There are 2,000 pits on the way out to sea.
Source | Poly beauty
Author | In 2023, it can be said that the makeup category has experienced a year of "ice and fire". After the rapid rise, many cutting-edge cosmetics brands have begun to feel the "cold winter" with the change of capital supply and market transfer.
After the rapid rise of cutting-edge makeup brands, there are also countless players who have fallen in today's capital supply and market stock, and at the same time, the surviving brands are not having a good time. As the head brand of domestic makeup, Huaxizi can be described as "experiencing a storm" last year, at such a special node as the change of the year, Jumei invited Huaxizi to explain to the industry, in the 10 years since its establishment, they have made efforts and attempts to try to restore a real Huaxizi.
At the 11th Jumei Conference hosted by Jumei and sponsored by Shangmei Co., Ltd. - 2023 Evolution and Switching, Big Value Industry Annual Conference, Fei Zhuan, co-founder and vice president of Yige Group, delivered a keynote speech on "Soft and Hard Research, Wings of China's Brand Value Evolution".
In his speech, he mentioned:
Part 01
Reflection on 10 years of entrepreneurship,
What kind of brand do we want to make?
My name is Feizhuan, I am the co-founder of Huaxizi brand, and I am a beauty industry person who has been in business for 10 years.
I'm not very good at speaking, especially in public, and I'm a very typical I'm a person. At the same time, I also have the opportunity to let everyone know more about Huaxizi, what the brand wants to do, what it is doing, and how far it has done in stages.Xi
The idea of being a little more simple is to hope that everyone can perceive the real Huaxizi. Give her the opportunity to express her different stories and beauty.
Being a brand is actually a slow job. What kind of brand does Huaxizi want to make? There is a set of numbers in this. It is the starting point of some key choices for the Huaxi sub-brand in the past decade.
(Jumei's note: In 2014, Feichuan and the founding team gradually began to prepare for the Huaxizi brand, until March 2017, when the brand was officially established, and it has been 7 years now.) )
8 years refers to the fact that since 2016, Huaxizi has started to do user co-creation before the establishment of the brand, and this has been insisted on for 8 years;
7 years, this is the time when some of Huaxizi's products have been sold so far. Air powder, Yurong cushion, eyebrow pencil, these products were available on the first day of the brand's establishment, and each product has undergone more than 5 generations of updates, and is still the best-selling product in the brand and the market;
Five years ago, in 2019, Huaxizi began to build an independent R&D team, inviting outstanding scientists to start from basic research;
In addition, our cultural exploration, overseas exploration, and public welfare practice also began at the beginning of the brand's establishment. We want to do these things for 100 years, or even longer.
These key figures are trying to answer what kind of brand Huaxizi wants to become?
First, to become a professional beauty brand, in addition to the upgrading of the beauty technology system, it also includes the continuous upgrading of the formula.
Second, to be a scientific brand, through scientific research on target users and Chinese ingredients, to make better products with flowers.
Thirdly and fourthly, we hope to be a cultural brand and an aesthetic brand. Beauty is not only a functional category, but also a lifestyle and attitude, and even tells the world some Chinese stories.
Finally, we want to be a world brand. I know that this should be the goal of many brands, and we understand that it is not simply a Chinese brand to go global, but to learn Xi ability to integrate world resources, and stand on the world stage, so that the world can see the value and connotation behind Chinese brands.
These are dreams, pursuits, very difficult, and very challenging, and they are also the direction that we are working towards in the "numbers" just listed. We are fortunate and proud to be able to work with the strong Chinese cosmetics industry chain to continue to build such a brand and gradually approach our dreams.
We are here today to thank you for your understanding and support, and on the other hand, we want to share with you what we understand about the makeup industry and the real Huaxizi.
Part 02
Makeup R&D is different from skin care
I am often asked by many people - what is the R&D behind the makeup brand? Because there is often a voice in the industry that the R&D barriers of makeup are not as deep as those of skincare products.
In fact, there is not only research and development in makeup, but also the barriers to hard power are very high, because it is not only the pursuit of timely results and experience, but also the pursuit of ingredients and formulas. The technology behind this is in no way inferior to skincare.
