S’Young International Empowers Beauty Brands to Thrive in the Complicated and Dynamic Chinese Market
With a unique and innovative model, MARSHALL CHEN, cofounder and chief executive officer of S’Young International, shares the company’s commitment to being the best China Partner for both niche and established overseas beauty brands entering the
Fairchild Studio: What is the differentiation of S’Young International in working with brand partners?
Marshall Chen: We position S’Young International in a model called the “CP” Model, or China Partner. We initiated the “CP” model with the intention to provide omni channels and all dimensions of a full life-cycle service for our partners. It’s a big difference from the existing “partner” models in the market.
Our partnership with brands starts with an overall analysis. S’Young customizes the strategies for brands to include all crucial dimensions of target consumers, branding, product, marketing, channels and more, based on brands’ actual needs, goals, their growth stage and the whole market picture.
By maintaining ongoing partnerships, we continuously analyze brands’ lifecycle stages and adapt development strategies to unlock growth potential. Throughout their journey, S’Young acts as a constant companion, stretching its capabilities to support partners facing challenges.
For example, during Pier Auge’s cash flow squeeze, we held joint discussions to explore a deeper partnership model. This involved a multifaceted approach, including a one-time purchase of Pier Auge’s Chinese business, minority stake acquisition, commitment to long-term purchasing, and advance payments on specific orders.
While these efforts might not completely solve the situation, they demonstrate S’Young’s unwavering commitment as a China partner to support brands through difficult times.
S’Young understands its strengths: unparalleled expertise in navigating the Chinese market. We recognize the inherent uniqueness of global niche brands. Therefore, our CP model combines meticulous market management with profound collaboration to empower these brands and achieve mutually beneficial growth.
S’Young has consistently emphasized that “doing branding is important.” In terms of brand management, we adhere to the 139N asset management system for the repositioning and strategic guidance of brands. Lumene from Finland and Fenty Beauty from the United States are two successful promotional cases.
Lumene originates from the extreme polar environment of Finland, it incorporates distinctly Nordic natural ingredients tailored to Nordic people and lifestyles. Based on this background, we finalized the brand’s fundamental DNA as “a Nordic natural beauty brand” and the three key asset keywords as “polar naturals, Nordic philosophy and Finnish national brand.” Then we further explored the specific content and suitable channels that can be leveraged.
The introduction of Nordic nature ingredients like the cloudberry, betula alba juice, Nordic people and lifestyle stories are all good assets to support the brand’s DNA. In terms of channels, we crafted as many as possible touch points with consumers to enhance the message. One step is that we opened the Tmall official flagship store for Lumene, which is not a very common practice for brands. Consumers can have an immersive online shopping experience with Nordic elements including music, images and client service.
Upon consumers receive their parcel from online purchases, they will find a Nordic postmark and remarks showcasing the branding messages on the package that reads, “We sustainably bring the power of wild Nordic nature to help everyone achieve their own idea of beautiful.” and inside the package, there is card saying “It is a gift from polar Finland delivered to you across 7,000 kilometers.” This meticulously crafted design not only orchestrates a delightful unboxing experience for consumers but also serves to fortify the distinctive selling propositions of Lumene ‘s Nordic natural skincare products. It introduces a narrative layer, infusing the entire shopping process with a profound sense of storytelling and emotional resonance.
Another example is Fenty Beauty. Fenty Beauty is a relatively new brand in China and to amplify the brand’s awareness, we recently initiated cross-border business for Fenty Beauty on Douyin through the Douyin overseas flagship store during the New York Fashion Week 2023.
We collaborated with the top KOL Nico, who boasts over 1.8 million followers on Douyin. She was a former Hollywood celebrity agent, trendsetting fashion influencer, and advocator for female empowerment. Her background perfectly aligns with the brand’s values of confidence, inclusivity, boldness, and individuality.
We invited her to join the New York Fashion Week, utilizing vlog short videos to immerse fans in a first-person experience of Fenty Beauty’s fashionforward DNA. The brand specially invited Rihanna’s makeup artist to customize an exclusive show makeup for the KOL, while also featuring Rihanna’s makeup tutorial. Through her camera, Chinese consumers well understood the brand’s expertise in the beauty industry, Fenty Beauty’s brand identity and product features.
The entire event generated a cumulative exposure of 40 million on Douyin and Fenty Beauty secured the top 1 on Douyin’s cross-border beauty industry store ranking on the first day of the fashion week.
Fairchild Studio: How does S‘Young select influencers that align with the brand’s tone and DNA?
Marshall Chen: We have a self-developed influencer management system, an integrated digital platform developed under S’Young’s strategy of empowering brands with research and development and empowering organizations with digitalization. It assists in the improvement of production efficiency from the full dimensions of branding, products, marketing, channels and operations.
The system currently owns a database of over 250,000 influencers. It can analyze KOLs’ tags, background, expertise, follower base, influence regions and cooperation records, etc. Along with the 139N pattern and brand-specific needs, we can spot the most suitable influencers for brands based on the effective information in the system.
From screening to data monitoring and influence analysis, all information needed is consolidated within one management system. More importantly, the data, especially influencers’ collaboration data provided by this system, is highly accurate.
This data-driven approach supports precise influencer selection and marketing strategy, establishing a complete data collection chain for the accumulation of brand digital assets.
Fairchild Studio: What do you think every brand needs to know when considering entering the Chinese market?
Fairchild Studio: Can you walk us through how S’Young assists overseas brands in effective brand management and communication with their target audience and creating strategies for creating impressive brand stories and communicating them with target audiences in segmented markets?
Marshall Chen: Generally speaking, we would suggest six “essential dos and don’ts” for brands entering the Chinese market.
For what brands should not overlook, the first is “don’t underestimate the competition.” The market is vast, but numerous verticals/categories are already saturated, in a competitive “red ocean” status. Brands cannot presume that sales will certainly be favorable.
Secondly, “don’t mix different consumers.” Consumers in different tiers of cities exhibit distinct preferences; therefore, it’s essential not to mix them.
The third is “don’t simply copy the previous experience of the success.” Many brands were very successful in their local market, but the success is based on that local environment. China is a brand-new environment so a brand cannot simply duplicate previous practices.
The first of the “dos” is “do start with wants.” That means thinking about the consumers’ demands - what products they want and how to design the brand to fit those needs. While there are many products in the market that fulfill basic needs, there is still significant room for brands to cater to personalization, especially needs from the younger generation and scenario-based requests. That’s their starting point.
The second “do” is “do branding.” Brands need to find the right position at an early stage to better lead the following delivery of brands’ core values. For S’Young, we use “139N” to position brands before any marketing activities, and this system exists throughout the branding management and communication with consumers.
The last is “do build a brand like raising a child.” Branding cannot be built in one day, and we are committed to partnering with our brands in the long run and achieving long-term success in the Chinese market.