Zhang Kai, CMO of Inno Skin Family, talked about how to actively develop themselves, enhance brand awareness, face competition barriers, and advocate sustainable development in accordance with local policies and regulations, market environment, consumer demand, and communication characteristics after entering the Chinese market. Continue to develop and dismantle the digital marketing tactics and skills of Inno Skin Family in detail.
Inno Skin Family CMO Kay Zhang
WARC: Some companies regard uncertainty as an opportunity, but for some companies, uncertainty means panic in management and processes. At present, the entire cosmetics industry is facing new regulatory policies and has entered the era of comprehensive filing. How does Inno itself respond to this new situation?
Zhang Kai: The cosmetics industry is currently considered a relatively mature industry in China, but new regulations will still be introduced every year. Whether it is marketing promotion level, raw material side, production side and other levels, there will be an endless stream of rules and regulations introduced, the purpose is to make this industry more transparent and more formal. The continuous introduction of rules and regulations means that the industry is becoming more and more mature.
Inno actually has one foot in the medical beauty industry and the other in the cosmetics category. A few years ago, the medical beauty industry was in the era of serious "warlord melee", the market is small, the information is relatively opaque, and the national supervision is not strict. The whole industry is on the emerging track, so there are many non-compliant companies. And brands, including all kinds of wild ways, all kinds of false propaganda and other means are full of them.
However, with the emergence of new regulations in various industries starting from 2021, as well as the emergence of various penalties, orders, and exposure sanctions, the current medical and aesthetic industry regulations have reached a level that is stricter than that of the cosmetics industry. Even so, there are still some medical and beauty brands that are ignoring the edge. For injection products that require a "machine" batch number, they use the "mechanical" method-using the "makeup" brand product of cosmetics, together with another "mechanical" brand product. Use it to achieve the purpose of pretending to be fake.
Inno is an industry leader in the fields of medical beauty and cosmetics, especially in the field of pigments, so in terms of compliance, it ranks among the top three in the industry in both fields. In 2019, Inno established a Compliance Department, focusing on legal compliance. We will operate from a compliance point of view and strictly implement everything from small copywriting and tweets on WeChat public accounts to TVC, offline summits, educational courseware for doctors, and especially how to use some products. compliance. Most of the materials that are disseminated to the outside world will go through at least four or five procedures within the company to review them.
Strictly complying with national laws and regulations, the industry is becoming more and more clear, which is a very good signal for Inno, a very professional and well-established brand. Only in this way can we highlight the truly irreplaceable product professionalism and product efficacy in the industry.
WARC: Inno has been deeply rooted in the professional field. Will the layout of the product line change with the adjustment of policies in the future?
Zhang Kai: Judging from the results, it must be so. But from the perspective of the reason, it is not because the country has the four tracks of "makeup", "special", "elimination" and "mechanical", and then Inno will go to these four tracks.
As a brand from Spain, Inno's current products are divided into three tracks: cross-border products, general trade products, and domestic products. Foreign countries do not talk about the brand name of "machinery", and Inno follows the implementation standards of the European Union where the enterprise is located. But overseas, Inno's bottle opening sequence is around a person's 360 degrees, that is, from the skin surface, mesoderm, and mesoderm in all directions, and launches corresponding product lines from the outside to the inside to fully cover it. For example, scalp care, currently a relatively good online product is called Inno Skin Family Conditioning Essence, which is directly applied to the scalp and used together with Inno’s needle-rolling products in theaters and oral products. Such a product combination is likely to involve "makeup", "special", "elimination" and "mechanical" brand names at the same time, which reflects that the purpose of Inno's service is to base on the core - a person's skin problems or other problems, from appearance and Solve the problem in the local area, and produce corresponding products in a targeted manner. When these products arrive in China, Inno will apply for filing according to national regulations, and do as the Romans do.
WARC: Did Inno products fail to meet Chinese standards when they entered China? If so, how was it resolved?
