LF Beauty: meeting Asian consumers' needs has 'never been more challenging'

By Lucy Whitehouse +, 13-Jul-2016, cosmeticsdesign-asia

The president of LF Beauty, a third party manufacturer and supplier, has spoken of the challenges and opportunities being posed for beauty by the Asia market.

The article outlines that it has never been more challenging, while there have never been more opportunities for brands to satisfy the customers’ needs. According to Raymond “Asian beauty is now setting the pace for the world”. China’s customers have a rising demand for K-beauty products, whereby Korean brands face the challenge of acting with insider knowledge of the Chinese market.

Indeed, the Korean International Trade Association found out that Korean companies accounted for 22.1% of China’s imported cosmetics in 2015, closing the gap with the French who have a market share of 30.6%. During the first seven months of the year, China’s imports of cosmetics products rose 36.1% to $1.67 billion.

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K-pop idols (Korean celebrities) appear to have an effect on the Chinese cosmetics market. As a matter of fact, a research from L2 entitled “The Beauty China: The Rise of Korean Brands” highlights the huge impact that South Korean beauty products have on this market in China – which is 126% higher than last year – and the fact that these products are now ¼ of those imported to China, mostly online.

This skyrocketing trend can be explained by the significant impact of Korean celebrities and K-pop culture on China’s TV. This is illustrated on Kering as being a “bridge between the Chinese and western cultures” and especially on western hobbies, promoted through Korean series.

Source : Luxury Daily - China Daily - Kering

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FROM L2 / THE DAILY THURSDAY / MARCH,31, 2016

Innisfree is one of the most popular Korean beauty brands in China, as evidenced by its high search volume on Baidu, Taobao, and Youku. (Innisfree was the top Beauty brand according to both the Taobao and Baidu Indexes.) L2 research finds the success of Innisfree to be a result of robust digital properties on the brand site, mobile, in-store and on social media.

Innisfree maintains a sophisticated brand site designed for consumers to spend time on; a gamified cross-channel loyalty program, user-generated content syndicated from multiple social platforms, and video libraries are among the features offered. Furthermore, the brand site ensures product research and purchases are seamless with grid pages that include quick-view and product pages featuring reviews and recently-viewed products. The brand’s site is also mobile optimized with swipeable carousels and mobile-specific offers.

Social media also plays an important role in Innisfree’s success. Consumers can create a customer profile by logging in with their Weibo, QQ, or Alipay accounts. These accounts allow Innisfree to create an omnichannel loyalty program that tracks online and offline purchases. Users can also gain points by engaging on social media or checking into a brand site.

Innisfree’s Spring 2015 social campaign “Summer Love”, featuring Korean influencers Lee Minho and Yoona, became one of the most successful campaigns among Korea Beauty peers. The campaign promoted the Innisfree Summer Foundation Cushion with five videos on Youku with the storyline of a young couple. The two most viewed videos from the campaigned averaged 181,000 views, more than four times the brand’s average video view count. The Youku campaign was supported by desktop and mobile advertising, as well as WeChat and Sina Weibo promotions. The most successful WeChat post was viewed 10,600 times while the campaign’s Sina Weibo post remains the brand’s most engaging post with 2,000 interactions. But much of the success is evident in the sheer number of users who spread the word; the campaign hashtag #innisfree received 17.7 million impressions and 36,000 mentions on Weibo. Yet, Innisfree expanded the campaign beyond just promotions, and connected the buzz to shopping. The popular couple remains featured on the Innisfree Tmall site to promote products and maintain brand buzz.

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