How can Chinese skin care products make a comeback in the 618 marketing on Xiaohongshu?

In the beauty market where international big brands gather, many domestic brands will label their products as "substitutes for big brands" in an attempt to win the market with "value for money". After the diversion, if the brand wants to form a lasting influence and build its own brand label, it must actively explore product and brand building and achieve brand upgrading.

01 618 Domestic skin care products made a comeback and attracted attention, and new brands were popular

618 is just halfway through and the online shopping addicts have lived up to expectations and delivered a brilliant report card for this shopping carnival. This year, Tmall’s 618 pre-sale was advanced to 8 p.m. on May 24. The top ten best-selling products were decided within an hour of the opening, of which beauty products occupied seven seats. Domestic skincare brand Yuze stood out and became the only domestic product on the list.

Looking at the rankings on Tmall, domestic skin care brands also performed impressively. For example, in the recent 7-day affordable facial set sales list and soothing facial set repurchase list, domestic skin care brands such as Winona, Water Code, Ximuyuan, and PMPM have all made the list, surpassing many international brands.

Image: Tmall

In addition, according to Tmall, the number of merchants in this year's Tmall 618 is the highest in history, with a total of 250,000, 2.5 times that of the same period last year. 44,000 merchants participated for the first time, and 8,200 new brands made their collective debut. Among them, new domestic skin care brands such as Zhuben and Rock Zoo also performed amazingly during the 618 shopping festival.

02 Targeting value positioning and building brand core competitiveness

The rise of domestic skin care brands, in addition to taking advantage of the live broadcast express train of big anchors such as Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi, also benefits from the rise of functional skin care and ingredient parties, such as anti-aging, sensitive skin, oily skin care, etc. Many brands have found their own brand track by focusing on functional segmentation, focusing on efforts and strategic marketing.

In addition to the on-site advertising on Taobao and Tmall during the 618 shopping festival, advertising on off-site social media platforms is also essential. Qiangua data shows that during the 618 sprint in May, Yuze, who focuses on skin barrier repair, posted 1,260 related notes on Xiaohongshu. The total number of notes increased by 74.52% year-on-year during the water storage period in April, and the total number of interactions increased by 7.04%, further guiding mutual influence and consumption decisions among users.

Figure｜Qiangua Data

PMPM - China's first skin care brand with exploration as its brand concept. Its brand positioning is "explore the world and bring back energy to the skin", giving consumers the feeling of carefully selecting the world's best ingredients. In just over a year since its establishment, it has already received multiple recognitions from the market and capital.

The brand's earliest hit "Glowing Dough" mask features baobab seed essence from faraway Madagascar, while the Sea Sugar Lotion and Water Set features sea fennel from Brittany. With its affordable price and differentiated effective ingredients, it has taken the route of "affordable price for students" and "low-priced alternative to big brands", and has won the love of many consumers.

Figure｜PMPM

PMPM’s distillation of the core selling points of products is very accurate. Each product uses a one-sentence selling point to coordinate with the channel to set up different scenarios for content marketing to maximize the effect.

For example, the “glowing dough” mask does not directly use adjectives related to whitening, moisturizing, etc., but instead uses a concrete picture such as “a face full of glow after ten minutes of application” to create consumer perception, allowing consumers to have a very rich imagination of the effects, which is more convincing than dry adjectives.

03 R&D upgrade + supporting marketing, brand building after "substitution"

For domestic skin care brands, only by continuously strengthening their R&D technology and product strength can they gain a firm foothold in the fierce brand competition and build brand strength.

This year, PMPM began to build its own laboratory, created a team of outstanding formulators from home and abroad, established its own R&D team covering the formula development department, packaging development department, efficacy evaluation department and raw material development department covering the entire production line, and vigorously developed the brand's independent R&D capabilities.

Figure｜PMPM

This is also reflected in the global formula X+Y+Z proposed by PMPM. It concretizes the product concept through a more stable formula system, creates professional endorsement and echoes the brand positioning.

After occupying the minds of a certain number of consumers, PMPM began to expand upstream and enter categories with large penetration and high growth.

Xiaohongshu is an important place for PMPM to invest. Qiangua data shows that since the 618 water storage period began in April, PMPM has doubled its investment in Xiaohongshu and has been on the Xiaohongshu brand planting list many times. At the same time, notes using "substitute" as a marketing tactic have accounted for a smaller and smaller proportion of brand-related notes.