Zhang Kai: Inno China belongs to China Hongsong Group. The group has research and development business, as well as pharmaceutical companies. After Inno Skin Family enters China, it will have its own core application links for "makeup", "special", "elimination" and "mechanical", which are ready-made and mature. This is also one of our core strengths. Based on the definition of the Chinese market, we will combine the entire product line of the Spanish Inno Skin Family to introduce more products that are beneficial to the skin of Chinese people and can solve the core problems of Chinese skin. "Makeup", "special", "elimination", and "mechanical" links, and record these materials in line with national standards.
WARC: As an international brand, is Innovo's business in the Chinese market challenged by the interruption of the supply chain of imported cosmeceuticals? How to ensure that the supply of products is finally implemented on the user experience side?
Zhang Kai: Inno has three major products: cross-border, cross-border to general trade, and domestic. The epidemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine have had a great impact on us. Especially the Russo-Ukraine war made the overall cost of packaging materials, raw materials, and labor costs very high. However, in the case of so much cost increase, the products of Inno have not changed, and the pricing has not been raised. This is because we have set up corresponding insurance lines - we have our own domestic production line, and we have our own R&D base and factory in China. . The parallel domestic line and overseas line can guarantee to avoid some unnecessary risks.
WARC: How do you see the competition from other similar competing products in the future?
Zhang Kai: Inno's approach is second to none in China. It has its own irreplaceable and characteristic genes.
Inno skin family in Spain, Czechoslovakia and other overseas countries and regions, is constantly extending down with academic things to educate doctors and experts. Internationally, there are European Skin Forum, China Cable Offline Elite Association, Lightspeed China Tour, Lightspeed Public Welfare Tour, etc. In this respect, no brand in the industry can compare with Inno.
People who go out from Inno to create their own brands are also imitating this road. But this can only copy its shape, not its spirit, because Ying Nuo has its own powerful background. This heritage comes from tens of thousands of formulas, its own core expert team and irreplaceable products. Some competing products have copied some of our courseware directly, but what cannot be copied is the product.
Cooperative experts of Inno Skin Family in China
The picture is provided by Inno Skin Family
WARC: In the Chinese market, in the field of early functional skin care products, products from France have the largest market share, but Chinese companies have continuously increased their investment in recent years. Regarding the rising trend of Chinese brands, how does Inno, as a foreign brand, view the future competition barriers?
Zhang Kai: Regardless of whether you have an advantage or a disadvantage, barriers must exist. What we have to do is to focus on the localization of Inno Skin Family while introducing the product line to China, and launch products targeted at Chinese people.
For example, Innovo’s ME LINE series products are solutions for skin problems of Caucasians, brown people and black people. At the same time, we target the production of ceuticals cosmeceuticals series for Chinese people. This is the core product that will be launched in 2023. There are also Halo Symphony products; in addition, the small brown bottle sells very well in China and even in Asia, because Asians pay attention to whitening, while Europeans do not use this product, and their demand for whitening is not as strong as Asians . From this perspective, we have made it localized.
Image source: Inno Skin Family Weibo
In response to the rise of many cutting-edge domestic brands, Inno naturally has an advantage, which lies in our core accumulation - a history of more than 100 years, a formula library with 40,000 to 50,000 copies of our own core formulas, and a core expert team. Inno is not fast-moving, but advocating professionalism. It is an academic brand with the four-in-one of production, research, medicine, and product as its core. Moreover, we used to recommend experts and doctors in marketing. Against such a background, the core task of the Inno brand is to make its products and their efficacy and professionalism stand firm, which is the most important.
As for the barriers to competition, the core is the product, and there is a product to have a brand.
At present, many people can feel that there are a lot of people with sensitive skin. In fact, this is caused by the involution of many products with high skin care ingredients. Some brands use such skin care products to create sensitive skin and harvest sensitive skin users. But Ying Nuo believes that this phenomenon will gradually calm down, and everyone will return to calm one day. Next, the development direction of the industry must be to fight for precise formulas. In fact, in our industry, the most valuable thing is the formula, not the ingredients. The industry average price of various ingredients is not twice as different, but the price of cosmetics is very different. The reason is whether the brand has its own core research and development technology and whether it has a core ingredient formula.
