Produced by | Tiger Sniff Financial Group
Author | Zhou Yueming
Caption figure | Station B Mao Geping account
In the past two years, a makeup video of "blurred picture quality" and "sense of age" has spread among girls. In the video, a makeup artist with a slight accent moves his brush to gently sweep a few strokes, and a barrage rainforest of "want to send his head to Teacher Mao" floats in.
And the "teacher Mao" in these bullet screens is Mao Geping, a senior makeup artist who once made up Liu Xiaoqing in "Wu Zetian".
However, in the past two days, he has not only received the attention of the little sisters, but also "appeared" a lot in the capital market. Because just yesterday (October 21), Mao Geping Cosmetics Co., Ltd., named after Mao Geping himself, passed after a gap of five years, and if there is no accident, it will soon be on the main board and become the "first domestic makeup stock in A shares".
In fact, as early as December 19, 2016, Mao Geping had submitted his first IPO prospectus, but the road to listing was not smooth at that time, and the review was abruptly suspended after a year (December 15, 2017).
The specific details of why the review was suspended are still unknown, but according to the "Basic Information Form of the Enterprise Suspending the Review of the Initial Public Offering of Shares of the Shanghai Stock Exchange" disclosed at that time, Mao Geping's suspension of the review belonged to "Scenario 4", that is, "the issuer took the initiative to request the suspension of the review or other reasons that the review work could not be carried out normally". Since then, Mao Geping's road to listing has been interrupted for five years.
Now, after five years, the beauty brand has "quietly" passed. And it is interesting that although the meeting has passed, in the CSRC's website, its prospectus has not been updated, and it is still "frozen" in the 2017 version before the suspension of the review.
Theoretically, the prospectus is valid for 6 months, i.e. "from the date of the last signature before the public offering, the issuer should use the prospectus within the validity period to complete the offering." ”
In this regard, Tiger Sniff contacted the secretary of Mao Geping's board of directors, which said: "All along, the company has updated the prospectus in accordance with the standards of the CSRC, and the latest prospectus financial report data also covers 2020, but somehow there has been no public disclosure on the official website of the CSRC." Tiger Sniff also called the CSRC's public telephone to consult the matter, but the staff said that it was "not within the scope of acceptance." ”
Although the current version of the prospectus only stays in 2017, combined with the various research reports and cosmetics big data analysis platforms recently released by securities companies, Mao Geping's development path has also emerged. Moreover, Tiger Sniff found that compared with 2017, Mao Geping has also "changed his face" in many places.
The competitiveness of the "shopping mall counter" model remains to be tested
According to the 2017 prospectus, Mao Geping divided his business types into the following types: the main brand MGPIN (including makeup, skin care products, makeup tools), positioned as "light luxury, high-end", priced at 300-450 yuan, mainly in the department store counter direct sales. The sub-brand "Love For Life", positioning "public, popular", priced at 150 to 260 yuan, mainly relying on dealer sales. In addition, Mao Geping also offers training courses to teach beauty and styling.
In these several businesses, it is clear that the main brand MGPIN is its "top pillar of performance".
According to the 2017 version of the prospectus, Mao Geping's revenue from 2015 to the first half of 2017 was 320 million yuan, 343 million yuan and 200 million yuan, respectively, while the MGPIN brand accounted for about 70% of the revenue, the training business was about 12%, and Zhi'ai Life only contributed about 10% of the performance. And in this series, it also covers almost all the so-called "star products" that girls often discuss, powder paste, concealer and highlighter.
Tiger sniffing noted that in the 2017 version of the prospectus, Mao Geping's mainstream sales channel is still direct sales of department stores, according to the disclosed data, the main brand MGPIN department store direct sales channels in the first half of 2014-2017, accounting for about 70% of revenue. Today's hot e-commerce channels were not the mainstream sales methods of MGPIN at that time, accounting for just over 2% from 2014 to the first half of 2017.
In addition, in its old version of the prospectus, as of the first half of 2017, Mao Geping had a total of 135 department stores nationwide, with a revenue of 121 million yuan, so that the average revenue of each counter was 900,000 yuan.
For the offline department store direct sales model, a beauty industry insider told Tiger Sniff, "Offline department stores direct sales are more likely to highlight brand awareness, can enter the department store itself is also the embodiment of the brand 'endorsement', in the increasingly competitive beauty industry, department store direct sales is also a means to occupy the minds of consumers." Of course, e-commerce sales are the trend of the times, which can reduce rental costs, but marketing costs are not low. ”
However, only from the perspective of Beijing, Mao Geping, as a brand with high-end positioning, has a certain gap in grade compared with other brands such as MAC Charm (makeup brand, product pricing and Mao Geping are roughly in the same grade) compared with other brands that are benchmarked in the prospectus, whether from the location of the business circle or the storefront of the mall.
Tiger Sniff found through public comments that in Beijing, there are 7 Mao Geping counters, and 3 of them are in non-core commercial areas such as Shunyi, Liangxiang and Daxing. Its benchmark makeup brand MAC has 9 counters in Beijing, almost all of which are located in the core business district.
