2023 is a year for Shangmei to "return to growth", and it will make great progress in the market, R&D, product, and brand.
On the market side, Han Shu's sales on Douyin surpassed that of various international brands, and won the top 1 of Douyin beautyOn the R&D side, Shangmei has created an era of high biological activity of Chinese peptides, and in the field of functional skin care, it has developed the world's first anti-aging cyclic peptide - cyclohexapeptide-9;On the product side, explosive products such as Han Shuhong's waist series were born one after another;On the brand side, Han Shu, Red Elephant, One Leaf, and Newpage have burst out with new vitality through different generations of consumers.
Why can Shangmei be so fierce this year?Behind these brilliant achievements, what is the growth side and sustainable growth strategy of Shangmei?How should a cosmetics company choose to continue to lead?After experiencing a period of rapid growth of large investment, large traffic and large **, and entering the "era of scientific brands", how should cosmetics companies seize the right to speak scientifically and cross the test of different cycles?
Recently, Lu Yixiong, the founder and CEO of Shangmei Co., Ltd., who has not appeared in public for a long time, told the public for the first time about Shangmei's eight generosity to return to growth and the 66 strategy to support sustainable development. Song Yang, senior vice president and co-founder of Shangmei, disclosed Shangmei's independent scientific research system for the first time, giving more inspiration and reference to the industry.
The cosmetics market is destined to be a marathon race, and only after going through multiple cycles can a great company be cast. This is an important insight expressed by Lu Yixiong at the conference.
Lv Yixiong, founder and CEO of Shangmei Co., Ltd.
Indeed, looking at the growth path of the century-old international beauty giants, for domestic products, to go through the cycle and win the marathon, they need not only explosiveness, but also endurance.
Looking back on the 21-year development history of Shangmei, explosiveness and endurance, the two are constantly alternating and changing, experiencing peaks and troughs, and slowly exploring a unique development path of "marathon".
According to Lu Yixiong's description: "We have just walked through the swamp", and in December 2022, after careful consideration, Lu Yixiong wrote down his strategic plan for 2023"Back to the Eight Ways of Growth**".
1. Heavy soldier Douyin;
2. Focus on Han Shu;
3. Focus on Han Shuhong;
4. Focus on Han Shuhong gift box;
5. Unified price and unified interest point of all channels;
6. Focus on daily sales, rather than big promotions;
7. Only learn and don't imitate, go your own way;
8. Avoid competing products and find your comfort zone.
This strategic layout has proven to be very forward-looking. In less than a year, Han Shu returned to the public eye and ushered in explosive growth
In the Douyin beauty list from January to November 2023, Han Shu exceeded 28The GMV of 500 million yuan has caught up with a number of big brands at home and abroad, ranking TOP1 in the Douyin beauty category;As of press time, the series has sold more than 5.5 million sets of omni-channel sales, ranking first in the 6 major lists of Douyin beauty.
"Times haven't changed, the way of communication hasn't changed, it's just that the place has changed, and all we have to do is adapt to the new place skills. ”
Obviously, Shangmei once again found the focus of traffic and marketing, and returned to the growth curve, but there are more critical factors behind this that pry the gears of growth, that is, the changes accumulated day after day on the product side and the scientific research side.
Lu Yixiong said: "Good quality can get consumers' repurchase. For example, we are in the Douyin channel, why can we outperform the algorithm?It is because the quality of our products is good enough, so we have many 'repeat customers'. Han Shu now ranks first in the repurchase rate on Douyin. If the repurchase rate is high, the ROI can be done. ”
Whether it is the repurchase rate, the emphasis on daily sales, or the strategy of focusing on products, it is the product strength cast by scientific research strength to adapt to the change of business logic, which is the core of business growth in the TO C era.
After returning to growth, what are the future choices?How to continue the growth trend and achieve sustainable development?
Lu Yixiong also gave a very clear answer, that is, the "66 strategy", including six major competitive aspects, as well as six major plate planning. Six major competitive aspects, including:
1. Organizational drive leadingto support sustainable development with talents;
2. Leading scientific researchto make products that consumers love;
3. Information AI is leadingto improve management efficiency;
4. Leading marketingto build consumer minds;
5. Leading intelligent production, standardize products and improve efficiency;
6. From personalized development to common developmentto assist others in their development and to promote development through a platform.
Based on the improvement of the comprehensive strength of the six major competitive aspects, Shangmei will focus on the layout in the next ten yearsThere are six major sectors: public skin care, maternal and child products, ** medical beauty, washing and personal care, makeup, and high-end skin care + equipmentWith a multi-brand and multi-track matrix model, it enhances the sustainable ability of enterprises to resist risks and develop in the long run.
As one of the representatives of domestic cosmetics companies, Shangmei has continued to build a moat in the dimensions of scientific research, products, and brand building in the past 21 years, and has survived the fluctuations of different market cycles with lasting vitality.
This is inseparable from Lu Yixiong's every keen insight, correct choice, and strong determination: "We often imagine that it is extremely difficult to move forward, so it will always stop and wait, so moving is a more important thing than everything." ”
Since its establishment, Shangmei has achieved the advancement from applied science to basic research.
