overseas consumers, the brand uses strong cultural attributes such as Chinese culture and IP co-branding to enhance the visual impact of products, and uses topical and cultural design to make consumers' eyes shine, and the novelty and beauty cause many consumers to pay for it.
4. Oriental aesthetic design makes many overseas consumers pay for it, and indeed reflects the potential of Chinese aesthetics to become an international trend. Although packaging and design have become a powerful tool for brands to come out of the circle, makeup products still need to fall on the product itself, and brands still need to optimize products according to local conditions in terms of color and texture, and constantly innovate to avoid word-of-mouth regurgitation of packaging > products.
Looking overseas, thanks to the increasingly close global connections, "Made in China" continues to attract consumers around the world, and many Chinese brands are also competing to go overseas. According to the data of the "White Paper on Chinese Brands Going Overseas", the export value of Chinese brands is on the rise as a whole, with exports reaching 29.9% year-on-year in 2021. Among them, Hua Xizi, as one of the representatives of overseas brands in the beauty industry, has covered more than 100 countries and regions around the world, and has achieved outstanding results. Under this wave of overseas boom, many beauty brands have also embarked on the "road to sea nuggets" one by one.
Image source: White Paper on Chinese Brands Going Global
Domestic brands have not only flourished in the domestic makeup market, but also successively gone overseas to "make a living". Looking at the world, which brands have achieved excellent results overseas? Which countries have become the "treasure land of feng shui" for makeup to go to sea? What adjustments do brands have made in product design and marketing strategies? Take a closer look at the "Age of Exploration" of domestic beauty, and the magic mirror will explore with you.
01
Hua Xizi: Oriental aesthetics + Chinese makeup double help, head bloggers enhance brand exposure
The "White Paper on Chinese Brands Going Overseas" regards Hua Xizi brand as one of the representative brands in the beauty industry, as a pioneer of domestic makeup going overseas, Hua Xizi not only wins overseas reputation with quality, but also realizes cultural overseas with oriental aesthetic design. In 2019, "Chinese style メイク" (Chinese makeup) suddenly became popular on Japanese social platforms, Japan's interest in Chinese makeup became an opportunity for the Hua Xizi brand to go overseas, and the Hua Xizi brand landed on Amazon Japan in 2021, carved highlights as one of the brand's star items, ranked fifteenth in the Amazon highlight category.
Image source: Youtube, Amazon Japan
As the so-called "no social media, no marketing", Hua Xizi's overseas is also inseparable from the help of social platforms. Jeffree Star, a well-known beauty blogger, released a product evaluation video in 2022 with the title "The world's most beautiful makeup", which greatly enhanced the exposure of the Huaxizi brand, and its gorgeous packaging and exquisite detail design of its products have been repeatedly affirmed by J sister, and many consumers are recommending brands and feedback product makeup effects in the comment area. In August 2022, the Japanese drama "Animals" also appeared Hua Xizi brand makeup products, which also made more Japanese consumers know the Hua Xizi brand.
Image source: Youtube
In addition, Hua Xizi's distinctive oriental aesthetic design is in line with the "Chinese style" in the hearts of overseas consumers, and the printing and carving with national characteristics are very eye-catching, and Hua Xizi also introduces its products through some antique videos, so that overseas consumers perceive the brand's concept of cultural heritage as design inspiration, which is also one of the important factors for Hua Xizi's popularity overseas.
The overseas popularity of "Chinese makeup" has become the east wind of Hua Xizi going overseas, and the oriental aesthetic design has made many overseas consumers pay for it. Hua Xizi's overseas has become a typical case of domestic products moving towards high-end and globalization, and also reflects the potential of Chinese aesthetics to become an international trend. Packaging and design have become a weapon for brands to go out of the loop, and brands still need to optimize products according to local conditions in color and texture to avoid word-of-mouth regurgitation of packaging > products.
02
Zeesea: Optimize products according to local conditions, and IP co-branding drives cultural premium
Zeesea is also one of the brands that went overseas early, in the consideration of overseas consumers' makeup habits and aesthetics, Zeesea takes Japan as the main position to go overseas, chooses online and offline to work together, and enters online platforms such as Amazon, but also actively enters offline makeup brand collection stores. In terms of products, Zeesea has established an independent product team according to the preferences of consumers in different countries and skin tones, and designed products guided by the needs of overseas consumers to make products better suitable for the local market. In terms of product safety, Zeesea's entire line of products has been certified by BOKEN, an authoritative testing organization in Japan, which not only makes overseas consumers more assured of brand products, but also a necessary move for Zeesea brand to go overseas and high-end. At present, a variety of eyeshadows of the Zeesea brand are currently listed in the eyeshadow category of Amazon Japan, which is very popular with Japanese consumers.