In addition, Tiger Sniff also visited the Mao Geping counter in Beijing's Chaoyang Joy City and found that most of the beauty brands, such as MAC, Estée Lauder, and DIOR, are concentrated in the cosmetics shopping area on the first floor, and the store area is large. However, Mao Geping's counter is located on the basement floor, the store area is about one-half of the above other brands, and sandwiched between food brands such as small pots of tea, and also located on the basement floor, there is also the affordable cosmetics brand Innisfree.
In addition, Mao Geping's counter at Chongwenmen New World Department Store is located next to the escalator, presented in the form of an open store, not a separate storefront.
From this point of view, compared with the benchmark brand MAC with similar price points, and other big-name cosmetics such as L'Oréal, Mao Geping's department store counter in the first-tier city of Beijing is relatively weak.
However, this did not prevent Mao Geping from stopping the "footsteps" of offline expansion, although Mao Geping's prospectus was not updated, but according to some media, as of March 2020, the total number of its counters has grown to 244.
Join the "online" white-hot competition
However, in the years since Mao Geping's prospectus "stopped", the beauty industry, like various retail industries, has undergone major changes in channels and sales ecology with the rise of e-commerce.
The so-called "thirty years of Hedong, thirty years of Hexi", Tiger Sniffing recently released the cosmetics industry research reports by various securities companies, all mentioned that e-commerce channels have gradually become the mainstream of cosmetics sales.
According to Wanlian Securities Research Report, "In recent years, the online consumer market for cosmetics has expanded sharply, in contrast, the offline market is shrinking and degenerating, and the epidemic in 2020 has prompted the cosmetics consumer market to further shift from offline to online." According to Euromonitor data, the proportion of e-commerce channels in China's cosmetics market has increased rapidly from 2.6% in 2010 to 38% in 2020, becoming the largest channel. Offline supermarkets, department stores and professional channels accounted for 17.9%, 16.7% and 17.6% respectively. ”
Moreover, analysts at Damai Planet, a big data analysis platform for the beauty industry, also told Tiger Sniff, "In recent years, online channels have indeed become the main channel for cosmetics sales. ”
So, 4 years have passed since 2017, has Mao Geping also gone from the former "heavy line", "e-commerce accounted for only 2%", on the e-commerce "this ship"?
Tiger Sniff found through combing the information of various research reports that from January to May 2021, Mao Geping Tmall flagship store sales of 101 million yuan, an increase of 117% year-on-year (Wanlian Securities Research Report), June 2021 Tmall flagship store sales of 0.6 billion yuan, an increase of 135% year-on-year (Open Source Securities Research Report), which is estimated that in the first half of 2021, its Tmall flagship store sales totaled 161 million yuan, and in the first half of 2020, sales were 130 million yuan.
Although Mao Geping's latest version of the prospectus was not disclosed, Tiger Sniff found that from 2017 to 2020, the total sales volume was 304 million yuan, 389 million yuan, 555 million yuan and 730 million yuan, and the net profit was 70.05 million yuan, 81.88 million yuan, 125 million yuan and 175 million yuan, respectively.
If you assume that the sales in the first half of 2020 are 50% of 730 million yuan, which is 365 million yuan, then according to this point of view, in the first half of 2020, Mao Geping's sales of only one Tmall flagship store accounted for about 35% of the total sales, and if channels such as Douyin small shops are added, online sales will be more.
It should be known that in the first half of 2017, the e-commerce sales of Mao Geping's main brand MGPIN were only 3.44 million yuan, accounting for only 1.7% of the total revenue.
From the above data changes, it can be slightly spied that in recent years, the changes in Mao Geping's sales model are basically similar to the general trend, and online has gradually become its main sales channel.
However, a new problem has also emerged, that is, in the increasingly fierce competition of online channels, how does Mao Geping perform compared with a number of makeup brands?
Tiger sniffed some research reports, such as in the research report disclosed by Wanlian Securities, from January to May 2021, The sales of Mao Geping's Tmall flagship store were 102 million yuan, while Huaxizi was 1.39 billion yuan, Perfect Diary was 1.077 billion yuan, and Polaria was 499 million yuan in the same period. Among them, Mao Geping has the highest unit price of 284 yuan, but the corresponding sales volume is also the lowest, at 360,000 pieces.
According to the open source securities research report, in June 2021, in the caliber statistics of the whole network of the makeup tao, Mao Geping did not enter the top 20 of sales, the top three were domestic brands color key, perfect diary and Huaxizi, and Mao Geping's benchmarked makeup brand MAC also ranked 8th.
In addition to June, in the research report of Open Source Securities, in the sales ranking of the whole network of Tao series in July and August 2021, Mao Geping was not seen squeezed into the top 20.
In these three months, only in June, Mao Geping entered the list of Tmall sales rankings once, ranking 17th.
It can be seen that in the Taozhi e-commerce platform, The competition faced by Mao Geping is still relatively fierce, and the sales scale is far inferior to that of other domestic brands with lower unit prices.
However, it is worth noting that in the sales list of the makeup category of Douyin Xiaodian, from June to August 2021, Mao Geping appeared in the top five, with sales of 31.15 million yuan, 18.48 million yuan and 24.03 million yuan, a total of 73.66 million yuan. This may also mean that Mao Geping's choice of online channels has more power in Douyin.
