Text |YT Double 11 came to an end, and various platforms also announced brand sales lists. Some old brands are still sticking to the top three, and some have been cut off by new brands.
It is worth noting that in the beauty industry list, the top of Tmall, JD.com, Douyin and other platforms are all the same brand Proya. From 2018 to 2022, the top spot of Tmall Beauty Double 11 has been occupied by international brands such as L'Oreal. This year, Proya won the TOP1 in one fell swoop, becoming a domestic beauty product for nearly 6 yearsofFirst crown.
In fact, as early as 2022, Proya's single brand has sold 526.4 billion yuan, becoming the first local beauty brand with revenue exceeding 5 billion.
In addition to the top of brand sales, Proya Group's recently released financial report shows that its revenue in the first three quarters was 524.9 billion, more than 50 percent of Shanghai Jahwa9.1 billion, officially becoming the first Chinese beauty company in terms of revenue scale. Among them, the Proya brand is the main driving force of the group's performance, accounting for about 80% of the cumulative revenue.
In just a few years, how did Proya change from a "mediocre" old domestic brand in the beauty industry to a "light of domestic products"?
Although Proya has now become the "king of out of stock" popular among girls, the original Proya is not.
Proya was founded in 2003 and is now a 20-year-old brand. When it was first established, Proya mainly relied on CS channels in lower-tier cities to open up the market. At that time, foreign brands were everywhere in the beauty industry.
The shopping mall and department store channels in first- and second-tier cities account for almost 80% of the market share. When the products and brands were lacking in competitiveness, the founder of Proya set his sights on the areas that foreign brands had not yet covered, that is, the sinking market. At the same time, the CS channel with the slogan of "more civilian than department store counters and more professional than supermarkets" is emerging. Because they used to be the first domestic cosmetics merchants, the founders of Proya, Hou Juncheng and Fang Yuyou, not only have a large number of channel resources, but also have keen channel insight. Therefore, Proya has taken cosmetics franchise stores (CS channels) in lower-tier cities as its strategy, and deeply cultivated offline channels through distributors and merchants at all levels. At the same time, its products and **, in order to match the characteristics of channel users, mainly do basic skin care products such as hydration and moisturizing, and the pricing is also relatively cheap. With the development of CS channels, Proya, which stepped on the channel dividend, achieved 300 million yuan in 2007 and successfully built 20,000 terminal outlets across the country. Until 2010, Proya's CS channel revenue has maintained a high growth rate of more than 15% for six consecutive years. It can be seen that Proya's early achievements are inseparable from its channel strategy. Marketing,In the early days, Proya mainly used channels to expand the market, and did not introduce the concept of marketing. It was not until 2008, when the brand power was not enough to support a larger sales network, that Proya began to propose to take the road of brand management, and there were marketing activities. At that time, it was mainly marketed through celebrity endorsements and advertising to boost sales and market share. Proya has invited big S spokespersons and placed advertisements on CCTV, Hunan Satellite TV, Ruili and other well-known **. Because the high-profile celebrities at that time still had a lot of influence and the advertising effect was still very strong, Proya's marketing activities were quite effective. In the five years from 2008 to 2013, Proya achieved an annualized growth rate of 69%, and its sales in 2013 reached about 3 billion yuan. 
However, around 2014, Proya's performance began to slump. It is mainly affected by two reasons: on the one hand, international brands such as L'Oreal and Procter & Gamble have begun to enter the CS channel one after another, and Proya is under competitive pressure;On the other hand, online platforms such as JD.com have risen, constantly diverting traffic from offline channels. In fact, as early as 2012, Proya saw the online channel and also had a preliminary test of the water. At that time, it set up a beautiful valley company to cooperate with traditional e-commerce companies such as ** and Jumei to engage in online channel sales. It's just that at that time, Proya was still developing in the "online and offline multi-channel collaboration model", and did not focus on the first wave, which also led to its lack of much gain in the first wave of e-commerce dividends. Faced with this situation, Proya is ready to change. As for changing direction, Proya sees a changing trend in users and the market. First of all, the mainstream consumer group has become younger, more "rational" and more friendly to domestic products. With the rise of Generation Z, young people have gradually become the main consumer force. Compared with the previous generation of consumers, this generation of young people is more concerned about the "efficacy" and "cost performance" of products, rather than other additional premiums. In addition, this generation of young people has more enthusiasm for domestic products and is more receptive to domestic beauty products. Secondly, with the increasing maturity of e-commerce platforms and the rise of new social networks such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, the market continues to shift to "online". Some brands have relied on e-commerce platforms to achieve great growth, and some have begun to use social ** for marketing promotion. According to these changes, Proya chose to temporarily put aside the "achievements" of the past, follow the new trend of users and the market, and start again. In the words of its founder, Fang Yuyou, "Proya has spent more than ten years cultivating its brand in third- and fourth-tier cities, with more than 20,000 outlets and three or four hundred first-class distributors. But seeing the annual growth rate of online sales exceeding 100%, and seeing peers and new brands entering the game one after another, Proya had to shift its strategy. ”In 2017, Proya went public. With the attention of investors and its own determination to urgently seek growth, the old brand Proya began its transformation path.
