Former P&G and L’Oréal Members Launch New Brands in China
Numerous new brands are being launched in China’s beauty industry. These include not only color cosmetics but also skincare brands. A growing number of these brands are headed by former members of major global cosmetics companies.
PMPM, an acne care brand that uses rare natural ingredients
The hottest skincare brand right now is PMPM, operated by Shanghai Time Yin E-Commerce Co., Ltd.
All of its founding members, including CEO Shan Shuo, were formerly with P&G. The brand was officially launched in March 2020 and is sold on Alibaba Group member Tmall, JD.com, the RED e-commerce social network, WeChat Mini-Programs, and more.
In less than six months following its launch, PMPM’s gross merchandise value (GMV) reached 50 million yuan (US$7.7 million). According to media reports, during the 618 sales event (from June 1 to June 20, 2021), its sales exceeded 110 million yuan (US$16.9 million). It sold 550,000 lotion products, making it the top-selling brand in the lotion category.
The reasons for the brand’s success are its product development and its marketing. The brand is dedicated to using natural materials and ingredients, such as the essence of baobab from the seeds of baobab trees in Madagascar and the essence of roses from Bulgaria. It has also developed products tailored for the skin troubles caused by young people’s lifestyles, such as products for helping with “staying-up-late face” and “takeout-food face” (referring to the effects of poor nutrition from failing to eat a balanced diet). These products have proven popular with users, who have praised the brand’s product functions, saying “they moisturize and help keep down my sebum levels’’ and “they make my pimples less noticeable.”
The visual presentation of their products is also fun and unique, with examples such as their gift boxes, which are designed to look like classic suitcases. Approaches such as these lead users to post about the products of their own accord, acting as key opinion consumers (KOCs).
Simpcare, cosmetics made from plant ingredients such as camellia and cherry blossoms
Simpcare is another rapidly growing skincare brand. Nuode Suyuan (Guangzhou) Biotechnology Co., Ltd., founded in 2019, has been sold on Tmall, RED, and JD.com since January 2020. It is now also being sold in WeChat Mini-Programs. Founder Jeffrey Liu was formerly a brand director for P&G’s Olay brand.
In 2020, its net sales exceeded 100 million yuan (US$15.4 million). It has gone through repeated rounds of financing, and in January 2021, in its Series B round, it raised tens of millions of dollars.
Simpcare is also dedicated to natural ingredients and has product series made with camellia, cherry blossoms, and CBD. According to reports by the Chinese media, the products made with cherry blossoms were jointly developed with De Jiangxian, who was formerly involved in the development of Clé de Peau Beauté products at Shiseido.
The best-selling camellia series set in the Tmall Simpcare flagship store has sales of over 350,000 sets. Many users have praised it, saying “it’s quickly absorbed by the skin” and “it’s exceptionally good at moisturizing.” The flagship store takes the time to respond to almost all of these comments, engaging in deeper bidirectional communications with users.
ROCKINGZOO, a personal care brand to watch
Skincare isn’t the only category where new brands are appearing. There are also a growing number of new brands in the personal care category.
ROCKINGZOO, operated by Shanghai Zhengsheng Brand Management Co., Ltd., began selling products on Tmall in January 2020. It actively uses live commerce by KOLs and promotions on RED and has achieved rapid growth, taking third place in Tmall’s scrub category in June 2020.
Founder and CEO Mao Panpan formerly worked at L’Oréal and was then involved in marketing for over 10 years in major Chinese tech companies such as Baidu, Tencent, and ByteDance.
Before founding ROCKINGZOO, Mao noticed that 70% of the lineup of personal care products on supermarket shelves had not changed in a decade. The realization that there were few products for young people spurred Mao on to launch the brand.
Bathrooms are private spaces, so ROCKINGZOO’s concept was to create products targeted at young people that they could use to enjoy self-care the way they wanted, during their bath time. One of the secrets of the brand’s success is its designs, such as the design of “1980 shampoo.” These designs have the slightly nostalgic feel that Gen Z is said to favor.
According to local media, in the first quarter of 2021, the brand already had net sales in excess of 100 million yuan (US$15.4 million). During the 618 event, sales rose 676% over the previous year. In the Series A and Series A+ rounds of financing in May, the brand procured tens of millions of dollars in additional financing.