Once the advertising cost was not enough
Sales channels change with the general trend, and Mao Geping's marketing methods are also seeking innovation.
Industry analysts at Damai Planet, a beauty big data analysis platform, told Tiger Sniff, "Mao Geping's marketing feature is to cut into the short video platform track as a personal makeup artist, push makeup artist tutorial videos, and create a bundle of personal IP and brand. ”
Tiger Sniff is checking some of Mao Geping's public opinion in Weibo and B station, and also finds that the basic hot search topics have Mao Geping himself and emphasize the identity of Mao Geping's makeup artist.
For example, since 2019, Mao Geping himself has been on Weibo hot searches a total of 6 times, "Hu Bing asked Mao Geping to make a model for his mothers", "Mao Geping has made a nude makeup method" and so on are "making an article" on the identity of makeup artists.
In addition, Tiger Sniff searched for the keyword "Mao Geping" on the B station, and the higher playback volume was also Mao Geping's makeup video many years ago and The video of Mao Geping helping the beauty blogger to change makeup, like the blogger 'Late Night Teacher Xu' video "Mao Geping personally helped me change makeup" The number of plays was as high as 1.816 million, and the number of comments was as high as 9060.
This all shows that Mao Geping's marketing route is indeed as industry analysts say, focusing on personal IP and makeup artist identity, which is less in the beauty brand and is also different from other brands.
However, it is worth noting that for cosmetic brands, marketing costs have always been a big item. With the increasingly fierce competition in online marketing and advertising, the marketing competitiveness of various brands has also been more tested.
In the 2017 version of the prospectus, Mao Geping does not have an advantage in this item.
First, its marketing expense ratio is lower than the average of its peers disclosed in the prospectus. In addition, if you look closely at the marketing costs, from 2014 to the first half of 2017, Mao Geping's advertising expenses and business publicity expenses were 11.3271 million yuan, 11.4296 million yuan, 14.4125 million yuan and 7.9451 million yuan, respectively, accounting for almost only about 4% compared with the revenue in the same period.
According to Pleia's financial report, Tiger Sniff roughly calculated that in the same period (2015 to the first half of 2017), its image promotion fees accounted for about 20% of revenue. As of 2020, the promotion fee of Polaria's image has soared from about 300 million yuan in 2016 to 1.2 billion yuan, accounting for 32% of revenue.
It can be seen that in cosmetic brands, advertising costs do account for a large part of the cost. If this part of the cost is limited, it is likely to affect the brand's ability to compete in the "advertising war". For brands such as Mao Geping, which are positioned as "high-end", advertising and brand promotion are particularly important, if the brand grade cannot stand, it may become more and more difficult to rely on high customer unit prices and high gross profit margins.
Of course, at present, the latest data of Mao Geping has not been updated, and perhaps compared with 2017, the proportion of this part of the cost has increased significantly.
Makeup training schools are "spat upon"
It is worth noting that in the information released by the CSRC yesterday (October 21), in addition to the main business, the regulator also raised the question of "whether there is a situation of forcing and inducing trainees to use consumer loans and purchase the company's products" for its makeup training business (2017 version of the prospectus), which accounts for about 12%.
For this point, some Mao Geping students have "complained" on the Internet, saying that "invisible consumption is high, and Mao Geping's own makeup products should be used in class." In addition, previously, a beauty blogger with 235,000 fans on station b reported that there was a malicious charge in the Chongqing branch of Mao Geping Makeup School. The topic of "Mao Geping Makeup School Consumer Fraud" on Weibo was read 30.787 million times and discussed 22,000 times.
In fact, cosmetics training for Mao Geping, in addition to perhaps increasing the sales of Mao Geping products, there is another important role is to send makeup sales personnel to his offline counter. This marketing model is similar to the route of creating Mao Geping's makeup artist identity, emphasizing its unique makeup techniques and makeup effects.
When Tiger Sniff went to the Mao Geping Counter in Beijing Chaoyang Joy City, its sales staff once told Tiger Sniff that spending 1800 yuan can make up eight times full makeup, and there are also free makeup opportunities for other amounts. However, consumer attitudes towards this are also mixed. Some consumers think that "the makeup level of the counter sales staff is uneven", and some consumers tell Tiger Sniff, "Some products are well made in the store, and the makeup effect is not necessarily the same when they come back." ”
As for the benefits of free makeup, when Tiger Sniff went to Sephora, the shopping guide also said that he could make an appointment for free makeup on WeChat, and there was no limit to the amount of consumption, so from this point of view, mao Geping did not have a unique advantage in attracting consumers with makeup as a benefit.
Write at the end
After five years, Mao Geping stopped the review from the middle to "quietly passed the meeting", during which time, the beauty and even the entire consumer retail industry has undergone drastic changes. Judging from Mao Geping's various performances, he is "trying" to keep up with the trend of the times, whether from the channel or the marketing model. However, the "fierce competition" of beauty brands may also make their future A-share road face more tests.
People who are changing and want to change the world are all in the Tiger Sniff APP