But this is not enough, as Lu Yixiong said: "The current situation of China's cosmetics scientific research level is that applied science can already be compared with the world, but the foundation of basic research is weak, and there is a lack of scientists, just like flowers in the desert." ”
Therefore, Shangmei continues to deepen and improve in scientific research, and gradually explores a two-way independent innovation scientific research system driven by technology and demand.
According to Song Yang, senior vice president and co-founder of Shangmei, so far, Shangmei has built a complete scientific research system from upstream to downstream from multiple dimensions such as basic research, cutting-edge active ingredient development, innovative formula technology, and clinical efficacy verification. On top of the system, Shangmei is superimposing an open innovation R&D ecology, building an open innovation platform, integrating multi-dimensional social resources such as industry, academia, research and medicine, collaboratively promoting innovation, and exploring the future scientific research and development path of Chinese cosmetics.
Now domestic products have slowly come to the stage of product development that is more scientific, more rational and more technical like international brands," Song Yang said confidently, "We need to collaborate more in scientific research, products, organization-driven, intelligent production, information AI and other aspects in order to become a brand that goes through the cycle." ”
Song Yang, senior vice president and co-founder of Shangmei Co., Ltd.
What's more, in the process, Shangmei has fully tapped the ability to transform cutting-edge technology into market value.
We have turned the technical department and the sales and brand departments into one organization to form synergies. We hope that through C-end sales, we can break down all the barriers of various departments in the past, form a team closer to consumers, and lead the entire brand and products to push technology forward, which is what we are doing now. ”
It is worth mentioning that at this conference, Han Shu, a brand of Shangmei, and the ** Science 100 Forum, took the lead in initiating the establishment of the "Scientific Anti-Aging Group".
The group was led by Dr. Huang Hu, CTO and Global Chief Scientist of Shangmei Co., Ltd., and jointly established with Professor Zheng Zhizhong, former director of the ** Department of Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, Professor Liu Wei, consultant of the ** Physician Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and Lai Wei, director of the ** Department of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.
According to reports, this is an efficient industry-university-research-medical collaborative team, which will conduct research and development on scientific anti-aging from four fields:
First, the analysis of the mainstream mechanism and pathway of anti-aging, the latest research progress of basic, antagonistic and systemic aging, and the construction of technical radar
Second, the characteristics of the Oriental yellow race and the establishment of a comprehensive evaluation system for efficacy in the context of Chinese culture
Third, the synergy between medical cosmetology, beauty equipment and functional skin care products in scientific anti-aging research;
Fourth, new ideas for the solution of cutting-edge active substances or active groups in the field of anti-aging.
In the follow-up roundtable dialogue, Huang Hu mentioned that in order to produce technologies that can be implemented, it is necessary to establish a cross-border team including doctors, pharmaceutical experts, computational biology experts and other members to help transform research content into productivity.
The anti-aging team we set up is not to be a name, but to really work together and serve the research content for the brand building empowered by science and technology. ”
Dr. Huang Hu, CTO and Global Chief Scientist of Shangmei Co., Ltd.
According to Huang Hu, the establishment of the scientific anti-aging group will undoubtedly boost the continuous expansion and value enhancement of the anti-aging track of domestic cosmetics, and further occupy the theoretical highland of international anti-aging research.
In recent years, consumers' attention to "anti-aging" has risen, and anti-aging has always been the most difficult discipline in the world's leading research field, so domestic beauty has been lacking a representative enterprise and brand specializing in anti-aging, and also lacks a Chinese own anti-aging ingredients.
Shangmei and Han Shu chose to face the difficulties, anchored the positioning of "scientific anti-aging", and started from the source ingredient innovation to find an anti-aging solution exclusive to the Chinese people.
According to Dr. Huang Hu, based on years of market insight and combined with the thinner and more sensitive characteristics of Asians, Shangmei found that among the three major ingredients of anti-aging, mild and compatible peptides are more suitable for Chinese people, so Han Shu chose peptides as a key research and development area.
Based on the improvement of the independent scientific research system and the accumulation of past landing products, Han Shu continues to find new breakthroughs in the field of peptide anti-aging.
In recent years, Han Shu has found new ideas in the field of medicine, cyclized straight-chain peptides, and developed the world's first cyclic peptide "Cyclic Hexapeptide-9" in the field of functional skin care, allowing China's polypeptides to enter the era of high biological activity.
At present, Han Shu is building a scientific anti-aging technology platform, including a cyclic peptide technology platform, a tiracle pro technology platform, and a combination technology platform of cyclic peptide and cutting-edge active substances and active substance groups, hoping to implement more cutting-edge research results through the power and collaboration of the platform.
Those who are responsible for this work go through the cycle. Today's Chinese cosmetics market has entered the era of "long-term competition" with scientific research as the core, and Shangmei's in-depth thinking on the systematization of scientific research and the sustainability of enterprise development has enabled it to have more hardcore and comprehensive capabilities to resist market storms and constantly approach the goal of "becoming a great enterprise". The pragmatic Shangmei is also the epitome of a large number of down-to-earth enterprises in China, and their rise releases a signal that under the accumulation and precipitation of time, Chinese cosmetics will one day be able to connect with the world and move towards a broader future.