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Our client is a European beauty brand, celebrated for its natural skincare and fragrances. It’s already a prominent player in the Chinese market and the emphasis of sustainability and organic ingredients, paired with high-end positioning, resonates with consumers in China who value luxury infused with natural purity.
In recent years, sample products have become one of the key marketing tools in driving consumers behaviour and attracting new customers. Whether they are bought or received through purchase, the reasons behind using samples, particularly in China and Japan, vary unlike the west, including cost-effectiveness, alternatives for daily use, and hobby of collection.
In this context, the client reached out to Daxue Consulting to gain a better understanding of sampling in the customer experience, focusing on the Chinese and Japanese markets. More specifically, we will address the role of “product samples” impacting the purchase decision of consumers, focusing on skincare, body care, haircare, and fragrance of the beauty industry.
During our research, we aimed to answer the following questions:
Our research included market analysis and a series of up to 28 in-depth interviews with sample users in both countries.
We went through industry reports, white papers, news articles, social media and e-commerce platforms, to understand the role of samples within the consumer journey, consumers’ perception of samples and key product sample categories for consumers from China and Japan etc.
Then we moved to interviews with sample users from China (16) and Japan (12). We interviewed consumers from the biggest cities, dividing them between consumers of our client and non-consumers, as well as between Gen Z users and older.
The goal was to comprehensively identify and qualify existing perceptions, usages and behaviours towards samples.
After thorough research, we delivered our key findings on each consumer segment, our understanding of how sampling impacts consumers’ final purchase decisions and provided the client with tailor-made recommendations to adjust its sampling strategy for relevant growth opportunities in China and Japan.
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