At the same time, makeup is a category that expresses life attitude and value proposition, and it also needs soft power support behind it. Therefore, it is difficult to make makeup and skin care products, but compared with skin care, makeup should belong to different dimensions.
Here are a few simple examples.
● Ingredient research: In order to achieve the expected transparency, it is necessary to add a new ingredient - nephrite powder, but in this process, it is by no means a simple addition of an ingredient, but it is necessary to consider how the ingredient can form a scientific ratio with other materials to achieve better results without destroying the formula.
• Texture research: In order to achieve fine and better smooth coloring, 70% of the material is selected to be pressed with eyebrow powder. This is not a traditional recipe, the production process of the new recipe is through low-temperature roasting and 30 tons of pressure repeatedly pressed.
● Color research: There is a Pantone color card in the world, but that is someone else's color standard. We will optimize the traditional Chinese color to match the user's lip color, skin tone and skin type.
Another example is the specific packaging studies for different formulation characteristics to ensure the practicality of the formulation.
And much more......
In order to promote this series of research, it has invested in independent research and development since 2019, and currently has more than 7,000 square meters of scientific research laboratories and 5 innovative R&D centers to support the system of Huaxizi's soft and hard research.
In this R&D system, hard R&D includes Consumer Research Center, Cosmetics Science and Technology Innovation Center, Human Skin and Bioelectronics Research Center, and Industrial Design CMF R&D Center, while soft R&D includes Oriental Aesthetics and Space Innovation Research Center. Part 03
Next, I use one of the most familiar products - air powder, through two ways of explanation, so that you can fully understand the hard research and development and soft research inside.
The first point of view is to look at the process from the result:
1. We have set up a pane on the outer packaging of this product, and there are some dark patterns underneath. This craft research actually originated in China.
2. The powder opens with a rotating structure, and many people ask me why I don't use the "pop-up" design. In fact, this is because the loose powder of Huaxizi is very light and easy to overflow during transportation, so the locking and sealing requirements of the product structure are very high. Considering that the traditional detachable screw lid is used to maintain the seal, it will be less convenient for the user to open. Therefore, we have developed a rotating structure with the aim of rotating compaction on the basis of ease of use to ensure better powder locking effect.
3. Light and thin formula system that absorbs oil but does not absorb water. There are a lot of hypoallergenic tests involved, including the substitution of some allergenic ingredients in the original formula system, such as removing talcum powder and adding nephrite powder.
4. The choice of color, there are thousands of people in the world, how do we choose? In fact, we have 200,000 user image detection data distributed across the country. Based on this data, we conducted statistics and research on skin types and skin tones in different regions of China to formulate colors that are more suitable for the "average" skin in China.
5. In terms of taking powder, the structure of the elastic screen behind different versions of the powder is different, and the pore size of the mesh needs to be adjusted in combination with the particle size of the powder, multi-layer compounding, and repeated testing. First, in order to prevent too much powder from coming out, and secondly, because the powder is easy to get wet after opening, which causes the powder to change, this net is to some extent a "sieve" to ensure a better consumer experience.
For example, each powder will have a cotton pad when it leaves the factory, which can reduce the overflow of powder, and the puff is made of velvet material, and the length of the fluff refers to the structure of the brush, and repeated tests have been done to adjust the length of the most suitable fluff structure.
All of the above upgrade iterations are based on continuous user feedback, co-creation, and iterative upgrades over the past 7 years. So, you will find that R&D sometimes becomes more and more important, and you can always find new problems to solve, but this is how you go step by step.
The second angle: look at the result from the process
For the category of loose powder, in fact, we also encountered a lot of problems at the beginning. Here are a few simple examples.
How to choose raw materials to design the formula, which can be light and thin, soft, absorb oil but not water, not easy to dry, safe ingredients, and more suitable for the needs of Chinese users?
The upgrade and iteration of key ingredients, if it is also suitable for sensitive skin, how to reduce the allergens in the original formula while adding soothing ingredients, and replace the ingredients under the premise of ensuring efficacy to the greatest extent?
How to apply flower ingredients and formulas in the makeup system, as well as the matching selection of makeup tools, etc., are all problems that this product will encounter.
To solve the above problems, we have a complete set of processes.
1. User research stage
We have done basic research on Chinese users, such as the "Research Report on In-depth Analysis of Chinese Women's Sensitive Skin and Allergenic Makeup", such as the study of "Oriental True Color".
