In China, KOLs and esports teams are the stars of male beauty
Markets for men’s cosmetics around the world are fast expanding, and China isn’t any different. Many market players include domestic and international names — from established giants L’Oréal and Estée Lauder to new Chinese brands. They are all in the game to try and capture a share of China’s enormous pie, and the competition is heating up. Let’s take a look at the clever marketing techniques adopted by some companies.
China’s market for men’s cosmetics and skincare products grew 13.5% on average from 2016 to 2019. In 2020, the market is predicted to exceed 2 billion yuan (US$286 million), according to a China Industry Research Institute report, “2020 Research Report on Market Development Prospects and Investment in the Men’s Cosmetics Industry”. The estimates were made before the coronavirus outbreak, and it is still unclear how far the beauty market might be impacted.
Online sales of men’s cosmetics are also increasing. Alibaba’s retail platform Tmall saw a 51% increase in sales for face washing foam, a 58% increase for facial masks, an 89% increase for makeup goods and a 119% increase for lotions and creams for 2018, compared with the previous year. It also found that the number of brands targeting men had increased by 56%.
One in five post-95ers uses BB cream
What explains the rapid growth of the men’s cosmetics market in China? The changing values of Chinese people, particularly the younger generations. A joint Tencent and Weibo survey found that in 2015, less than 30% of people approved of men wearing cosmetics, with even more people against it. By 2018, those who approved comprised nearly 60% of respondents, while less than 10% disapproved.
China’s “post-95” generation, who were born between 1995 and 1999, have proven to be especially understanding towards men’s makeup. In another survey, 39% of male post-95ers said they were open to using cosmetics daily, compared to 32% of the previous generation. A separate report also found that 18.8% of male post-95ers use BB cream while 18.6% use lip cream or lipstick.
Influencers widen the range of the market
Men often tend to be much less knowledgeable of makeup techniques than women. It partly explains the surge of makeup videos online, with more and more men sharing their makeup videos on Chinese social media.
Male Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) with powerful influence have also taken to these platforms. Top among them is China’s “lipstick brother” Li Jiaqi, an influencer with around 10 million Weibo followers and 38 million followers on Douyin (the Chinese version of short video sharing platform TikTok).
L’Oréal is the architect pushing Li to stardom. In 2016, the beauty giant kicked off a project in China that sought to unearth talented individuals among its beauty counter specialists and transform them into influencers. In partnership with Tmall’s cosmetics division and an influencer management firm, the project selected 200 candidates. One was Li, who worked behind the counter at an L’Oréal branch in Nanchang city in Jiangxi Province. He was eventually chosen to start a live streaming commerce program on Alibaba’s Taobao service.
Li’s popular videos made him famous overnight. It’s even said that he once managed to sell 10,000 sun creams in just 18 seconds. Although Li doesn’t just work with L’Oréal, he made 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) worth of sales for the brand in the first half of 2018, according to local media.
Besides Li, other male beauty influencers such as Ryan Mao, Benny Dong Zichu and Fang Junping have emerged independently without the backing of brands. These male influencers are extremely popular, having built their personal brand by introducing male or unisex beauty products and posting before-and-after makeup videos.
Major beauty brands enter esports
Brands with financial muscle are using celebrities to market their men’s beauty and grooming products. However, with a surge of brands entering the market, there’s a need to approach marketing from a different angle.
Estée Lauder’s Lab Series did just that in early 2019. It offered a sponsorship contract to the League of Legends team of famous Chinese professional esports group Invictus Gaming. Celebrities in the multiplayer online battle arena video game, the team’s five players starred in illustrated ads. They also ran a hashtag campaign on Weibo: those who retweeted #igXinDuiyou (“ig new teammate”) could receive products, and the hashtag was viewed more than 86 million times.
In June 2019, L’Oréal’s Biotherm invited esports team QGhappy and live streamer Feng Timo to a game event held at a department store in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Feng’s commentary was live streamed on Biotherm’s official Weibo account. To this day, that video continues to earn views on the brand’s official account on live streaming video platform Yi, where it has received more than 350,000 likes.
Also making the headlines was Spring Summer, a plant-based skincare brand for women produced under major Chinese cosmetics manufacturer JALA. The brand created a hashtag challenge on Douyin, where users had to dance in time to selected music tracks and water imagery representative of the product. Contrary to expectations, more than a few postings were by men who also featured the actual product in their video. Total views of the hashtag #kanwoyimohuashui (“Look, I turn into water when I apply it”) exceeded two billion.
These cases show that the line between men’s and women’s cosmetics in China is gradually blurring. The efforts of male influencers in backing unisex and genderless brands are especially likely to boost this trend.
Text: Denyse Yeo
Original text (Japanese): Team Roboteer
