文 | Tiana
When it comes to his strengths, Ma Xiaoyu chose a word - understanding.
She said: "I was recently reading Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Appearance, in which he talked about understanding, and I may be a relatively high level of understanding, but I don't think I have any particular strengths. ”
Schopenhauer wrote in his book: "Perception is a direct knowledge, a momentary thing, a sudden realization, not the product of a long chain of deductions in the abstract." ”
In her 27-year career at L'Oréal, Ma Xiaoyu has had countless moments of knowledge, or her work is composed of an innate understanding of the market and a quick response, seeing the cause and effect after the appearance again and again, and deducing the appearance from cause and effect.
In 1997, Ma Xiaoyu received an interview call from L'Oréal, which changed the trajectory of her life.
The old lady smiled and asked her, "Do you feel very uncomfortable when you come to us and have to put on makeup every day?" Ma Xiaoyu replied, "How can it be? I don't understand it now, but I'm willing to learn! Of course I'm willing to let me do something that will make me beautiful every day!"
In this way, after layers of interviews, Ma Xiaoyu joined L'Oréal's team in China. At that time, she had only graduated from the French Department of Shanghai Foreign Language for only three years, and she had only resigned from a stable and comfortable job at the Hardware and Minerals Import and Export Company.
In 2004, Ma Xiaoyu became the General Manager of the Lancôme brand, in 2021, she was promoted to Vice President and General Manager of the Luxury Cosmetics Division of L'Oréal China, and in September 2023, L'Oréal announced a series of appointments, and she was appointed to the newly created position of Deputy CEO of L'Oréal China, responsible for managing the various business units of L'Oréal China.
Rather than dividing her life stages by rank, she feels that "business can be divided into several stages. If we talk about 'people', I think it's a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. ”
In February this year, she officially took up her post and became the Chinese who achieved the highest position in the L'Oréal Group. Last week's 2023/2024 Annual Development Strategy Communication Conference was her first official media conversation after becoming Deputy CEO of L'Oréal China.
In the spotlight, in her eloquent conversations, Morketing felt her strong personality and keen market insights.
Past successes
Definitely not a recipe for the future
In the first five years of entering L'Oreal, what Ma Xiaoyu did was to take root in the fertile soil of L'Oreal.
"At that time, there was no e-commerce, so I did sales for four or five years, running outside every day, contacting shopping malls, customers and BAs, and gaining insight into market changes. "I may be sensitive to business and the market, so I think the solid fundamentals of the previous years have laid a very good foundation for me." ”
At that time, L'Oréal only had two or three brands, and the total annual turnover was probably less than 100 million. But Paul Gai (the former president of L'Oréal China) believes that the Chinese market will take off, and more importantly, he chooses to believe in these young people in China, those young people like Ma Xiaoyu.
Ma Xiaoyu said: "In fact, this industry did not exist at that time, and we knew nothing about this industry and profession. His confidence in China and his trust in young people made us feel that although the company is still small, we are very strong. It's a beautiful feeling, it's been passed down from generation to generation. ”
If you sum up the main theme of her career, it must be the love and determination of L'Oréal and the down-to-earth work attitude.
Therefore, even though Ma Xiaoyu is now a very high-level manager, she still does very down-to-earth things every day. Three years ago, she became the deputy CEO and general manager of L'Oréal China's luxury cosmetics division, and after her promotion, she faced endless meetings and finally needed her to go on a business trip.
"When you sit in the office, you see problems, but when you go to the front line, you see methods and opportunities," she said. ”
Of course, no one can always go smoothly, "the formula of the past cannot win the world today, let alone win the world in the future", this is an important topic that Ma Xiaoyu has learned in the more than 20 years of running Lancôme.
The cold water was poured down in 2010, the year when the market began to change, but Ma Xiaoyu was still basking in the joy of rapid growth in 2008, and did not react in a more timely manner.
