Why does "Hua Xizi" combine "online + offline" marketing?

" Hua Xizi " was born in Hangzhou, China. It is a cosmetics brand with the concept of "Oriental cosmetics, using flowers to nourish makeup".

In just three years from 2017 to 2020, Huaxizi achieved sales of more than 4 billion yuan, becoming the fastest growing brand among emerging domestic cosmetics brands.

Regarding this brand, let me first give straight men a brief introduction.

Huaxizi brand proposition: Oriental cosmetics, using flowers to nourish makeup

Brand vision: To create oriental cosmetics that the Chinese people can be proud of.

Origin of the name: "Hua" comes from its brand proposition, and "Xi Shi" comes from Su Dongpo's poem "If I want to compare the West Lake to Xi Shi, light makeup or heavy makeup is always suitable." Xizi is a respectful name for Xi Shi.

Taking Huaxizi’s opening of its flagship store on Tmall as its starting point, its rapid rise has three important events.

The first one was in April 2019, when Hua Xizi developed a popular carved lipstick. This lipstick is very popular, and one user commented that "this is not a lipstick, it is a work of art."

The second is to join hands with Misawa Yume to attend New York Fashion Week in September 2019;

The third is to stick to the entertainment marketing route. Since September 2017, it has been riding the wave of live streaming sales, officially announcing Li Jiaqi as the chief recommendation officer, and since last year, it has been deeply involved in entertainment marketing, and has successively cooperated with Du Juan and Zhou Shen...

On the surface, there are many environmental factors behind Huaxizi's success. For example, the price positioning of 100-200 just hit the vacuum price stage of domestic cosmetics. Coupled with the lipstick effect driven by the economic downturn, there was a surge in the beauty and domestic fashion markets. Huaxizi bet heavily on the loose powder category and almost hit the vent...

However, you may be as curious as I am. There are many similar beauty brands, but why does Huaxizi’s marketing stand out?

In fact, as a new domestic product and new retail brand, Huaxizi's marketing approach is very representative - a combination of online and offline marketing ;

The online platforms are mainly Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili and Douyin. Offline efforts are mainly focused on investing heavily in new media elevator media, establishing user clubs, city large screens, and so on.

Most of the leading brands, including Perfect Diary, use the same approach, but the creativity is different.

1. Online Marketing Section

Huaxizi's online marketing pays great attention to traffic distribution efficiency, which is mainly divided into three categories:

One is to accumulate word-of-mouth and services through private traffic pools.

The logic of the strategy is similar to that of Xiaomi's self-built Xiaomi Forum, which collects fan feedback by establishing a fan community, distributes samples to maintain fan relationships, and so on. This type of private domain traffic is actually not for conversion.

The second category is public domain traffic.

Huaxizi's main strategy for public domain traffic is entertainment marketing. It has chosen to cooperate with some traffic stars with development potential and room for growth, such as Du Juan and Zhou Shen, as well as some non-hot variety shows, such as Newborn Diary and Teen Famous - the publication price of this type of variety show is relatively not expensive, but the audience is very young.

The third category is the grass-planting gameplay in the industry track.

Hua Xizi has cooperated with a large number of mid-level KOLs on Xiaohongshu and Douyin, and has invested a large number of low-level KOLs on Weibo. In the live streaming industry, we have collaborated with top stars such as Li Jiaqi and Mao Guangguang to promote products, although there are not many such top KOLs.

It can be seen that Huaxizi is extremely cautious in its investment in online marketing and focuses on the long-tail effect. Those celebrity artists/KOLs who are expensive but have limited room for growth are not considered. A large amount of budget is invested in mid- and low-end celebrity artists/KOLs with development potential.

Moreover, Huaxizi focuses on using private domain activities to build word-of-mouth and improve services. This approach can be regarded as a new media practice of Xiaomi's word-of-mouth marketing approach.

2. Offline Marketing Section

In the offline marketing sector, Hua Xizi also pays great attention to fan services. However, online, it focuses on word of mouth and conversion, while offline, it focuses on experience and brand services.

There are not many ways to play compared to online games, but the investment is not small.

In the brand service sector, Huaxizi has launched similar "Ten Thousand People Experience Plan" offline many times. Consumers who have purchased or used Huaxizi products can try new products through the activities. It is worth mentioning that during the event, as long as 90% of consumers agree with a product, it can be put into production.

It is said that tens of thousands of people can experience it, but in fact it may be mostly gimmicks, a bit similar to the market testing of traditional cosmetics brands, but under Hua Xizi's operation, it has become a way of playing co-created by fans.

The other is Huaxizi's offline gathering activities.

At its headquarters in Hangzhou, Hua Xizi often holds offline gatherings for users. On the one hand, this allows them to understand Hua Xizi’s brand design concept, and on the other hand, it collects suggestions and feedback by inviting them to make lipsticks, engraving art, etc.

This approach also belongs to the niche market, which mainly focuses on maintaining the relationship between the brand and community opinion leaders. Most users probably have no interest in participating in Huaxizi’s offline gatherings, but are happy to hear opinion leaders around them share their experiences and experiences of attending the conference.

This is part of word-of-mouth marketing and fan relationship maintenance. Participation in China International Fashion Week, Huaxizi X Gaia Legend, etc. are all word-of-mouth publicity, and having some big-name endorsements will have limited help in its own influence.

It is worth mentioning that after completing the layout of the network environment, Hua Xizi began to place a large number of elevator media advertisements in Xinchao Media, leveraging building advertisements to promote its brand and reputation into the community.

In fact, the logic behind Huaxizi’s media-based gameplay is the same as the online logic.

1. Price: Huaxizi itself is very restrained in its advertising media placement (focusing on conversion). Compared with online traffic, the price of offline traffic entrance is cheaper. In addition, the rise of new forces in Xinchao Media has further lowered the price of offline traffic, making it the most suitable partner for Huaxizi.

2. Development: The new concept of community marketing will continue for a long time with the development of community group buying, and Xinchao Media’s positioning as a community media station is at the forefront. Just like the combination of Hua Xizi and Li Jiaqi, the development potential of Xinchao Media is actually the important reason that attracted Hua Xizi's advertising investment.

In general, Huaxizi is actually well aware of its own positioning. It has not chosen to compete with the leading brands in terms of marketing strategies such as price or advertising, but has "slowly" made efforts in the niche market through a medium and long-tail approach.

The principle of "slow is fast" is fully reflected in Hua Xizi.

Author: Community Marketing Research Institute

Source: Community Marketing Research Institute (Community_Marketing)