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Chinese women go 'crazy' for cosmetics
While makeup was considered decadent and anti-revolutionary only 40 years ago, China has become the eighth largest cosmetics consumer in the world.
Glossy lips, shimmering eyes and velvet skin: the 20mx4m poster of L'Oreal's star model Leticia Casta dominates the urban landscape of Wangfujing Commercial Avenue in Beijing. The Paris-based cosmetics giant, which acquired two Chinese brands last year, is consolidating its worldwide beauty empire by investing massively in China's booming market. The beauty and cosmetics industry ranked the fourth largest consumption zone in China last year---after real estate, cars and tourism. The total current value of China's beauty and cosmetics market is 42 to 46 billion yuan (US $5 to 5.5 billion), according to government and private studies. Over the last five years, it had an average growth rate of 20 to 25 percent per annum, benefiting both from the general rise of living standards and from the younger generations' readiness to spend an increasing proportion of their disposable income on make-up. "Most of my classmates who are the same age as I wear makeup every day. This might be quite a new trend because the 30-year-old women who study with us do not wear make-up on a daily basis. It seems they prefer to be more natural," said Li Jingya, a 23-year-old student of design. "On the whole, the fashion is to have a pale complexion, because there is still the idea that being tanned would make you look like a peasant," she said. The Only Measurement for Beauty The exaltation of "peasant beauty," which once symbolized a model of ideal behavior, has been replaced by new aesthetic standards influenced by globalization. The changing perception of beauty---along with the development of the cosmetics and plastic surgery industry---show the rapidity of social changes in a country where, only 40 years ago, make-up was considered a sign of conspicuous decadence.
"The aesthetic taste during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) advocated for a "revolutionary beauty" style like the gray Mao suit, army uniform and short hair, a unisex style which went hand in hand with Mao's advocating for women as the other half of the sky," said Wang Ping, a university professor in Minnesota and author of Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China. "Growing up during the Cultural Revolution, I genuinely believed these were the only measurement for beauty and the uniform was the most beautiful thing on earth, that make-up and permed hair were a horror," Wang said. The opening of China put an end to the idea of the homogenization of the sexes. The beauty standards themselves changed. As economic reforms made it possible for almost every Chinese household to have a color television, a new ideal of beauty appeared, influenced by American, European and Japanese movies and conveyed by the press.
"After the reform, beauty became hot, blond, tall, double-eye lids, high bridged nose, long legs, hence all the cosmetic surgeries that followed in great numbers," said Wang. The growing number of local and national beauty pageants, recently introduced in the country after 54 years of prohibition, is another aspect of this renewed obsession with beauty. "Women seduce openly with such beauty," Wang added. Nowadays the target is not just men, for marriage is no longer the most important and only thing anymore. Women want to seduce men also for pleasure, fun, and most importantly, to empower themselves in their professional worlds, no matter where they are." With the increasing number of young females in white-collar jobs ready to spend an increasing percentage of their income on cosmetics, the beauty industry is booming. According to estimates from the China Association of Fragrance, Flavor and Cosmetics Industry (CAFFCI), sales revenues are expected to reach 300 billion yuan (US$ 36.2 billion) by 2010. The Art of Customizing Over the past two decades, foreign companies successfully made their brands well-known among Chinese women. China Business Weekly reported that foreign brands and joint ventures represented 68 percent of the market in 2003. Several Chinese brands, such as Dabao, Yumeijing, Meijiajing and Dingjiayi, offering a large range of products at an often cheaper prize, still take up an important share of the market. But they have to face stiff competition from giant foreign groups with important financial strength and effective marketing strategies. "It is crucial that United Sates exporters modify product names and packaging to suit local demand," advised the United States Commercial service---a division of the United States department of Commerce---in a market study. "While a product made for whitening skin is politically incorrect to use in the United States, skincare products for lightening or reducing spots on the face are best simply named "whitening products" rather than lightening products or products for treating discoloration. A smaller product size is required in Hong Kong to suit the younger consumer's taste, and for ease of carrying , but in China, the Philippines, India or Vietnam, a smaller size is required for affordability as the unit costs is lower than for a standard American-size item," the report added. A strategy adopted by foreign firms also consists of extending their share of the market by purchasing already popular Chinese brands. Late 2003, L'Oreal acquired the Chinese brand Mini-nurse, which allowed the company to sell its products through the 280,000 sales outlets established by Mini-nurse across China. One month later, it took over another famous Chinese brand, Yue-Sai, a make-up brand founded in 1992 by Chinese-American celebrity Yue-Sai Kan, a TV lifestyle reporter, so popular in China that there is even a postage stamp with her image. "The acquisition of Mini-nurse, one of the favorite brands of young Chinese consumers, allowed us to enter the popular segment of the skin-care market," said Paolo Gasparrini, general manager of L'Oreal China. "We were interested in having in our portfolio a Chinese brand that proposes a Chinese model of beauty, which is important because Chinese women are now rediscovering the pleasure of being beautiful," he added.
