"Now some cosmetics seem to be cheap, but the capacity is ridiculously small!" The post-95 generation told Zhongxin Jingwei that some of the lip gloss and eyeliner he recently bought, although the price was only a few dozen yuan, but after getting his hands on it, he found that the capacity was much less than expected, and it didn't take long to bottom out.
This has led some consumers to even calculate the price per gram and compare it horizontally before buying in order not to spend more. Are consumers too "calculating", or are brands raising prices in disguise?
"Intimate packaging" or "curve price increase"?
Double 11 is often the peak sales season for cosmetics. Li Tan (not his real name) from Zhejiang recently found that the capacity of the new version of the powder cake had been reduced from 9.2 grams to 7 grams when he repurchased Caitang's powder. When I asked the customer service, the other party said, "Considering the need to go out to touch up makeup, the new version of the powder is lighter than the old version."
The purchase record shows that the price of the old powder cake purchased by Li Tan in February this year is 179 yuan, and it is 169 yuan after superimposing the store discount; The price of the new version of the powder cake is 159 yuan. Even without taking into account the previous discount, the new model has 24% less capacity than the old model, and the price is only 11% cheaper, from 19.46 yuan to 22.71 yuan per gram. "Do I travel for the weight of these 2 grams? It's better to explain it than not to explain it. Li Tan believes that the customer service's explanation for the capacity reduction is not satisfactory.
Zhongxin Jingwei asked the customer service of Caitang flagship store as a consumer, and the other party said that in addition to the difference in grams, the new powder has been upgraded in terms of oil control and delicateness.
On social media, many consumers said that although the price of many cosmetics seems to be "fragrant", the capacity is actually smaller than similar products. It is understood that most of the beauty brands that have been complained about are emerging "Internet celebrity" brands established in the past 10 years. It is true that most products are advertised on e-commerce platforms with a capacity for consumers to purchase voluntarily, but many people habitually estimate the size of these products when purchasing and do not deliberately calculate the price of each unit of measurement.
Due to the non-uniform gram weight, in recent years, consumers have become popular to calculate the unit price of cosmetics. For example, based on the price of the Tmall flagship store, the price of the Kelaki Air Lip Stain is 59 yuan, with a net content of 1.7 grams, which is about 35 yuan per gram, the velvet lip gloss of 3CE (Sanxi Yu) is 100 yuan 4 grams, which is 25 yuan per gram, the price of the 1.5 mm gel eyeliner pencil of UNNY CLUB is 35 yuan, with a net content of 0.05 grams, or 700 yuan per gram, and Maybelline's giant long-lasting gel eyeliner is 56 yuan and 0.4 grams, or 140 yuan per gram.
Recently, the self-media blogger "Uncle Meng's beauty number" also complained in the video that some beauty products have a low capacity, such as Zhiyouquan's 49.9 yuan ice cream lip gloss, which seems to be large but the actual lip gloss is only in the middle part; "I calculated that all three grains of rice were 0.06 grams." The blogger said.
Some netizens said that the low capacity of cosmetics will affect their experience. "It didn't take long for the lip gloss to stick to the paste, so you had to dig and dig it up." "Is this planning to develop a daily disposable amount of cosmetics?" "When I received this eyeliner, I thought it was an empty bottle." Due to the fact that the net content of free samples of many hot-selling lipsticks was mostly less than 2 grams, these lipsticks with less content are now also ridiculed as "the capacity of the sample, the price of formal wear".
However, some netizens believe that less capacity can avoid waste. "I don't usually wear much makeup, but small amounts of makeup suit me very well." "The eyeliner is used very slowly, the small volume is more suitable, and the bottle is made large to be easy to grasp."
Behind the shrinking capacity, what careful thoughts have merchants saved?
Why do beauty brands have to make some cosmetics so small?