In addition, we launched a large number of pre-user co-creation and conducted in-depth demand research to clarify what kind of powder solution Huaxizi needs to provide users.
2. Core R&D stage
At this stage, there is a lot of time to wait, wait, wait...... There's also a lot of money to put in, put in, put in...... But we have a principle, there is no upper limit on the cost and cycle of product development, because fewer restrictions can make better works. As a 7-year-old head makeup brand, Huaxizi should have a lot of products, but in fact, Huaxizi SKU is not much, excluding duplicate links and tool products, Huaxizi has more than 30 products. This is the embodiment of Huaxizi's slow research and development.
Taking powder as an example, the first thing we need to do at this stage is the research of the basic formula.
How to make the selection of raw materials for basic formula safe, lightweight, lipophilic and hydrophobic, and the selection of raw materials should not contain skin allergic ingredients, acne-causing ingredients, harmful chemical ingredients, etc.
For example, in the selection of powders, on the one hand, we choose powders with relatively small diameter particles and concentrated distribution, which makes the makeup more light and delicate. On the other hand, skin-friendly raw materials from natural sources that do not contain harmful chemicals or impurities are also considered. Taking nephrite powder as an example, Hua Xizi spent a lot of effort to screen the mineral composition in the early stage, and we found that the flaky structure of nephrite powder is thinner and more light transmittance than mica, making the makeup transparent and natural. But at that time, how to grind the jade with very high hardness into a more suitable powder for makeup, we have not found a suitable method, and finally grind the nephrite jade powder to the particle size we want through high-hardness zirconia grinding.
In addition, we conduct a lot of technical research and patent applications related to flowers. At present, it has more than 20 patents related to flower and plant raw materials, which is relatively leading among Chinese makeup brands.
Once you have a basic recipe, you need to upgrade the recipe continuously. For Yuyang series products, we will conduct research on the formula for sensitive skin and test it through a third-party organization to ensure that it is usable for sensitive skin.
We have a special skin data identification research, accumulated more than 200,000 effective data on the skin color of users, research so far, from the database of Huaxizi can understand the skin color and skin of different users across the country, in 6 dimensions of the detailed characteristics of analysis, targeted to create solutions.
Everyone knows that purple can harmonize yellow and achieve the effect of repairing yellow and brightening. But not all purples work well with powder. Among the Huaxizi powder, the latest purple comes from the research of big data. I call this color "Huaxi Purple", purple of purple.
At the same time, we continue to carry out various types of efficacy evaluation, testing and evaluation.
For example, this holographic AI sensory evaluation system is equivalent to a "lie detector" for product evaluation. Sometimes, it is often difficult for users to refine the feedback of a product, and this system can present the user's feedback in a more refined way by capturing brainwaves, etc. It can be said that Huaxizi has been using a scientific way to do user research.
In addition, 2023 is the first time that we have achieved the scale of 10,000 people to evaluate. This allows Huaxizi to have a larger and more objective user feedback before the product is launched.
3. Production control stage
Today, Huaxizi's quality control standards are very strict, but to some extent, they are completely forced. To consider global sales, we need to refer to the national standard, European standard, Japanese and Korean standards, and the American EWG standard, which are comparable to or even stricter than the best standards to form the "Huaxizi standard";
4. Iterative growth stage
In Huaxizi, the product is not the end of product development.
User co-creation runs through the whole process of Huaxizi products. We will capture the voice of users and continue to drive the optimization and upgrading of brands, products and experiences. So far, Huaxizi air powder products have been upgraded to generation 5.0 and have been selling well for nearly 7 years. The user's word-of-mouth is the best witness.
These are two perspectives on product development, and at the same time, we will also think about whether the product or brand can provide some soft power value to everyone in addition to the use value, which may be another dimension of the brand's challenge. Part 04
Hard power is easy to do, while soft power is more challenging
There is such a scene, which is often faced by domestic products. For example, when the quality of a certain product of Huaxizi is questioned, we will patiently say: we have overcome a lot of technical problems, done a lot of scientific evaluation, and our product quality is on the same line as that of international brands. At this time, there is often a soul torture - why can you compare with international brands?