Proya's successful transformation is inseparable from two factors, one is that they are good at perceiving changes in wind direction;The other is that they can see the wind outlet, and they can step on it with all their might. According to the trend of users and the market, Proya has stepped on the tuyere of each link to carry out changes in channels, products and marketing.
1.In terms of channels, we will make every effort to shift online, and traditional e-commerce and live broadcast e-commerce will develop in tandem.
As mentioned above, before 2017, although Proya tested the waters of online channels, it did not invest major efforts, resulting in missing the first wave of e-commerce dividends. After its listing in 2017, Proya shifted most of its energy to online, and changed its channel strategy to "online channels as the mainstay, offline channels in parallel", and made every effort to develop e-commerce. In 2020, Proya saw the short ** and live broadcast outlets again, and immediately laid out live broadcast e-commerce such as Kuaishou and Douyin.
At present, its online channels are mainly divided into two parts: traditional e-commerce (Tmall, JD.com, etc.) and live e-commerce (Douyin, Kuaishou).
In terms of traditional e-commerce, Proya uses "large single products" as the drainage entrance to optimize the whole process from drainage to repurchase. According to the platform model, it optimizes the traffic delivery structure, promotion methods, product structure, customer service and logistics services, completes the channel of strengthening drainage, promoting in-store, increasing product purchase rate, and finally promoting the repurchase of old customers.
In terms of live broadcast e-commerce, Proya adopts the mode of "self-broadcasting, supplemented by broadcasting" for operation. At present, its Douyin has opened at least 6 brand self-broadcast accounts, including "Proya Official ***", to achieve the drainage method of "off-peak all-weather broadcast" based on the self-broadcast matrix. It also lays out pan-** according to the logic of the platform, covering the "people looking for goods" scenario through search to promote the conversion rate. And through the strategy of "introducing explosive models - old with new", new product transactions will be increased.
According to the annual reports, from 2017 to 2023, Proya's online channel revenue has accounted for 92% of the company's total revenue03%。Proya closely followed the channel outlet, turned to online channels, and refined operations according to the different characteristics of channels, so that the online sales performance increased year by year.
2.In terms of products, the three-pronged approach of "strong efficacy + cost-effective + upgradeable" creates a large single product.
Only the transformation of channels is not enough to make Proya become the "light of domestic products". At first, when it first moved online, it just moved the offline product line to sell online, although the performance is also growing through channel dividends, but there is still a certain distance from the real "explosion". In a market where product power is becoming more and more important, Proya began to focus on products and try to find product strategies that can bring more growth.
In 2019, Proya first created a Black Sea salt bubble with both efficacy and fun according to the logic of "explosive products", and launched it on Douyin as the main position. Its sales volume exceeded 1 million boxes in the first month of its launch, winning the first place in many lists of Douyin and Tmall**. But bubbles** heat up fast and cold fast. Proya found that "explosive products" without core technology cannot last long.
Therefore, Proya took advantage of the "ingredient party" outlet and started from the "strong effect" to create a large single product. In 2020, with the rise of the concept of "efficacious skin care", Proya seized the opportunity to start with the "hot track - anti-aging" at that time, adding a higher content of core functional ingredients such as "A alcohol, hexapeptide" to anti-aging products, and then based on the previous successful experience of explosive products, it created a "strong efficacy" anti-aging product Ruby Essence, which has obvious advantages over competing products in terms of ingredient content and efficacy.
On the basis of stronger efficacy, Proya has also launched "cost-effective"**Ruby Essence 1The price of the 0 version is only 249 yuan 30ml, which is more affordable than international brands.
With the blessing of excellent product strength and high cost performance, ruby essence has become a new "technical explosive product" as soon as it is listed, with a single-day sales of 150,000 copies, with a cumulative sales volume of more than 50,000 copies in a single month.