Image source: Inno Skin Family Weibo
In terms of marketing communication, we will adopt methods that are acceptable to Chinese people in the Chinese market, such as Weibo, Xiaohongshu, KOL, short video live broadcast, etc., to convey Inno's "flower fragrance" farther and wider .
At present, there are also some high-profile local brands looking for us to co-brand, but due to academic and professional considerations, Inno feels that such cooperation is not our direction.
WARC: Does the pursuit of professionalism mean that brands do not need to do a lot of publicity on some mass platforms?
Zhang Kai: Not really. Indeed, China's market is too big, but the competition is also very fierce. If you blindly adhere to the small and beautiful niche concept and follow the method of fissioning the core seed users, although it is also a way of playing, the effect will be very slow.
We cannot go against the market. We must actively embrace the market according to the characteristics of the Chinese market in terms of marketing methods, localization of the brand core, and research and development. Otherwise, no matter how fragrant the wine is, the alley will be deep.
Inno already has such a strong professional endorsement, and it only needs to adjust and expand its marketing methods to make it shine. You can't stop spreading the word and embracing the market just because you have a high self-esteem and think you are great. Just like now, many luxury goods and big brands have settled in Douyin, built many official flagship stores, and opened self-broadcasting, live broadcasting, and Dabo.
For example, for people who have no skin problems and only pay attention to daily repairs, Inno will launch some products with low threshold. Consumers use these products to get started, and then we slowly introduce them to the skin care world of Inno Skin Family, allowing them to upgrade from novices and rookies to senior skin care groups. This process relies on education in the private domain. The reason why Inno wants to organize its own expert advisory meeting and invite many industry KOLs, as well as some senior users and loyal fans, is to maintain this continuous education process. In terms of marketing, in 2023, we, Inno, will spread more and use more interesting ways to let more people know about us, and then provide corresponding streamlined skin care systems by category.
WARC: How does Inno treat the male consumer group? Will the effective methods and content of reaching female consumers be equally effective for male consumers?
Zhang Kai: They are essentially the same. Both male and female consumers first pursue the efficacy of the product, whether it is easy to use; secondly, they look at the brand's tonality, endorsement, brand professionalism, and trust.
Therefore, from the perspective of the CPROB model, which I agree with the most, in terms of C (productization of user needs), P (product core content), R (commercialization of content operation and maintenance), O (commercialization of users), B (Brand operation, Hua) Among them, the core functions of Inno's products are very strong and unique, and then these core functions are spread to let more people know how to use them and how effective they are. Where is it different from other brands.
The means of communication for men and women are similar. Take the small brown bottle of Inno as an example. Many male users also expect whitening and exquisiteness, even more delicate than girls. They like the functional brand of Inno very much. Men are very rational and pay attention to ingredients, efficacy and other indicators. For women, before 2015, many brands played the emotional card, advocated social responsibility, and emphasized what effects products can bring to female consumers. After 2015, everyone may care more about why the product has such an effect, and what ingredients can achieve the relevant function link. For example, when anti-oxidation was mentioned before, everyone thought of Xiangyi Materia Medica, because Xiangyi Materia Medica has a core ingredient called Rhodiola rosea. Before, everyone only knew that Rhodiola rosea has anti-oxidation effects, but now its functional link has also been sorted out. It turns out that It is the salidroside contained in rhodiola that can resist free radicals and anti-oxidation.
Consumers, both male and female, are very rational now, and the very emotional, academic, and story-based content is no longer enough to convince them, but can only be used as added value. Therefore, in terms of access channels, it is enough to treat men and women a little differently. For example, for men, we spread more on Zhihu, and for women, we may spread it on Xiaohongshu. In view of the differences between men and women, the KOLs we put in will also have some targeted differences.
WARC: What is the general principle of budget allocation for Innomedia?
Zhang Kai: From 2018 to the present, more and more brands basically spend 70% or more of their marketing budget on digital marketing, making short videos and live broadcasts, supplemented by corresponding integrated marketing and celebrity methods. In fact, Inno is also like this, because our previous main products were also traditional skin care products, and later extended to the field of medical beauty and daily skin care products.