In fact, to some extent, this is not only a comparison of hard power, but also a comparison of soft power.
The challenge of hard power is said in words, but the challenge of soft power is hidden in the heart, and it will not be said immediately or easily. And this challenge, on the contrary, is greater and more difficult to change.
In fact, with the brand's vigorous investment in R&D and the support of China's entire beauty industry chain, the hard power gap between Chinese brands and foreign big brands is not so obvious. The bigger challenge at this time is soft power.
While investing in hard power, Huaxizi also attaches great importance to the research and exploration of soft power.
To name a few, such as the inheritance of culture. This is something that Hua Xizi has been groping but is very determined to do. Chinese culture and aesthetics are broad and profound, and if we take a corner, we will benefit from infinite use. Like the Mongolian Impression Series that we have just launched recently, it reproduces the Mongolian leather carving technology, unique culture, and different scenery. However, it is not easy to study colors, materials, processes, and even the core of culture.
For example, public welfare actions.
There is a product that is probably the public welfare baby with the largest number of donations on Taobao. Do you know what this product is? That's right, it's the Huaxizi air powder mentioned earlier. Its single link has donated more than 16 million to the Community Chest. Huaxizi's Tmall flagship store has donated more than 40 million yuan. This should also be the most in Taobao stores.
As early as April 2021, we established the first public welfare foundation in the beauty industry in Zhejiang Province. There is a very interesting activity that everyone does not know very well - we have a female guard hotline in each delivery box, and at the other end of the hotline, there are 190+ psychological counselors, who take turns to provide free psychological counseling for those in need 365 days a year. At that time, the original intention of doing this was also because many women had some problems that could not be solved with products that needed to be paid attention to, such as mental health. At present, this public welfare has effectively served 10,000+ people and saved more than 30 people with suicidal tendencies.
In addition, we do public welfare of express boxes for lost children, hoping to let more people pay attention to the matter of lost children.
We have carried out the "Passing on the Clothes" program, committed to creating 56 sets of ethnic school uniforms, and have completed the Dai school uniforms, Miao school uniforms, and Mongolian school uniforms; Part 05
After 10 years of entrepreneurship, going to sea is a new beginning
When the study of soft power and hard power is oriented to the international dimension, this greater significance is to let the East be seen by the world, its challenges have become geometric progression, and Huaxizi's entrepreneurship has only begun after 10 years.
If I could, I would like to tell you that every step is a pit, every place is a pit, and it is very pitted.
I think the biggest pitfall is not understanding in the first place. Because the international market is completely different from the domestic market, you have to learn every step. You can roughly imagine that today's Chinese brands going overseas in the face of these mature countries are like the feeling of six or seven-year-old children going to university abroad.
In general, there are two major thresholds.
1. In terms of R&D and quality, how to meet the requirements of the world?
In fact, this involves a very large R&D investment and knowledge system, and our formulas and ingredients are subject to strict scrutiny by many systems around the world. It's what I just said, the quality system that was forced out. The process standards at home and abroad are completely different, and simple examples such as "animal experimentation", which is a very unique legal regulation in China, and it is necessary to scratch your head just to solve this problem.
At the same time, we need to study the world's consumers. As we all know, the world's consumers have far more skin tones than we encounter today. Since 2022, Huaxizi has initiated overseas user co-creation, and on the basis of adhering to Chinese characteristics, it has created products according to the needs of overseas users. For example, our powder has been developed in 8 shades.
But there are some challenges that have not yet been broken through, for example, the category of liquid foundation, today we have no way to make this product in the world, because it needs the support of at least 100 shades, and we have to have enough data to do research on very dark to very white skin, which we have not done today. But after several years of precipitation, although it is not sold in China, Huaxizi foundation has been made in more than 20 colors, and lipstick has been made in fifty or sixty shades. These are all the fruits of our "painful experience" in the process of going to sea.
There are also many new product requirements overseas, such as environmental protection and marine friendliness. This forces us to develop packaging that meets the requirements. To some extent, this is also forcing us to "grow" new abilities.
2. In terms of cultural and aesthetic expression, how to tell Chinese stories well and meet the perception of local users?
For example, how to draw Chinese makeup on the faces of overseas users, and how to bring greater diversity to the entire world makeup system based on the world's race, skin tone, and skin type.