That summer, for the first time, she opened Lancôme's stores out of Beijing and Shanghai, and opened them in China's third- and fourth-tier cities, seizing the opportunity of the sinking of old department stores. "When I first went to the south, I went to Huizhou, Foshan, Zhongshan and Dongguan, and opened three stores in these four places, two of which are still in operation today. ”
In 2015, with her keen sense of smell, she seized the opportunity of a wave of offline shopping malls, "I remember it was the end of 2015, when department stores could not be opened, but shopping malls could open 300 to 400 a year, I think this is a good idea, and then the first store opened in the shopping center." ”
Soon, the era of mobile Internet came, and she aimed the brand's show at JD.com and Tmall. She said: "For so many years at Lancôme, it has actually won at several nodes and stepped on the pace of the times. ”
For this experience, she recalled: "I feel very lucky, first enjoyed a wave of growth, and then was slapped in the face, after growth, if you don't have an enterprising heart, no critical heart, you will be eaten up again, in the next ten years, the market is also very powerful." I think the most terrible thing in this world, people in their 50s like me are self-isolated, self-righteous, and content with their past successes. I felt that once a person is closed or solidified, the person will not improve, so I learned to be more open and positive. ”
With the rise of the rank, she summed up a set of mental methods, "The higher the level of boss, in fact, the daily things are endless, and my role is more to find the direction in advance and know where to put resources." It's a very strong team, and the role of the boss is to find the right direction, you put all your resources on the right track, and let the wind blow you up. If the boss points in the wrong direction, no matter how hard the students below work, they will not be able to grow up in the headwind track. ”
"I've never been a perfectionist, I've always been big and small. My challenge now is that I see opportunities in my eyes, but resources, manpower and time are limited, how can I find four or five of the most relevant opportunities, and lead the team to put the resources behind them, so that L'Oréal China can be further developed. ”
L'Oréal's three tips for staying popular:
People, brand layout, investment
From only two or three brands to four major departments and 37 brands, and from an annual turnover of less than 100 million to 40 billion euros, L'Oréal's coronation in China is inseparable from three key points: people, brand layout, and investment.
"The first is people. Ma Xiaoyu said: "L'Oréal China is very willing to use different people, it is a corporate culture that is willing to use people, and dares to let the team try and make mistakes. ”
Today, there are three generations in the high-end cosmetics department, the post-70s, the absolute sister and brother, the old expert and the old master who know the most business; the post-85s, who are at the most appropriate age, serve as brand managers and other important positions; and the post-95s, the real practical generation, with infinite vitality and creativity.
She said: "What I am best at is actually employing people, and the premise of employing people is that you have to know what you don't know, and when you don't know, you really recognize what you don't know." You need to be more confident in your strengths, but also be more open to what you don't understand. I have formed my own worldview, that is, the power of integration, I play my strengths, but I also know my weaknesses, and I have the discernment to find people who can help me make up for my weaknesses, and everyone comes together to achieve a common goal in the end. ”
Just like the influence of Paul on Ma Xiaoyu's generation of young people back then, Ma Xiaoyu now also uses his passion for L'Oreal to touch and inspire waves of young people, as if inherited, flowing in L'Oreal's brand genes.
The second is the brand layout of L'Oréal.
Ma Xiaoyu gave a very subtle example, comparing L'Oréal to a Monet garden. "The subtlety of Monet's garden lies in the fact that when the great artist laid out the garden, he thought about what kind of flowers would be arranged in each corner from the first day, so as to ensure that there was always a beautiful view from the window all year round. ”
The brand is the same, it is impossible to be in the flowering period forever, it is impossible for the market to be good for all brands, "the layout of the whole brand is not bright in the east and bright in the west".
"Because, upper, middle and lower, skin care, makeup, perfume, the overall brand layout is particularly in place, so we have a strong ability to resist wind and rain. "In the past few years, when the premium market has taken off, our luxury cosmetics department has made a great leap forward. If in the next two or three years, with the economic situation in China, there is more market for relatively cost-effective products, my Consumer Products Division (CPD) and Dermatology Beauty Division (LDB), these brands can make a leap. So I think the whole brand layout is very layered. ”
The third point is investment, investment in the Chinese market.
"We see a lot of groups, maybe when the market is good, they invest a lot, and when the market is a little tight, they have to contract. But in the past 27 years, no matter whether it is windy or rainy, the market is good and the market is bad, Mr. GayPaul, Mr. Owen Zhong, Mr. Agon ...... They have great confidence in the Chinese market and the Chinese team, and they have a different kind of feelings for China from the bottom of their hearts. The headquarters has high hopes for the company, and at the same time, the engine motor is also fully pulled. ”
Today, L'Oréal officially opened the world's first self-built intelligent operation center in Suzhou. This investment is not easy to come by, and it can be said that it is the existence of turning stones into gold. The centre will upgrade L'Oréal China's supply chain capabilities to better support e-commerce and meet growing consumer demand with smarter, more agile and more customized products and services, creating a new benchmark for L'Oréal's operations in North Asia and the global market.
