The product packaging and introduction page also adopt the style of video games. The slogan states that the brand is "Unilever's first light luxury men's skin care brand in China" and uses "AI algorithm to push formula development".

Reporter | Chen Qirui

Editor | Lou Qinqin

Unilever continues to expand into the beauty market and recently launched men’s skin care brand EB39. The "EB" in

EB39 is the abbreviation of "Energy Buff" in English, referencing a common vocabulary in video games. The product packaging and introduction page also adopt the style of video games. The slogan states that the brand is "Unilever's first light luxury men's skin care brand in China" and uses "AI algorithm to push formula development".

EB39 enters the currently relatively blank mid-to-high-end male skin care market. Currently, EB39 has opened sales channels on Douyin and Taobao, selling products such as essences, gels and sprays, which claim to have anti-acne, oil control and anti-aging effects, with prices ranging from 199 yuan to 428 yuan.

From packaging to promotion, EB39 clearly intends to attract male consumers through the cyberpunk image in video games. But from a practical perspective, there is still room for discussion on whether the positioning of naturally binding male users to video games is appropriate. Men's care brands such as Liran, which has received multiple rounds of financing in recent years, mostly adopt the minimalist style. It still takes time to verify the market response to EB39's fancy packaging.

In addition, EB39 is different from other start-up men's care brands in that its first product category is essence rather than cleanser. Essence has higher requirements for research and development costs, which is the advantage of EB39 being backed by Unilever. But on the other hand, men’s facial skin has a thicker stratum corneum than women’s. This is why men’s care brands emphasize refreshing and oil control when promoting, and mainly promote cleansing products.

In terms of skin care steps such as repairing, whitening and anti-aging, the difference in thickness of the stratum corneum between men and women does not have a significant impact on the efficacy.

This means that when men choose products such as essences and creams to use after cleansing, they can choose women's products with more functions. At this level, the advantages of professional male care brands are not obvious.

The men’s care market has exploded in recent years. Mintel's research report shows that sales in China's men's beauty market will be around RMB 12.5 billion in 2020, and are expected to reach RMB 18.5 billion by 2025. However, according to the "2021 Beauty Industry Trend Insight Report" jointly released by CBNDate and Tmall , the scale of China's beauty industry in 2020 was 324.7 billion yuan.

Comparing the two reports, it can be found that the size of the men's care market accounts for only 1/26 of the overall beauty market, which is destined to make it difficult for the men's care track to become a star in the short term.

From the perspective of consumer preferences, most of the popular men’s care brands on the market are affordable brands. This is related to male consumption awareness. Simple face washing and moisturizing are the skin care steps adopted by most men.

Changing consumption habits is a continuous process, and EB39, which is positioned as a mid-to-high-end product, will definitely need to spend more time educating consumers. For Unilever, the launch of EB39 is the epitome of its increasing focus on the beauty market in recent years.

Compared with , L'Oréal Group, and Estee Lauder Group, Unilever's beauty brand matrix is ​​not strong. However, through several years of continuous acquisitions, Unilever has formed a matrix of niche brands such as Kate Somerville, Murad and Paula's Choice that have become popular due to the rise of social media "component parties".

According to the 2021 performance report, the beauty and personal care business is the segment that contributes the most revenue to Unilever, with underlying sales increasing by 3.8% to 21.9 billion euros. In the Chinese market, Unilever recorded sales of 3.3 billion euros, an increase of 14.3%, surpassing the Indian and US markets.

This also explains why Unilever chose China as the first market for EB39. In 2021, Unilever announced the establishment of a joint venture company GoUni with Hangzhou Gaolang Holdings Co., Ltd. to incubate and introduce start-up beauty brands. In fact, Kate Somerville and Murad were introduced to the Chinese market by Gaolang Holdings.