With the growing awareness towards one’s self-appearance and skin care, the beauty industry has become another huge battlefield that allows cosmetics companies to compete with each other by applying different marketing strategies. Their target is no longer women only, but men as well, with the range coming down to teenagers as they incepts the need recognition inside their consumers’ minds that they need these cosmetics and skin care products so that they can be more attractive by getting started to use them in their early age.
So other than the famous international brands such as L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, MAC which already won a large proportion of consumers’ loyalty, how can other smaller cosmetics brands compete with them?
Taking the Korean cosmetics industry as an example, most of the consumers in Korea have switched to purchase domestic brands since the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which have given the Korea cosmetics market a lot more opportunities to grow and develop.
So, with the economy is getting better now comparing to ten years ago, why would Korean consumers still choose their local brands?
Well, Korean cosmetics are apparently cheaper than other top Asian and Western brands yet still promising the same quality. Also, they give away free samples really generously. Another fact that you cannot ignore is the creativeness of their products and packaging design.
Can you imagine they are cosmetics products? These are Eggpore series from Korean cosmetics brand Tony Moly. The really special feature is that after you are done with the product, you can remove the cut out part on the top of the egg and use it as a plant pot to grow plant where they already put a seed in!
This super cute green apple is not the one for decoration! But the peeling cream from a Korean cosmetics brand!
Many of the Korean cosmetics products are now claimed to have their products produced from natural ingredients with no chemicals, which the use of natural ingredients has played a significant role in their success today since people are becoming much more health conscious. In addition, Korean cosmetics brands have used a lot of celebrity endorsement to increase their sales. This factor along with the ever increasing popularity of the Korean wave has provided these brands a greater opportunity to be accepted in the market place. This also attracted many foreign tourists to buy cosmetics in Korea. And many of the franchised stores in Korea are now providing customer service in English, Mandarin, and Japanese, which really enhance the customer experience with better serving quality.
Korean cosmetics brand “Etude House” uses fantasy, cute, lovely and Princess style as their shop design theme. White house furnishings and interior design layout of a home gives their customers a sense of mood to relax. Etude House seize the customer needs and specifically create a relax shopping environment.
Currently, Korea is the 7th largest cosmetics industry in the world and is considered a high-growth cosmetics market, with an average annual growth rate of 9.7 percent in the last four years. This is significantly higher than the 0 to 1 percent growth in stagnant markets like Japan, U.S. and France. With all of these marketing strategies, I believe more aggressive expansion of Korean cosmetics brands is expected to continue in other emerging Asian markets in the future.