Specialty brand “Mask Family” gets ahead in China’s red hot facemask market with its eye-catching strategy
Compared to other countries, China’s cosmetics market is largely dominated by skincare products. Within that category, facemasks, which come in a wide variety of brands both domestic and foreign, account for a whopping 20%. Here, we take an overall look at China’s facemask market and in particular the specialty brand, “Mask Family”.
Gen Z leads China’s facemask market
The facemask market in China kickstarted in 1998 with SK-II’s expansion into the country. The market then expanded with the coming of Olay in 2002. After the Chinese brand “MG” launched in 2003, domestic companies that handle facemasks started popping up one after the other.
With the e-commerce market’s explosive growth from 2014 onwards, major brands such as the long-established Pechoin and Jala-subsidiary Chando also entered the facemask market. In addition, brands from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan also expanded into the country, greatly stirring up the competition. This indicated the great potential of the facemask market.
During the 2020 edition of “Singles’ Day”, one of China’s largest online sales events, facemasks was the skincare category that saw the most sales, with records indicating that 37.04 million facemasks were sold. That year, the facemask market’s size had grown to US$5 billion — a 10.3% increase from the previous year. One likely factor for this was the growth in demand for self care goods due to pandemic-induced lockdown lifestyles.
In terms of generational insights, China’s so-called post-95s and post-90s generations (i.e. those born after 1995 and 1990 respectively) spend the most on facemasks. According to “2019 Gen Z Online Facemask Consumption Insights” released by CBNData, the majority of facemask consumption in 2019 was by post-95s, followed by post-90s. Either demographic spent more than twice as much on facemasks as the post-80s.
Additionally, the most common purpose for using facemasks according to Gen Z consumers on Tmall has been for “moisture retention / moisturizing”. This was followed by “skin whitening / toning up”, then “enrichening / nourishing”. User needs that are increasing are (in order of most common) handling sensitive skin, wrinkle care, and antioxidants. On top of this, the study found that many users in China tend to post selfies of themselves on social media wearing facemasks, hence the look of products and their ability to grab attention on social media are also factors consumers lay importance on.
Mask Family — a brand that has effectively used R&D and marketing that to target university students
Mask Family was launched in 2007 by Shanghai Beautiful Cosmetics and reached their first Singles’ Day 100 million yuan (US$15.6 million) in sales in 2019. They also reached and exceeded that amount during 2020’s Singles’ Day and are now considered on par with major brands. Their popular “Mung Bean Mud Pack” sold over 460,000 units just through pre-orders. It’s since become a long seller, with total sales since 2007 exceeding 4.34 million units.
Mask Family has grown by riding on the expansion of the e-commerce market. The brand has over 11.55 million followers on Tmall, making them second out of the domestic brands after Chando. However, a brand needs more than followers if they’re to survive in the red ocean facemask market. The reason Mask Family has become popular with users is their focus on R&D and their digital strategy.
Mask Family uses plant-based raw materials in their facemasks, such as flowers, fruits, and grains, and has acquired two patents and eight utility models. As demonstrated by their Mung Bean Mud Pack, they’re known for bringing out head-turning products — they also have an eye-catching gauze-style facemask branded with a cartoon nurse and a facemask that is entire along with its packaging, colored in jet black.
Their digital strategy spans the major platforms used by Gen Z, such as social media-style e-commerce “RED”, the original Chinese version of TikTok, “Douyin”, and video site “bilibili”. They’re also involved with live commerce.
In 2020, they signed a contract with KOL (Key Opinion Leader) Baojiansao, who boasts over 3.5 million subscribers on bilibili. Before Singles’ Day, they broadcasted her taking a tour of their factory and R&D facilities. The broadcast reached 250,000 views, with just under 1,000 comments and over 3,000 scrolling comments.
Mask Family also puts a lot of effort into marketing towards university students, who are their chief users. When the brand holds campaigns or events, they make use of Chinese social media platform Weibo, the online community “Qzone” by Tencent, and the group functionalities of the chat app WeChat in order to have 1,200 student KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers) send out announcements. They also back events where students are appointed ‘campus ambassadors’ that help promote Mask Family products and the brand itself within schools, and this has apparently led to a reach span of 15 million students.
On the other hand, Mask Family also values sales at brick-and-mortar stores, with their products being handled at over 1,500 locations, including specialty stores and cosmetics chain stores. Shanghai Beautiful Cosmetics President Xiaodong Huang has indicated to local media his intention to cover all grounds by continuing to expand both online and offline channels in tandem while also putting efforts into R&D that aligns with the needs of users.
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Team Roboteer
