The Florasis brand was founded on March 8, 2017 in Hangzhou, China. In Chinese language the brand name is pronounced Hua Xizi (花西子), which means “make up with flowers”. It refers to the use of floral ingredients in their cosmetics. Xizi is also the honorary name for one of the ancient Chinese beauties. This Chinese cosmetics brand hopes to help Chinese women feel as beautiful as Xizi no matter how they do their makeup. The English name, Florasis, also resonates with the Chinese brand image, where “Flora” is the goddess of flowers. It is a metaphor to say those who use the products are as beautiful as flower.
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Florasis started flourish in 2019
The key year for Florasis in China was 2019, when its live broadcast had become the most popular sales channel. In 2019, sales of Florasis ranked among the top 10 cosmetics brands on Tmall, with more than 1 billion yuan in sales. Such products as powder, eyebrow pencils, and lipsticks have become popular items. In 2020, sales are expected to reach 3 billion yuan, partly thanks to the brilliant sales records in the 2020 Double 11 sales festival.
The concept of “oriental make-up”
See our analysis on Florasis’ market strategy in the west
Florasis explores the wisdom of ancient Chinese recipes for cosmetics, using flower essences and herbal extracts. It introduced pure plant tea and Chinese medicine extracts as the main materials. It is a unique concept and exactly what people desire in this world where mysterious chemicals are everywhere. In addition to having a core of natural ingredients, it uses modern cosmetics research and development and manufacturing technology to create healthy make-up products. The brand also focuses on user experience by designing beautiful product packaging.
How Florasis let’s consumers help develop products
Florasis allowed customers to participate in its product development at the early stage of brand creation. It pioneered the “user co-creation” product development model in the cosmetics industry in China. Before each product goes on the market, it has to go through repeated experience and blind testing by hundreds of product experience testers. This has gradually formed their unique approach: slow work and fast iteration. It guarantees a good reputation for the brand every time when they launch a new product.
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Who are the consumers of Florasis in China?
Brands using Chinese heritage to gain more consumers’ attention
Heritage is one of the upcoming Chinese fashion trends. With the rise of Chinese brands and the improvement of cultural self-confidence, Florasis gained more attention from domestic consumers by embracing Chinese culture.
Recent trends show that, on average, the younger the users are, the more interested they are in the Chinese national style.
How Florasis is targeting pregnant women in China with special products
Pregnant women are often even more careful when it comes to choosing cosmetics. Thanks to natural ingredients, Florasis emphasizes the harmlessness of its cosmetics. Since the cosmetics do not contain alcohol, hormones and harmful ingredients, they claim it pregnant-friendly. The actor Jenny Zhang from the popular Chinese drama “Story of Yanxi Palace,” recommended the Florasis cushion foundation. Zhang posted her experience as a pregnant woman on Red (Xiaohongshu), which attracted attention and discussion from many followers.
Affordable price attracts young consumers
Florasis targets young 20–30-year-old people, as the price is very affordable. The brand also has the official Taobao flagship store, where there are some discounts sometimes. The average price of the products is about 10 yuan, and the most expensive is around 100 yuan. It is very suitable for people students and young adults who are still learning about beauty products.
According to Datastory, 26% of consumers in 2019 were under 18, while nearly all the rest was between 20-30.
Successful marketing promotion of Florasis helps to beat domestic competitors
Classically beautiful products aesthetic doubles as a marketing tactic
Florasis uses traditional Chinese design in their products. For example, the brand’s carved lipstick attracts many consumers, which features sophisticated carvings inspired by ancient Chinese woodcarving craftsmanship. Their lipstick is the first lipstick to feature a carved design. Another standout product is the embossed eyeshadow palette.
Florasis pays special attention to the appearance of cosmetics, which is a rare for a domestic brand. Every Florasis product is, in itself, a work of art.
Florasis uses KOLs for brand’s promotion
Florasis’s marketing strategy uses KOLs in China to promote its products. For example, it collaborated with top live-streamer and beauty KOL Li Jiaqi to launch limited-edition makeup sets consisting of setting power, brushes, and eyeshadow palettes. The brand features silver-engraved packaging that draws inspiration from the silver-making craftsmanship of China’s Miao Ethnic Group. Li promoted the makeup sets through livestream channel with behind-the-scenes stories about the brand in October 2020.
Florasis recently announced its spokesperson – Ju Jingyi. She is a popular Chinese singer and dancer. Ju Jingyi has a positive and upward attitude conveyed through her performances are highly consistent with this elegant brand.
Florasis VS Perfect Diary: how Florasis conquered the Chinese cosmetics market
Florasis and Perfect Diary are two Chinese domestic cosmetic brands striving to gain the largest part of the cosmetics market in China. They use different marketing approaches for attracting consumers.
Perfect Diary focuses on Gen Z, or more precisely, newbies who just started using makeup. It bases its strategy on: “take inspiration from the runaway, perfect the elements and colors of the fashion week”. They prefer to use KOC marketing in China or small KOLs with Weibo interactions below 20,000. The brand finds this portion of traffic the most cost-effective and the conversion rate the most ideal.
How social networks help Florasis promote its products
In 2019, the sentiment score (the percent of positive comments minus the percent of negative comments) of Florasis reached 43.6%, while the score for Perfect Diary was only 24.2%. Maintaining a ‘national style’ positioning, Florasis achieved nearly 30 times bigger brand influence in 2019. It overcame size limitations and quickly became a phenomenon-level brand.
The brand’s growth point is the explosion of individual products offered by KOLs. For example, the sales of carved lipstick in April 2019 were only 839 items. By May, this had rapidly increased to 8,298 with 11 million users’ reviews.
Florasis invests heavily in marketing and promotion. For example, in October 2019, the brand teamed up with Bazaar Magazine to launch a new Florasis promotional video for carved lipstick. The commercial was shot by Chen Man, a famous Chinese visual artist.
The Chinese cosmetics brand uses customized content for different circles. For example, the brand launched an unboxing video on the Douyin short video platform and the #脱妆脱出脸谱妆 (take off make-up) challenge. On Taobao, it launches various makeup tutorials, and on Bilibili, Florasis organized an exhibition of national Chinese clothing, singing and dancing, and ancient culinary traditions.
Florasis plans to put more focus on social responsibility
Florasis focuses on product quality, user experience, and social responsibility. It includes building multiple product research and development laboratories around the world and establishing a leading international quality system. Recently, Florasis and China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation launched the “Miao Girls’ Educational Assistance Program”. It is the first step of the female charity project 花西子百花计划 (Hundred Flowers Project). Additionally, during coronavirus outbreak in China, the elegant cosmetics brand donated 1 million yuan to the Wuhan Charity Federation to procure medical substances and treatment.
In the future, Florasis plans to continue improving its brand responsibility as it helps to gain customers’ loyalty.
Florasis’ plans on expansion abroad
This rising cosmetics brand is famous not only in China, but also started expanding in other countries. It plans to export the “Chinese-style aesthetic” overseas. In 2019, Florasis teamed up with haute couture label Heaven Gaia to perform at New York Fashion Week and International China Fashion Week. The brand released the embossed makeup palette for a collaboration with Heaven Gaia.
Moreover, products such as the Limited West Lake Gift Box have generated many reviews among Japanese social media users. Many Japanese tourists came to China to buy Florasis cosmetics. The latest new product launch, Miao Impression High Set Collection, has also become popular in western social media.
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