Image source: Amazon Japan
For overseas consumers, brand product power is one thing, and brand story and cultural value will also affect their consumption decisions. In order to make the brand image more warm, so that the brand aesthetics and culture are integrated, Zeesea and a number of well-known IPs around the world launched joint series, such as the British Museum, Picasso, etc., IP not only drives the product premium, but also gives more cultural connotation, enhances the brand's overseas popularity, and strengthens the highly recognizable brand label.
Image source: Amazon Japan
03
Into you: Capture pain points to promote product innovation, and go overseas with product strength
In the era of masks, lip makeup seems to have no place to play, and it has brought a lot of impact to the lip makeup industry. According to Magic Mirror market intelligence data, in 2022, the sales of lip makeup category on Tmall Taobao platform will be 12.72 billion yuan, down 28.5% year-on-year, and in this industry winter, Into You has repeatedly won the favor of capital.
After completing tens of millions of yuan in angel round financing in June 2021, the Into You brand completed a series A financing in November 2022, and the sales of the Into you brand Tmall Taobao platform in 2022 was 748 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 61.8%. Nowadays, the lip makeup circuit is becoming more and more crowded, in addition to classic lipsticks and lip stains, lip creams, lip powders and other concepts are also emerging, and Into You's lip clay products launched in late 2019 have been widely acclaimed.
In 2022, Tmall Taobao platform Into you brand sales and sales trends
Image source: Magic Mirror Market Intelligence
The explosion of lip clay products is also inseparable from Into you's insight into the pain points between makeup and body feel, lip clay cuts into the blank band between matte lipstick and lip gloss products, creating a matte finish while taking into account ductility and coverage. The co-branding of Into You lip clay products and pigment brand Marley also further deepens the label of rich color and good ductility of the product, and also uses the product attributes of pigments to convey to consumers the diversity of lip clay products, not limited to lips, but also used on cheeks, eyes and other parts.
Image source: Internet
In terms of marketing, the Into You brand mainly focuses on the beauty pendant platform - Xiaohongshu, which has a high degree of compatibility between platform users and brands, which is one of the important ways to cultivate users' minds. According to the "2021 Qiangua 11.11 Industry Launch Analysis Report (Xiaohongshu Platform)", during the Singles' Day in 2021, the proportion of waist experts and beginners accounted for 95.83%, and a number of explosive articles also confirmed the success of the Into you launch strategy. The huge traffic and brand grass notes assist consumers' decision-making, and also attract consumers to share spontaneously and continuously accumulate brand reputation, thus forming a "B2K2C" marketing closed loop.
Since Japan belongs to the Asian cultural circle, and Japanese makeup also affects the aesthetic preferences of domestic makeup consumers to a certain extent, the culture and aesthetics of the two countries are relatively close, Into You takes Japan as the first stop to go overseas. According to Amazon Japan, Into You currently ranks fourth in the lipstick category. On the Xiaohongshu platform, many overseas Chinese share Into You's overseas offline counters, as well as overseas purchase channels.
Image source: Amazon Japan
Image source: Xiaohongshu platform @XIAOXIAO He
04
Flower knows: The niche trend blows to mass consumption, and the girly style is favored by Japanese consumers
In the homogeneous makeup track, many makeup brands generally have their own subdivision positioning and tonality, Hua Zhi is positioned in Japanese girly style, although the early audience is mainly pan-two-dimensional people, but Hua Zhi with high value, strong visual impact of product design awakens the "girl's heart" in the hearts of female consumers, and gradually turns niche demand to mass consumption. The brand design with strong visual differentiation makes it quickly stand out among many brands, the low unit price within 100 yuan reduces the threshold for consumers to try, and the gift box packaging makes consumers have a sense of unpacking ceremony and optimizes the consumer's sense of experience.
Flowers know that the distinctive girl's heart design is very social and topical, so as to encourage consumers to share spontaneously and drive brand voice. In 2022, the average monthly voice volume of brands on social platforms (Douyin, Weibo, Xiaohongshu) will be about 10,000, and the users of Weibo platform and Douyin platform will still be dominated by women, accounting for more than 85%.
