Whether it was last year’s “Double 11” or this year’s “6.18”, Hua Xizi can be said to be the calmest player in the promotional carnival. It is almost impossible to feel that behind the participation in the promotion is the “long-termism” proposed by Huaxizi, that is, to break the price ceiling of domestic products upwards and build its own brand value. However, when L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, etc. lowered their arrogance and joined in with buy one get one free or even more than 50% off, and Proya and other domestic brands took advantage of the promotional festival to rush, a list of Huaxizi’s pre-sales dropped out of the top ten was posted on the Internet. Although Huaxizi responded immediately, the sentence “We are still top students” may not be convincing. Is it the long-termism of building brand value, or the visible top student in sales, the game between Huaxizi and himself may have just begun.
Response: Still a top student
Recently, such a makeup sales list has been circulated on the Internet: “In 2023 Tmall makeup brand ‘6.18’ first wave of pre-sale list TOP10, Huaxizi fell out of the top ten, the first is Shiseido’s nars; the second It is Estee Lauder’s Mic; the third is L’Oreal’s YSL. In another Tmall “6.18” four-hour pre-sale list of cosmetics, Huaxizi ranked tenth. In fact, the 2021 “6.18” 18″, Huaxizi ranked first; on “6.18” in 2022, Huaxizi ranked fourth.
After such data came out, Huaxizi immediately refuted it. “The pre-sale fell out of the top ten, which is very different from the actual sales. The background monitoring data performed better, and Huaxizi is still a top student.” The relevant person in charge of Huaxizi said.
According to the data provided by Huaxizi, on the “6.18” Douyin pre-sale list from May 25th to 30th, Huaxizi ranked first, and the brands on the list are VC Beauty, AKF, Caitang, Julieo, etc. . In the first wave of Tmall “6.18” (June 1-3) cosmetics brand rankings, Huaxizi still ranked first among domestic cosmetics brands, and ranked fourth among all cosmetics brands, second only to In 3CE, Estee Lauder and YSL, it outperformed many famous foreign brands such as Armani, MAC, Lancome and Mae Kefei.
Just the pre-sale data of the first stage may not explain anything. The final conclusion depends on the release of the final “6.18” sales data. However, Huaxizi’s sales have declined, as can be seen from previous sales rankings.
According to data, in the “6.18” promotion of the whole network in 2021, Huaxizi is the first in Tmall makeup, the first in JD.com, the first in Douyin Haowu Festival, and the first in Kuaishou makeup; The overall sales of “6.18” reached 263 million yuan, and it exceeded 100 million yuan during the pre-sale period.
During the “6.18” pre-sale period this year, Huaxizi’s pre-sales did not exceed 100 million, whether it was on Tmall, Douyin or Kuaishou.
In fact, for the annual “6.18” and “Double 11” promotions, Huaxizi has been a little indifferent in the past two years, and can even be described as disdainful of participation. “Huaxizi’s discounts in the traditional e-commerce big promotion node have not been strong, and the brand is still based on long-termism, and will not excessively pursue the growth brought about by the promotion of activities.” The relevant person in charge of Huaxizi revealed.
In the view of Wu Daiqi, CEO of Shenzhen Siqisheng Company, Huaxizi does not participate in the discount promotion of traditional e-commerce, possibly because it does not want to reduce the brand value. Because for a new brand, if it relies on continuous and vigorous promotion to obtain sales, it is easy to be defined as a cheap discount brand, which is not conducive to the establishment of brand value.
What else is there besides the net red label?
“June 18” is still going on. Whether Huaxizi will fall out of the top ten or not is still uncertain. Just like the relevant person in charge of Huaxizi said: “The follow-up data of the ‘6.18’ market will have the answer.”
Founded in 2017, Huaxizi, relying on strategies such as heavy marketing and bundling Li Jiaqi, exploded online in a short period of time, and once became the light of domestic products. In the past two years, Huaxizi has been troubled by emphasizing marketing and despising research and development, and Internet celebrity labels, etc., and tearing off these constraints has become Huaxizi’s task.
Constantly reducing the sales ratio of Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room, increasing investment in research and development… Huaxizi sends the signal of “long-termism” to the outside world.
According to public data, in 2019, the sales volume of Huaxi sub-brand Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room accounted for 18.48%, 15.55% in 2020, and 5.25% from January to June 2021. At the R&D level, in March 2022, Li Huiliang, who had worked in Shanghai Jahwa and Bloomage Biotech, joined Huaxizi. At the same time, Huaxizi announced its five-year plan to build an oriental beauty research and development system. “In the next five years, Huaxizi will invest more than 1 billion yuan in multiple fields of product innovation, basic research and applied basic research, and create a complete and technologically advanced oriental beauty research and development system.” Huaxizi revealed.
At the same time, Huaxizi, which made its fortune online, put one of its future work priorities on offline channels. In the introduction of the relevant person in charge of Huaxizi, the exploration of offline space and offline interaction are all measures under the concept of long-termism. We don’t want to be quick, and we hope that every time we open a store in the future, we can create greater value.
Another dimension of long-termism is breaking price ceilings. According to media reports, the co-founder of Huaxizi once revealed to the outside world: “Why can Chinese brands only sell at cheap prices? Huaxizi wants to break the price ceiling.” Huaxizi has indeed made changes in price, which is the most intuitive feeling at the consumer level It is the frequent price increase of the product.
“In the past two years, the price of Huaxizi’s eyebrow pencil has increased frequently, and it is almost unusable.” In the impression of Xiaoshi, a netizen, the price of Huaxizi’s eyebrow pencil rose from 59 to 69, and then directly rose to 89. Netizen Eleven found out, “I originally wanted to buy a box of Huaxizi honey powder on ‘6.18’, but when I placed the order, I found that the price had increased by nearly 30 yuan compared to last year’s ‘Double 11’. I didn’t want to buy it instantly.” According to Eleven’s introduction, the price increase of Huaxizi honey powder is due to the change of the packaging box. “The price of a packaging box imitating Miao silver has increased by 30 yuan, which is too expensive and unacceptable.” Eleven said.
In fact, Huaxizi has been criticized by many consumers because of its cumbersome and complicated packaging. Some consumers complained: “Is it so expensive that half of the money is paid for the packaging?” “Carved lipstick is really rustic, and I dare not take it out to touch up makeup outside.” “It doesn’t matter if you sell feelings or national style. , Complexity does not equal advanced.” “Consumers are willing to spend money on good products, but they are not willing to spend money on packaging.”
When big promotions such as “6.18” and “Double 11” can bring sales of over 100 million yuan to the brand, in the face of foreign brands such as L’Oreal and Estee Lauder who gradually put down their bodies and exhaust their discounts to grab the market, Proya , Bettany and other domestic brands are fully engaged in marketing, and how Huaxizi balances long-termism and sales volume has become a current topic. (Reporter Guo Xiujuan Zhang Junhua)
Image source: Enterprise official micro