Following Amorepacific, Japan's Garibato Company has recently publicly expressed its determination to become "Asia's No. 1 cosmetics company." Start exploring the path to China by establishing a joint venture, this.

Introduction

Following Amorepacific, Japan's Jialibao Company has recently publicly expressed its determination to become "Asia's No. 1 cosmetics company". Under this vision, the Chinese market has become the top priority. Starting from the establishment of a joint venture, this century-old Japanese company has entered the Chinese market for exactly 30 years. With the popularity of "Made in Japan" among young Chinese consumers, Fulifangsi Freeplus and Kaiduo KATE, a subsidiary of Jialibao, have achieved rapid growth in recent years, and the same-name brand KANEBO, which was originally scheduled to enter China in 2020, can't wait to meet Chinese consumers one year in advance.

CBO reporter Liu Ying Shanghai report

November 9, the celebration of "Jialibao China 30th Anniversary" was held at the Andaz Hotel in Shanghai, and more than 30 media including "Cosmetics Finance Online" were invited to attend. Yasu Nakamura, Vice Chairman and General Manager of Jialibao (China) Co., Ltd., introduced Jialibao's development history in China for the first 30 years, and publicly expressed his confidence to go straight to the wind and open up the new 30 years.

Jialibao (China) Co., Ltd. Vice Chairman and General Manager Tai Nakamura

Resurrected by "slimming"

Adhering to the concept of "FEEL YOUR BEAUTY (feel your beauty)", the textile enterprise Jialibao, founded in 1887, launched the first high-end silk soap Savon de Soie in the 1930s, starting the journey of cosmetics research and development. This company that "hardly" scientific research has a reputation as "Galibao of Technology" in the Japanese industry. Due to its excellent quality and reputation, it quickly became the second largest cosmetics group in Japan after Shiseido . In 2006, Kao joined the largest daily necessities company in Japan - Kao Group, and since then, the road to internationalization has a bigger stage.

In fact, before it was acquired, Jialibao and Kao had close cooperation with Shanghai Jahwa. When he first entered China in 1987, Jialibao chose to sign a technical assistance contract with Shanghai Jahwa, the largest manufacturer of cosmetics in China at that time, and then jointly built a factory. With decades of mature technology and outstanding products, he quickly gained a place in the Chinese cosmetics market. In 2005, Jialibao's real wholly-owned company in China, Jialibao Cosmetics (China) Co., Ltd. was officially established.

Affected by the recall of whitening cosmetics in the Japanese market, Kao announced in 2013 that the R&D and production department of Jialibao Cosmetics Company was integrated with its parent company. In the same year, Jialibao China carried out structural reforms to market demand.

In fact, the re-rise of Jialibao China is closely related to the "slimming" strategy launched in that year.

Jialibao Cosmetics President Masumi Natsuka admitted in a VCR specially recorded for the celebration that when he took office as president five years ago, the company was still in a loss state. In order to change this situation, Masumi Natsuka boldly selected the 13 brands originally sold in China, and finally focused on the three brands of Freeplus, KATE, and AQUA SPRINA. SKU also reduced SKU from 1,700 to 300 now. "Although the reduction in scale is accompanied by certain risks, with the efforts of the company's employees, the reform has achieved good results, and has also made China the leader in many overseas markets."

This year, it has taken a step ahead of many cosmetics companies. Jialibao has launched a youthful strategy for the above three mass brands, transforming its target customer base into the younger generation born in the 1980s and 1990s. It is not hesitant to package impress and lunasol out of the Chinese market by the end of 2014. As of now, Jialibao has no sales figures for 2017 that can be disclosed, but judging from the results in 2016, it has achieved a year-on-year growth of 150%, which is more beautiful in the "retail winter" called by industry insiders. In the group's first three quarter financial report for the 2017 fiscal year released last month, Kao specifically pointed out that due to the excellent performance of the overseas markets represented by China and Indonesian , net profit achieved a year-on-year growth of 12%.

Strive to become a "Internet celebrity"

In the efforts mentioned by Masumi Natsusaka, the layout of channels is particularly critical.Jialibao's approach is to open flagship stores in first-tier cities in China to establish a brand image, develop retail store outlets in various provinces and cities through cooperation with agents, and strengthen linkage and investment in e-commerce, and establish a nationwide distribution system. Compared with cautious offline layout, its planning in e-commerce channels is full of motivation.