And how to tell Chinese stories to the world, we need to find some cultural commonalities, and start from understanding. I'll give you two examples, one is the concentric lock, which is known to be related to love in China, but international consumers can't understand the meaning of "concentric lock". We found the international word for "love lock" - love lock, which may not be exactly the same thing as the concentric lock, but it is a bridge to help the world understand the culture you want to convey.
For example, we launched a new Peking Opera series this year, which also wants the world to understand the elements of Peking Opera to express culture.
The ethnic series is also to tell the world that China also has a splendid niche multiculturalism.
In addition, you have to adapt to local consumption Xi. In the domestic business environment, online accounts for 60%-70%, so we are Xi to using online "short, flat and fast" to push the business model. However, there are many countries in the world with a particularly large proportion of offline, so the offline experience of a brand is very strict, for example, Europe has very detailed requirements for the atmosphere and details of offline retail. This is a very challenging challenge for Chinese brands that lack offline experience, and the investment is also huge.
If you ask, what impact will these attempts and efforts have on your business next year? I would say, I'm sorry, but these things won't have any impact on next year, the only effect is that the profit may be lower, because you have to invest more money to meet different criteria. But this is what should be done, not only to raise domestic standards, but also to go global. If you have any questions about going to sea, you are welcome to communicate, but I can tell you that there are 2,000 pits in the process of going to sea.
Although the road to the world is not easy, we have also made some phased gains:
- Our products are sold to more than 100 countries and regions, and many overseas experts have spontaneously recommended Huaxizi products. We have more than 2.5 million overseas social media followers.
- In 2023, Huaxizi's products have won some world-class awards, and these are the first of its kind in Chinese makeup.
- In 2023, Hanaxiko became the first Chinese beauty brand to open a seasonal offline store in Shinjuku, Japan.
- In November 2023, there was a report in the print edition of ELLE magazine, in which Hua Xizi was described as: "the most beautiful makeup in the world".
These accolades are great encouragement to us, but we also know that Huaxizi is still very young today, we are still far from the dream we want to pursue, and there are still too many things to work on on the world stage. But anyway, with the support of both soft and hard research, our Chinese makeup has gone global, and I believe that more and more brands will rise to the challenge and go out.
Jumei's Notes:
For the industry's leading star brands, we tend to pay more attention to their rapid growth in sales scale in the early stage of entrepreneurship, and do not care much about the system construction, infrastructure investment, R&D and upgrading behind them, and the latter may be the cornerstone of the brand's long-term stability.
The above is the first time that Hua Xizi has spoken out publicly as a founding team member after experiencing the "public opinion turmoil", allowing us to get a glimpse of the lesser-known side of Hua Xizi.
A former executive who has experienced the whole process of Huaxizi from start-up to explosion once told Jumeili that although he has now left the company, he is deeply impressed by one aspect of the brand, that is, "Huaxizi makes a little money every quarter and every year, and will definitely spend the money on brand building and R&D system first, which has almost become the tradition of this young company."
From 2017 to 2023, it is the year when Huaxizi started from scratch, topped the top domestic makeup brand, and began to experience new turmoil and challenges, which also corresponds to the magnificent "new cycle" of China's cosmetics industry.
Today, as the leading enterprises represented by Huaxizi have begun to establish complex systems, deeper barriers, and more research and development, China's cosmetics industry has also ushered in a new "new cycle of brand competition".
Good luck to Huaxizi and good luck to the Chinese cosmetics industry!
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——2023 Big Value Industry Annual Conference——
In the rapidly changing 2023 and the intensifying competition, the involution of the big value industry has come to a crossroads of evolution and switching. In this new round of development cycle, it can be said that challenges and opportunities coexist. In this context, what is the path of evolution of China's beauty industry? and how to adapt to the switch of technological outlets and smoothly pass through the complex and changeable industrial cycle? In response to the competition in the new era, on December 22-23, the 11th Jumei Conference hosted by Jumei and named by Shangmei Co., Ltd. - 2023 Evolution and Switch· At the annual meeting of the big value industry, we specially invited upstream and downstream cross-border experts in the industry, dermatology experts and professional beauty KOLs, etc., to conduct in-depth discussions on the technological evolution and power switching in the era of scientific brands.