Image source: Magic Mirror Market Intelligence
Through the various series of products known by Hua Hua, it is not difficult to detect the marketing strategy of brand "product IP", analyze the current IP consumption psychology of young people, and then launch different types of girl series for people in various circles, such as teddy bear series, unicorn series and so on. In addition, through a variety of series of peripherals to enrich the product content, such as stickers, notepads, etc., so that the brand is implanted in the consumer's life, and even the phenomenon of consumers buying products for the sake of the peripheral will appear.
Image source: Flower Knows Flagship Store
Hua Zhi brand's Tmall Taobao sales in 2022 will be 220 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 63.9%, and while achieving excellent results, it has gradually embarked on a long journey to the sea. Girly style originated in Japan and South Korea, and it is natural for the brand to take Japan as the first stop to go overseas, and the brand mainly adopts online KOL grass promotion + offline physical store experience to reach local consumers. Hua Zhizhi brand has settled in many offline brand collection stores such as LoFt, Plaza, and tokyu hands in Japan, with a coverage rate of more than 90%. In Shibuya, Japan, advertising buses, and subways are also actively placed to expand its popularity in Japan. In 2021, Hua knew that the brand officially announced that Miyakosaki was the Asian brand ambassador, on the one hand, because of its local popularity in Japan, on the other hand, because she belonged to the IZONE girl group at that time, which also had a certain popularity in South Korea and China, and the labels of China, Japan and South Korea were in line with Hua Zhi's goal of going international.
Image source: Xiaohongshu platform @Orange Yao, Weibo platform @FlowerKnows Hua Zhizhi
05
Makeup, Feiluer: The domestic response is tepid, but it is famous when it goes to sea
Among the many overseas brands, we also found some brands that have taken a different path - Heji Cosmetics and Philoer.
In 2022, the sales of makeup brands on Tmall Taobao platform will be 11.578 million yuan, showing a significant downward trend overall. From the product point of view, girly lip mud is more popular in the domestic market, the compartment design is its main highlight, the design of the paste and the lip brush separation makes the amount more controllable, and the silicone brush head is easier to clean. From the sales point of view, waji makeup in the domestic market seems to be not a big splash, in 2021 wai makeup brand went overseas in Japan, with the "old Shanghai retro style 42 color mahjong eyeshadow" hit its brand awareness in Japan, quite topical and cultural characteristics of mahjong design made Japanese consumers dazzling, novel beauty caused many consumers to pay for it.
Image source: Magic Mirror Market Intelligence
Different from the domestic market, the medium of the Japanese market is mainly offline, and consumption is also mostly offline, and online e-commerce platforms play a more auxiliary role. The Japanese official website of the Japanese makeup brand is very well constructed and visually impactful, enriching the brand image and increasing the online conversion rate.
Image source: Japanese cosmetics brand official website
The sales of Feiluer brand on Tmall Taobao platform in 2022 will be 13.747 million yuan, and the overall trend will also show a significant downward trend. The 15-color travel eyeshadow palette is one of the brand's star items in China, and the products are named after the city, so that the urban concept blends with the color of the eye makeup.
Similar to the makeup brand, the response in the domestic market was mediocre, but the Philuer brand focused on the Southeast Asian market at the beginning of its establishment, according to Magic Mirror Oversea data, the sales of the Lalazada Indonesia station in 2022 will be 13.117 million yuan. In the product design, it also fully considers the climate characteristics of Southeast Asia and the makeup needs of consumers, and the product pays attention to the functions of oil control, waterproof and sweatproof. Since Southeast Asia is mainly a developing country, based on the local average consumption level, the price of the Philoer brand is mainly close to the people, generally controlled in the price range of 2-5 US dollars, and the ultra-high cost performance makes it a wider audience.
Image source: Magic Mirror Market Intelligence
06
summary
Combined with the overseas journey of many brands, strong cultural attributes and strong visual impact have become the key factors for brands to open up popularity. In terms of products, color and texture need to be adjusted in combination with local aesthetics, climate characteristics, and consumption habits. In addition to products, overseas consumers also pay more attention to brand stories and cultural values, and a brand image rich in cultural heritage and warm is more conducive to improving consumer stickiness.