In the past two years, Nakamura Yasumi has seized the consumption boom of "Made in Japan" in a timely manner and successfully achieved the brand's youth through online communication with young consumers. In 2012, Jialibao's official flagship store officially entered Tmall , mainly used for the sales of brands such as Freeplus and KATE. In 2014, KATE was officially renamed KATE TOKYO, and its positioning was more fashionable and young. Jialibao China decisively stripped it from Jialibao's Tmall flagship store and opened a separate official flagship store.

is easy to use and affordable, making KATE a brand that beauty bloggers are rushing to "plant grass". This brand, which has been founded for 20 years, has become recognized as the "king of eyebrow products" in Asia. Compared with KATE, Freofen Freeplus, which entered the Chinese market as early as 2005, has become popular quickly in the past two years, and the Internet has achieved great significance.

, a brand that claims to contain no preservatives and is made of Japanese and Chinese herbal medicines as raw materials, has uniquely created the selling point of "sensitive skin". This year, Tian Fuzhen was invited as the "sensitive" spokesperson to spread the theme of "Thank you, sensitive". With its "zero stimulation, safety" and the quality assurance of original Japanese imports, Flifang freeplus quickly won the pursuit of young consumers in first- and second-tier cities. At the same time, cross-border IP launched limited-edge sets, and more beautiful products also directly increased brand sales. Relevant data shows that Fulifang silk cleansing products have become the top 3 with the fastest growth rate of Tmall beauty.

and companies such as Procter & Gamble are similar to those of Procter & Gamble. Jialibao seized the dividends of China's cross-border e-commerce in a timely manner and opened Jialibao's overseas flagship store, and placed "must-buy list for Japanese pharmacies" on this platform to sell these products that have not yet officially entered China.

Return to the high-end market

At this media communication meeting, a clear signal released by Jialibao China is that it will accelerate the pace of introducing high-end brands. In recent years, the boom in China's high-end market has been obvious to all, and high-end brands have become the engine for growth of giants such as L'Oreal and Shiseido. Naturally, Jialibao doesn’t want to miss it.

In September last year, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the cosmetics business, Jialibao, which aims to boost the business, launched the high-end brand of the same name "KANEBO", which is the company's first new brand to be launched after 10 years. At the beginning, Jialibao invited American supermodels to be advertising models, set the tone of international core brands, and introduced 45 SKUs of skin care and makeup to Japanese department stores and some cosmetics stores.

"The import approval process for new brands is in progress, and we also hope to go public as soon as possible." Nakamura Yasuhi told the reporter of "Cosmetics Finance Online". According to Jialibao's previous estimate, after completing the import procedures, the first batch of Japanese department stores in China may be Isetan and other places.

For the KANEBO brand, the cosmetics procurement director of a high-end department store in East China told the reporter of "Cosmetics Finance Online" that they welcome high-end brands with differentiated selling points to join. The rise of Japanese high-end brands such as SK-II, CPB and IPSA in China in recent years shows that the quality of Japanese cosmetics can stand the test of time.

While developing and selling products in China, Jialibao China has always placed corporate social responsibility construction in a prominent position and is committed to social welfare. Since 2006, Jialibao China and universities have carried out close cooperation to provide assistance to college students who are about to enter society through workplace makeup etiquette training and entrepreneurship training. In 2011, it established the Jialibao (China) College Student Entrepreneurship Fund, aiming to provide financial support to more female college students with entrepreneurial dreams and entrepreneurial potential, encourage and guide them to actively participate in entrepreneurship, and drive more women to achieve employment through entrepreneurship.

In addition to participating in a large-scale promotion reception held by the Japanese Embassy in China for many years, by showing the magical charm and culture of Japanese makeup, since the establishment of Jialibao Cosmetics (China) Co., Ltd., it has held the "Jilibao Global Makeup Competition China Division" competition every year. This is a platform for beauty consultants from all over the world to compete and communicate with each other's skills. Through competitions, we can comprehensively improve the comprehensive quality and service level of beauty consultants.

"Jialibao (China)'s 30 years of growth cannot be separated from the support of the Chinese market and the vast number of Chinese consumers. While further building a cosmetics brand favored by global consumers, we will continue to realize more corporate value through charity, help more women show their own charm from the inside out, and inspire independent and outstanding inner beauty." said Yasushi Nakamura.