At the same time, Proya also takes sustainability into account when designing its products. The efficacy trends and ingredients of skin care products are always innovating, and Proya only needs to upgrade or add ingredients through the adjustability of product formulas, which can achieve the improvement and expansion of efficacy, complete the upgrade of single products, and lay out the layout in advance for the upgrading of products. After upgrading "Hexapeptide-8" to "Hexapeptide-1" and adding VABOOSTER ingredients, Ruby Essence has added new functions such as "skin refinement and multi-dimensional anti-aging" to the original effect of "lightening lines and tightening contours", and upgraded it to 2Version 0.
After the ruby essence mode ran through, Proya used the above again"High content of functional ingredients + cost-effective + upgradeable".The strategy has successively copied three major products, namely the double anti-antibody essence of the "anti-sugar and anti-oxidation" track, the source power repair essence of the "stability maintenance and repair" track, and the Qishi nourishing essence oil of the "cell-level anti-aging" track.
Then, Proya entered the market with four "star products", extended the four main product series of "ruby, bispecific antibody, source force, and energy", and completed the product matrix layout for four different positioning groups and belts.
According to the ** research report in recent years, the revenue performance of the Proya brand is mainly driven by large single products such as ruby, bispecific antibody and source power. It can be seen that Proya has found a "large single product strategy" that suits it after exploration, and has changed in line with the trend from product efficacy to pricing to sustainability, so that it can drive the growth of the entire product line and brand through large single products.
3.In terms of marketing, marketing detonates products, and value content helps brands.
Proya is well aware of the importance of the brand "deeply rooted in the hearts of the people", so after the transformation of channels and products, Proya has also changed its marketing methods in accordance with the changes in social **, which is also an important step to make it the "light of domestic products". Given that its main consumer group is young women, Proya initially chose to work with the Xiaohongshu platform.
In 2021, Proya will be used on XiaohongshuThe "hot skin care concept" combined with the best marketing method of the product not only detonated the product sales, but also established a new image of the brand "scientific skin care". With the help of the topic of scientific skin care "morning C and evening A", Proya closely combined the two major products of "ruby and double antibody" with this concept, and then used the funnel model to create a head explosion, which was spread through KOLs, which set off a very high level of discussion on Xiaohongshu, and the notes reached 420,000+ at that time. Proya took advantage of the popularity of this "outlet" concept to bind the product to it, so that the product also swept the major platforms at the same time with the concept of "morning C and evening A" and implanted the brand into the minds of consumers by the way.
This practice makes Proya, which is not the first to put forward the concept of "early C and late A", become an education market and a leading market, and also deepens the impression of products and brands in the minds of consumers. According to Mojing data, during the "Double 11" period in 2022, Proya's Tmall sales still account for more than 20% of the "morning C and evening A" items.
In addition, Proya also combines the four "value themes" of "gender equality", "love and intimacy", "mental health" and "youth and growth", which are of high concern at the moment, to carry out brand communication through micro-short dramas and flash mob activities.
In fact, whether it is Xiaohongshu's first-class marketing or value content delivery, Proya is trying its best to do a good job in content marketing. As Ye Wei, CMO of Proya, said, "We believe that marketing is not just about advertising, it needs to express the attributes of the product and the values of the brand as accurately as possible, and maintain unity in all communication links, so that consumers can accurately understand and ultimately like our brand." ”
Since its listing in 2017, Proya has followed the changes in users and the market, stepped on the changes in channels, products, marketing, etc., and has maintained double-digit high growth for six consecutive years through all-out transformation. This year, Proya also relied on its own insight and execution, and took advantage of the dividends to become the revenue leader of China's beauty industry in one fell swoop. Although Proya has transformed its long-established domestic brand through an online shift, a large-scale product strategy and content marketing, it still faces many challenges in the future.
While Proya is now popular with emerging consumers, this segment lacks loyalty and is vulnerable to fresher items or concepts. At present, Proya needs to think about how to deeply link consumers through offline channels, improve consumers' consumption experience, and increase consumer stickiness and brand mental penetration. This may also be a common problem faced by domestic beauty brands after online upgrades.
At the same time, in the face of the increasingly "volume" beauty market, what is in front of Proya is not only the question of whether it can maintain the first place in domestic beauty, but also the market encirclement and suppression of international brands. In this case, Proya and other domestic beauty brands still have a long way to go if they want to achieve a real "counterattack".