A Battle of Titans 2003, L'Oreal reported a sales value of 1.5 billion yuan (US $0.18 billion), which made China the fastest-growing market in its global sales network. In 2004, results had almost doubled, encouraging the company to set up a research and development center in Shanghai, to undertake studies of the Chinese skin and hair. But the French brand has to vie with other big foreign companies for market share, such as the Japanese brand, Shiseido. Shiseido started investing in the Chinese market fifteen years before L'Oreal, in 1981. The company sells imported prestige brand products and, in 1994, launched Aupres, a line of products designed exclusively for the Chinese market and one of the most successful brands in the country. Encouraged by this success, the Japanese brand planned to boost by five times its sales in China to 100 billion yen (US $920 million) by 2008 and has a program to open 500 specialized independent stores by 2008. With about 3,700 companies crowding the market, competition is sharp. As the Chinese cosmetics market is highly brand-oriented, it is likely that only the biggest and most renowned brands will survive and thrive. As a result, brands launch increasingly intensive advertising campaigns. According to a CTR market study, cosmetics and toiletries were among the top five advertising categories in 2004, behind foodstuff, pharmaceuticals, retail, services and real estate. The overall advertising expenditure was almost 40 million yuan (US $4.8 million), 34 percent more than in 2003.
From 'Ai-mei nanren' To Village People In order to maintain their position on the markets, big brands are diversifying their products, focusing on types of products enjoying a recent but growing popularity. Certain types of color cosmetics, such as eye shadow and nail polish, although they have quite a short history in China, are increasingly successful among Chinese women. Other types of products with a likely bright future in China include cleansing milk and bath gels –that tend to replace soap- and anti-ageing and wrinkle creams. With China becoming an ageing society and the proportion of elderly population rising, they are expected to meet growing success. Unexpectedly or not, besides elderly people, another share of the Chinese population seems to be going crazy for cosmetics: "ai-mei nanren" or "love-beauty men," who are spending a good share of their disposable incomes in beauty salons. A market study conducted by Shisheido in 1999 in four major cities showed that the 50 percent of men who used skincare products were mostly using women's creams and lotions. As a result, Shiseido and a few other brands launched lines of men's cosmetics, to entice the new consumers.
However, the biggest challenge for cosmetic brands is -after seducing big cities- to conquer less developed areas. China is still a developing country with over 60 percent of its population living in rural areas, and a good proportion of city dwellers unable to afford products considered a luxury. But the purchasing power of Chinese citizens is growing fast. In 2000, only 2.4 percent of urban households had income over 50,000 yuan (US $6,000), but this figure is expected to rise to 12.5 percent by 2010, to account for 27 percent of all urban household income, according to statistics from Asia Demographics. A number of potential customers from smaller cities and towns in undeveloped regions can also be expected to join the cosmetic consuming market, as their region becomes more prosperous. In this context, all companies are trying hard to increase their market share, mesmerized by the development of a sector whose growth rate is more than twice that of the Chinese overall economy.
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