Figure｜Qiangua Data

Currently, the most expensive item in PMPM’s official Tmall flagship store is Rose Black Tea Essence, with the 100ml size priced at 658 yuan. As of press time, PMPM Rose Black Tea Essence has accumulated over 60,000 payments in June, making it the store's best-selling liquid essence.

Searching for PMPM Rose Black Tea Essence on Qiangua Data, there were 736 related notes on Xiaohongshu in the past year, of which 138 were posted in the past month, accounting for nearly 18%.

Figure｜Qiangua Data

The creation of a hit product is inseparable from the brand's insight into user needs. PMPM has always stood from the user's perspective to meet the needs of consumers from all walks of life, optimizing, iterating and upgrading its products, thus gaining the favor of more consumers.

04 KOL cooperation and co-creation to penetrate the circle of cognition

With the structural upgrades brought about by the rapid economic and technological development, marketing methods are also being upgraded. Users' consumption habits have shifted from folded consumption to M-shaped consumption. In the new environment, how to integrate marketing, open up various channel links, and seize the minds of consumers is a proposition that needs to be considered urgently.

Winona focuses on the research and development of products for sensitive skin and has a professional medical background and botanical resources. In the past, ordinary consumers rarely had the opportunity to access these professional contents, and the rigorous and boring academic language also hindered the communication between brands and consumers.

After entering the new media era, brands such as Winona have found a way to break out of their circle through expert KOLs.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu

Expert KOLs are either doctors or come from a research and development background. They are a group of KOLs with professional authority, and their recommendations often have a greater impact on consumers’ decisions. They used their rich clinical experience and their own easy-to-understand discourse systems to re-create and disseminate Winona's efficacy principles, and co-created difficult professional knowledge content with the brand.

In addition, the advocacy of expert KOLs can also have an impact on ordinary KOLs, allowing them to trust the brand and talk about the professional elements of the brand. Brands can simultaneously deploy influencers in multiple industries and at multiple levels to promote their products, penetrate the core circles, and create fission among consumers.

Qiangua Data’s brand analysis shows that Winona is more of a beginner in Xiaohongshu. Through a large amount of investment, it gradually increases the product’s voice and popularity, and guides users to spread the word among each other.

Figure｜Qiangua Data

05 From Insight to Consumer Connection

As the main force of beauty consumption, the "post-90s" and "post-00s" not only pay attention to the functionality of the products themselves, but also care about their own emotional needs and personality expression.

When the basic conditions are similar, brands should stand in the perspective of consumers, from understanding consumer needs to connecting consumers with products and consumer experiences. They should believe in traffic, but more importantly, they should believe in the added value of product quality and consumer word of mouth.

Ximuyuan has grasped the pursuit and love of "high appearance" among Xiaohongshu users, and its new product Ukiyo-e Collector's Edition Sakura Water and Milk Skin Care Set launched on Xiaohongshu has been recommended by many users.

Figure｜Qiangua Data

Ushiyan positions itself as a "mid-to-high-end brand" and strives to catch up with big brands in terms of product development, appearance design, supporting marketing actions and user experience.

When launching the Retinol "Black Gravity" essence, Ushiyan took into consideration that although it has strong anti-aging effects, it is also somewhat irritating and requires the skin to slowly build up tolerance.

In order to ensure that the product can both meet the functional requirements and bring users a pleasant experience of use, Ushiyan has optimized the user unboxing and product experience. In addition to adjusting the formula, they also include a low-concentration "trial pack" and an easy-to-read manual in addition to the regular pack to tell novices how to build tolerance and use the product correctly.

Image｜Tmall-Ushiyan flagship store

This not only eliminates the risk of negative reviews resulting from adverse reactions of consumers with sensitive skin after using retinol products, but also conveys the product design concept and brand professional thinking to consumers in a scenario-based manner. While gaining user reputation, it also builds purchasing confidence for consumers who are still waiting to see the product.

06 Conclusion

During the boom period of content e-commerce, domestic brands are gradually transforming. More and more new domestic products will tear off the label of substitutes for big brands, break through the shackles of brand upgrading, and have the courage and strength to compete head-on with international brands.

With the rise of functional skin care and ingredient-focused products, brands need to find a differentiated track, focus on research and refine product selling points for precision marketing.

When a brand has a certain number of loyal fans, it can attract new customers and expand high-end users with stronger spending power by launching high-end product series, thus seizing the high-end market share.

Expert KOLs can have a significant impact on consumer decision-making. Brands can combine the layout of influencers to create high-quality content to penetrate the core circle and form user fission.

· Grasp the psychology of consumers and use the traffic dissemination of the Xiaohongshu platform and the product after-sales service experience to reach users and arouse user resonance.