I think the trend that can be summed up is that more and more people are making their budgets quantifiable and visualized. From the previous investment methods such as variety show media and offline media, more and more budgets are placed on digital marketing. superior. But after that, the industry will calm down a little bit in this regard. The phenomenon that can be referred to is that many luxury goods are not placed too much on Xiaohongshu and Douyin. They want to establish their own content positions, maintain their own seed users on channels such as official accounts, and then go to fission . The reason may be that the current traffic is too expensive, and the lifeline of KOL is too short.
Considering this trend, Innovo will simultaneously lay out its own BGC (brand-produced content), make good use of OGC (professional-produced content), and take into account CRM (customer relationship management) and UGC (user-generated content) in marketing, because as For brands, the line that runs through the brand, products, and users is the core content of BGC, OGC, and UGC that the brand wants to talk about. These three concepts are also the core three frameworks of the entire MarTech market in the current market, which are relatively innovative. In the future, no matter which piece can be rolled up, it can drive the marketing cycle.
Therefore, Inno will continue to invest heavily in social media in the future, and invest more in KOL, short videos, celebrities, and live broadcast tracks. Relying on this, we can show our more professional things through corresponding elements, and show our brand positioning and brand characteristics to more target customers. This is our core strategy in marketing for the past three years.
Innovo continues to plant grass in social media KOL
The picture is provided by Inno Skin Family
WARC: Under what circumstances will you make major adjustments to this core style of play?
Zhang Kai: In the past three years, or even in the past five years, there have been no major adjustments.
It's just that Inno will adjust the proportion of resources invested according to its own market performance and the core performance of the Chinese cosmetics market. For example, at the moment, Inno will devote more resources to the commercialization of content operations. The three tricks are planting grass, weeding and live broadcasting. Inno's grass planting includes theme teaching unboxing videos, experience listings, regular inventory, good things sharing, celebrity topics, knowledge sharing, etc., all of which have the logic of understanding, attracting, inquiring, acting, and supporting. Maybe in a year or two, we will spend more than 50% of our promotional resources on integrated marketing, celebrities, and brand personification.
Inno will spare no effort to make the core content of the product. After all, we know ourselves best, and express the verifiable, knowable, and sensible content of our products through the language of users. It is equipped with different content from 5 points of understanding, attracting, inquiring, acting, and advocating. Attracting and inquiring are crucial. Our own core brand content center has also emerged as the times require. There are 40 to 50 people in the marketing department, including planning, film crew, print, and editing. As a brand, we have already done this. In our own brand infrastructure and the matrix of self-media Optimize and continuously produce short video content in order to reach fans and potential users.
The commercialization of our user operations depends on Inno's own core operating characteristics, such as more than 3,000 offline physician seminars throughout the year, the industry-leading Asian anti-aging summit forum, non-invasive light speed, scalp loss prevention, and Leading the industry-leading summit that opened the era of Pigment 3.0, ordinary brands cannot imitate it, nor can it easily surpass it. At the same time, relying on these thousands of offline expert knowledge forums, online we also focus on WeChat public accounts, video accounts, Douyin, WeChat communities, and WeChat circles of friends to promote the core integration of online and offline.
Of course, the basis of all of these is the productization of user needs.
WARC: You once mentioned that the corresponding advertisements launched by Innovo should reach 7~8 times or even more in order to gain results. So, is the link for consumers to accept products longer or shorter now?
Zhang Kai: I think it is getting shorter and shorter.
Regardless of whether it is an offline doctor meeting or a delivery that reaches users, its effect depends on the channel and mode. Offline doctors will contact doctors who work directly in professional institutions, and the role of doctors is to directly operate and use corresponding products for users. This link must be very short.
But at present, we hope to be shorter, that is, to let many professional things directly reach consumers without intermediaries. For example, we used to reach doctors, institutions, and then consumers through brands. Now this line will be maintained, but at the same time, we will allow brands to directly reach consumers, and consumers will push back to doctors.