The next "China",
Or China
At present, L'Oréal China has served 100 million consumers, and is expected to reach 500 million consumers in the future, leading the market significantly in the first quarter of 2024, with an increase of 6.2%, and 6.2% is equivalent to half of the annual beauty market in Italy.
In a Chinese market that is changing so quickly and operating in a way that is far more complex than in the West, L'Oréal needs a leader who truly understands China, Chinese and the Chinese market.
"I've always been glad that I wasn't promoted too early," Ma Xiaoyu said sincerely. "From 1997 to 2021, I have been working on the front line, and I did not do high-level work prematurely, because the Chinese market is changing too fast. If I had been promoted five years earlier, I might not have been able to understand the true integrity of the business. The reason why the group gave me this new position may be because of my good historical performance, and more importantly, my perception of the future of the business. ”
When it comes to L'Oréal's layout for the future, Ma Xiaoyu shared four blue ocean markets.
Thirty years ago, the main consumer group of beauty was between 25 and 45 years old, but now, this age range has expanded from 15 to 70 years old. And with the development and progress of society, the public's perception of "beauty" has also a deeper understanding and pursuit.
The concept of "50+" has been mentioned by her many times, she said: "I am a person in this era, and I know that the 50-year-old of our generation is completely different from the 50-year-old 20 years ago, and this is a social change. This group of 50-year-old people is well-educated, and they have always been very good to themselves when they were young, although there are certain changes in income after retirement, but the pursuit of quality is unchanged, so if you can launch products with high quality, high cost performance and very specific efficacy for this group, this is definitely a blue ocean track. ”
Naturally, she focused on the younger audience on the other end, the 15-18 year old. This group of alpha generation high school students has an incomparable passion for beauty. Ma Xiaoyu compared the high school students of his time with the high school students of today, saying, "The high school students of our era could not use all kinds of beauty products, and now high school students are very active." But their consumption psychology is different, they have not yet reached the mentality of buying big brands, but their early adopter psychology is particularly strong. ”
These 15 and 16-year-old girls like to chase the same style of the trend, easy to be planted, what color the heroine paints, what color Xiaohongshu pushes, there will be a desire to buy, the pursuit is fast consumption, what you see is what you get, a whole lipstick will never run out, 30, 50 yuan of cosmetics is enough.
The third group is male. The men's beauty market is very developed in other countries, but at present, brands in China are still relatively little to do this work, so she believes that there is still a huge potential for men's skin care needs to be stimulated.
Ma Xiaoyu gave an example: "We at Biotherm adjusted our strategy to attack men in an all-round way two months ago, and we still have a small success. The counter next to Archaeopteryx and Descente on the fifth floor of the mall is particularly good. On the contrary, it is not necessarily good to open next to the girls' beauty store on the first floor. You have to be active in business, where the guests are, where I will go. ”
The last point of concern is perfume. Since the Song Dynasty, there has been a huge demand for fragrance among the Chinese, when a new category of writings, "Incense Books", appeared, which dedicated to recording various incense recipes and related literati anecdotes. But at present, the perfume market in China is still very small, accounting for only 6% of the world, and there is still a lot of room for development, because in the bones of Chinese, everyone is willing to have a good taste on their bodies.
In our previous cognition, the needs of Chinese people and the development of the market were skin care, makeup, and perfume, which were opened step by step in order, but now skin care, makeup, and perfume can be parallel. Ma Xiaoyu said: "Perfume, like makeup, tests the brand's ability to create dreams, it must be fast, spiritual, and immortal. Buying this thing from you is not buying a result, but buying this feeling. ”
epilogue
Beauty is the most simple human need, the common expression of human beings, and the brand is the carrier of these needs and emotions.
Create The Beauty That Moves The World，对于这个有着宏大愿景的品牌来说，进入中国，27年很短，成立至今，115岁也很年轻。
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China, L'Oréal delivered outstanding results, with sales of 11.24 billion euros in the first quarter, up 9.4% year-on-year and 8.3% on a consolidated basis, with growth in all divisions, consistently exceeding the average of the dynamic global beauty market.
What kind of mission will it carry, and how will it write the chapter of "beauty", under the interweaving of time and space, everything is worth looking forward to.
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