Cheng Weixiong, a senior brand management expert and founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., told Zhongxin Jingwei that there are multiple factors behind it. "First, capacity reduction can effectively control product costs; Second, the use time of small-volume cosmetics is short, and the frequency of consumer renewal will naturally accelerate; In addition, the unit price of some small-volume cosmetics is relatively low, which seems to have a certain advantage. ”
Zhan Junhao, founder of Great Aim Positioning Consulting and public relations partner of Gongsun Ce, said in an interview with Sino-Singapore Jingwei that the main consumer group of beauty products is young consumers, who pay more attention to the tonality and uniqueness of the brand in their choice, and the smaller capacity will not directly cause their loyal users to abandon the brand.
"The measure of reducing capacity may be a consideration made by enterprises due to the continuous increase in overall marketing costs, especially it is directly related to the high commission of super anchors and the increase in promotion costs. Secondly, the relatively low unit price helps to improve consumers' purchase decisions while maintaining or lowering the retail price while decreasing the number of grams, and also increases the repurchase rate. Zhan Junhao said.
On the other hand, industry insiders said that it is also one-sided to determine the cost performance of cosmetics based on the price per gram. Feng Jianjun, a senior daily chemical expert, told Zhongxin Jingwei that the price calculated per gram is only the only static parameter, and does not take into account the four major marketing competition parameters such as product technology and R&D investment, brand advertising investment, whether it has a production plant and independent production, the number of goods sold and the scale of sales revenue.
Cheng Weixiong said that in general, in the context of the popularity of online marketing, small-capacity packaging seems to be able to reduce costs and improve coverage, but it does not help the brand's own reputation, and it is suspected of being opportunistic. "Reducing capacity is a short-sighted way to play, and there is a risk of being disgusted by consumers. The development of beauty products ultimately depends on quality, and brands that provide good quality and service can be rewarded. ”
Taking Caitang's parent company Proya Group as an example, the announcement shows that in the second and third quarters of this year, the sales volume of Proya beauty and makeup products declined year-on-year, while the average price increased year-on-year. Proya said that the reason for the increase in the average price of beauty and makeup products is the increase in the proportion of Caitang brand revenue with a higher average selling price. Caitang brand's revenue in the first half of 2023 increased by 78.65% year-on-year, accounting for 11.45% of total revenue.
On the 8th, Zhongxin Jingwei sent an interview outline to Proya and other companies on the reasons for the small capacity of some beauty products and product pricing strategies, but did not receive a reply by press time.
Industry: High-end products need to be realized from multiple dimensions
Feng Jianjun said that although the terminal price is high, the production cost of cosmetics usually does not exceed 2% of the product price, mainly due to the high marketing expenses and channel costs, and the net profit margin of the cosmetics industry is generally only about 15%-20%.
How much of the money to buy a lipstick is spent on the promotional expenses of the merchants, and how much is spent on real technology? The proportion of publicity costs of cosmetics companies has always been a topic of concern in the industry. For example, Proya achieved revenue of 5.248 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 32.47%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 50.6% to 746 million yuan.
According to the previous financial report and public information, Proya's sales gross profit margin in the first half of 2023 will be 70.51%, of which the gross profit margin of the Caitang brand has also increased. From 2020 to the first half of 2023, the company's gross profit margin has increased steadily. The image promotion fee rate was 37.92%, an increase of 3.08 percentage points over the same period of last year, and the R&D expense rate was 2.52%, an increase of 0.19 percentage points year-on-year. In addition, the gross profit margins of L'Oreal and Shiseido have also remained above 70% all year round.
Zhan Junhao said that the launch of products with less capacity by beauty brands is actually a measure of brand premiumization, which is related to the increase in the company's overall marketing costs. With the continuous advancement of high-end brands, brands will also steadily increase product prices to achieve brand premium capacity and profitability.
"From the perspective of corporate strategic development, short-term price disputes are normal. However, if you want to build a brand, you can't just use the way of raising prices and reducing costs, you need to achieve this goal in multiple dimensions, otherwise it will trigger consumer resistance. Zhan Junhao said.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhao Hanlu Text Editor: Cheng Pei Title Image Source: Shangguan Title Picture Editor: Shao Jing
Source: Author: Zhongxin Jingwei
![In the first quarter, cosmetics opened low and went low[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)