The phenomenon of reaching 7 or 8 times belongs to the characteristics of the media communication method. For example, a person wakes up in the morning and reads Douyin, sees the content of Inno on Xiaohongshu, sees Inno’s elevator advertisement in the elevator at work, sees Inno’s pop-up store offline at lunch, and goes home at night on TV. I also saw OTT advertisements, which reached many points. With so much fragmented time throughout the day, brands must hope to reach as many consumers as possible.
Among them, potential energy media is used in the stage of understanding and attracting; KOL and short video live broadcast are the main interest stage, and the pursuit is the re-diffusion of fans and fans; online channels and channels, offline medical beauty institutions, Tmall, Douyin live broadcast, etc. The method focuses on the action stage, and at the same time, we will also use our own private domain, including closed-door salons, brand summits, etc., to revitalize and fission old users.
In November 2022, the special conference on "non-invasive photoplasticity" hosted by Inno Skin Family was held in Xi'an
Image source: Inno Skin Family Official Account
In fact, whether it is a brand person, a marketer, or a channel person, there will be marketing myopia, and ROI is the key to success. The key is to think about which aspect and which stage to focus on before implementation. Never "need" or "need". If the marketing expenses of 1 million yuan are allocated according to Philip Kotler's 5A process theory, what will you do? To dismantle or not to dismantle? How is it disassembled? Or is it all betting on one of the processes of A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 (cognition, attraction, inquiry, action, advocacy)? Here, taking Xiaohongshu as an example, we need to look at the premise based on which users open Xiaohongshu, what to search for, whether they have direct intentions, potential intentions, or just shopping, or after receiving brand-related touches. to search. Each process has its historical mission, and how to do it depends entirely on the brand's marketing strategy. The key is to think clearly and thoroughly in advance, and set performance goals based on industry data, status quo, and trends.
WARC: How does Innovo form better feedback from numerous data sources?
Zhang Kai: At present, the data is relatively transparent. For example, Tmall has a data bank, Douyin can see the 5A model, and we have our own CRM and DMP, from which we can see the performance of relevant data. As for the direction of adjustment after feedback, what we can do is roughly divide it into corresponding stages. It is impossible to achieve 100% accuracy, and the accuracy rate is probably above 80%. For example, the marketing funnel involved in 5A, through which we can find out which part of our performance is relatively weak, so as to adjust the focus of communication resources in a timely manner.
If the adjustment is made in units of days, then what is adjusted is the rhythm and efficiency of transmission. For example, after investing in a certain category or a certain KOL, we will analyze the data, and then adjust which KOLs to vote for next time based on the data feedback, and what indicators we hope the data will achieve next time.
As for the big communication strategy, such as how much resources should be allocated to potential energy media, digital marketing, and A1~A5 people, these need to be planned a long time in advance, such as one month, two months, or even quarterly planning .
WARC: Just now you mentioned that 70% of Inno will invest in digitization. I would like to know more about this part of digital investment, which ones are for branding and which ones are for pure effects? Is there an approximate ratio?
Zhang Kai: It depends on how the brand category and the effect category are divided. At this point, each company's definition is different. In my opinion, the track of Douyin is a platform with both quality and efficiency. Strictly speaking, the two cannot be separated. Like Dabo or self-broadcasting on Douyin, as long as you don’t lose money, you can invest unlimitedly. Because more of this area is still reaching consumers.
For example, Proya made a bubble mask on Douyin in 2019. It invested 100 million yuan in July, and the output was also 100 million yuan. Why do you do this if you don't make money? It is because there is potential energy. After Douyin is finished, it can harvest all channels as a whole, and at the same time, the proportion of users' age groups has also undergone earth-shaking changes. It can be seen that in many cases, it is product or effect, which cannot be separated specifically. But if it is hard to disassemble, I think Inno will still put it in the "interest" stage, so that more users will be interested in us. In terms of proportion, 40% may be on "products" and 60% on "efficiency".
WARC: How does Inno think about cooperating with stars, and how will it be safely used now?