SUPER SEED, a brand that focuses on ingredient research and grows organic ingredients on its farms
The SUPER SEED brand was launched by Hangzhou Yunyun Brand Management Co., Ltd. in 2020. It has its own research laboratory, called SUPER LAB, engages in joint research with the Chinese Academy of Sciences regarding skincare, the extraction of ingredients from plants, and marine plants, and grows its ingredients organically in its farms.
SUPER SEED is targeted at urban consumers in their 20s and early 30s, and its product lines consist of body soaps, facial cleansing foams, haircare products, and scalp care products. It divides its products into two lineups. The A lineup consists of products intended for regular use, while products in the B lineup have specific usage purposes. The brand is designed so that users use A lineup products as basic products and then add essences from the B lineup to match their specific scalp and skin conditions.
SUPER SEED products are sold on Tmall, RED, WeChat Mini-Programs, and Douyin (the original Chinese version of TikTok), and it also uses live commerce on Douyin.
MAKE ESSENSE’s broad lineup of men’s cosmetics
In the personal care category, new men’s cosmetics brands are also appearing. Shenzhen Make Essence Cosmetics Co., Ltd. operates the MAKE ESSENSE brand. According to registry information, the Chinese video platform bilibili invested in the company in July 2020 and owns 1.69% of its stock.
MAKE ESSENSE offers a wide range of products, from skincare to lip balm and breath-care products. It began officially selling products on Tmall in January 2020 and started sales on JD.com in the same year. It is now also sold through RED, Douyin, WeChat Mini-Programs, and more.
According to an interview with CEO Huang Weijiang, the company is focusing on live commerce to establish the brand. In its promotional efforts, it uses KOL Luo Yonghao. 80% of Luo’s followers on Douyin are men, mostly between the ages of 18 and 35, a perfect match for the brand’s targets.
It also uses a variety of promotional measures, such as using micro-influencers who are popular among men and developing unique collaboration products. In 2020’s Double Eleven event, it generated buzz by collaborating with Japanese condom manufacturer Okamoto to sell product sets consisting of skincare line products and condoms.
Scentooze rises in popularity thanks to its sweet packaging
The market expansion in recent years has brought with it the birth of new fragrance brands, as well. The creator of the Scentooze brand, which was launched by Xiandu Ruiqiu (Shanghai) Fragrance and Cosmetics Co., Ltd. in 2020, formerly worked for L’Oréal. The brand is targeted at people born in or after 1995, and its designs are popular for their fancy, romantic aesthetics. Its Ferris-wheel motif container, European bonbonniere (candy box) motif perfume bottle, and other containers are photogenic and highly suited for sharing on social media.
It also pays close care to its fragrances, with proposals that match the life situations of people in China. According to media reports, it has also studied ancient fragrances and fragrance ingredients discussed in historical books and aims to fuse traditional fragrance culture with modernity.
Scentooze is sold through Tmall, Douyin, WeChat Mini-Programs, and the like, but its channels are not limited to online channels. It can also be found on the shelves of over 100 brick-and-mortar retail stores, such as HEAT and JUPITER & CANDY. This is because trial use before purchasing plays an even greater role for fragrances than for cosmetics. The brand places great importance on marketing on social networks, and has created a RED account, but does not actually sell products through it.
New brands being created by former members of major companies
During the most recent 618 sales event, Chinese brands did not perform as strongly as they had in the past. Brands such as Perfect Diary and Florasis sold well, but there were no other brands that followed them.
It appears that a large number of competing brands has made it difficult for next-generation power brands to stand out from the rest in terms of sales volume. Nonetheless, a great deal of funding is being provided to new brands such as those we have introduced here, which have been advancing into categories in which Chinese brands had seldom placed great emphasis before, such as the skincare, personal care, and fragrance categories, and succeeding at creating a novel impact.
In the Chinese cosmetics industry, people with experience in major global companies are highly valuable — so valuable that some headhunting companies provide services specifically tailored to the cosmetics industry. When observing the trends of new and growing brands, one point to keep an eye on will be whether or not their members include former employees of major global cosmetics companies.
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Team Roboteer