Zhang Kai: Brands in the fashion field, such as skin care products, beauty makeup, and make-up, are actually inseparable from cooperation with celebrities. In the field of beauty and skin care, from a marketing point of view, it is at the top of the food chain, and it needs to play a lot of new and unique things, because it needs to reach many female users, especially makeup. Touch and stimulate users continuously.
On the contrary, skin care brands have a group of very loyal seed users, and they don’t need to be so fast. For example, Innovator relies on its unique brand proposition to maintain seed users. We have our own value recognition map. Outside of this map, we will not do anything, because we don't want to do dispensable things; we are also emphasizing "precise formula" in terms of product efficacy and raw material formula. , interpretation of skin care science", has four keywords: "professional", "international", "fashion" and "ingenuity".
Therefore, the co-stars we choose must have something in common with the core of the brand. To put it bluntly, this star, whether it is character or work, whether it is experience or personality, must coincide with the brand. At this time, we will pay more attention to cooperation with stars.
From the end of 2021 to 2022, it does not mean that many brands have become indifferent to celebrities. There are only two core points: the first is clear action, which is the policy. In the general environment, the entire field of stars needs to be rectified, and the fan economy must also be rectified; the second is the economy. Because of the epidemic, many brands are cutting budgets. Without such a big impact, then the celebrity part will not be too involved.
Based on these two points, many brands choose to "watch from a distance and not play with obscenities" for celebrities. And Ying Nuo's current attitude is that if he has decided, has his own goals, and has thought about how to use it, he will resolutely choose to cooperate. However, it should be noted that all pre-work such as public opinion, terms, strategy, and layout must be done well before cooperation. In this regard, one must keep a clear mind and not rely solely on enthusiasm. In short, Ying Nuo will definitely cooperate with celebrities, but how deep and how to cooperate with each other is another matter.
Olympic champion promotes Inno products
Image source: Inno Skin Family Weibo
WARC: Innovo entered China in 2018. What is the current stage of its C-end layout, including market, intelligence, and crowd penetration?
Zhang Kai: I think it is still in the initial stage of 1.0. Although this is already a big step forward, the current volume, including the B-side and C-side, is only about 800 million yuan. It may exceed 1 billion yuan in 2023. After that, it may move towards 2.0 it's time.
Inno now does have a large number of diehard fans, and the number of fans is growing like a snowball. By continuously spreading and widening the surface every year, more people can know and understand Yingnuo, and know its professionalism. The best way is to let people who know us or not know us speak Yingnuo from their mouths. The professionalism of Nuo brand, not what we say.
WARC: At the global level, companies pay a lot of attention to sustainable development; but in China, these concepts are more of added value for brands. Does Inno have his own opinion on this phenomenon?
Zhang Kai: Sustainable development is something that every brand must do, whether it is a new domestic brand, a traditional brand, or an international brand. But making it top-heavy, or dispensable, isn't great. Like the empty bottle recycling plan that some brands love to do at present, in the process of implementation, consumers are rarely able to realize the real intention of the brand, and more are operated by making use of consumers' profit psychology. For enterprises, it is nothing more than a name and a marketing gimmick.
Indeed, there should be such things, and Inno itself is also doing them, such as eco-friendly handbags and public welfare activities. Although it can generate positive and additional energy for companies and brands, it is not enough for consumers to make purchase decisions, because now more consumers care most about what the product can bring them, which is the most basic , followed by brand proposition and other things.
What Inno does is to solve the most basic demands for users, that is, the actual skin problems, and not to pursue redundant and ineffective things. Whether it is ingredients or means of communication, we are doing it in a down-to-earth manner.
I often compare Inno to such a character design: he is a bit like a science student in high school, wearing a pair of small glasses, sitting in the front row of the classroom, and the teacher will be the first to raise his hand when he asks a question, and every time Answers can be given directly and accurately. Reflected in our daily skin care line, Inno's threshold is actually relatively high. It is not a popular skin care product, but highly targeted and highly effective, so it is very particular about scientific proportions and direct effects. It's just that the current Inno Society deliberately let this science student talk about love poems, which has some unique personal charm.
