Why China’s affluent young beauty consumers crave fresh new ‘niche’ products
Report says 60 per cent of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou shoppers are ‘very curious’ about trying small, specialised brands, such as Diptyque, Jo Malone, AHAVA and BABOR
Luxury Chinese consumers have probably bought, owned and “experienced” any global luxury brand you can name, in any category you can imagine.
Such a contention has been supported whenever a report or business forecast is released.
Today’s younger generation of affluent Chinese consumers still use the established big-name brands, yet they are also craving something new – and something niche.
One strongly growing trend in beauty in China is niche – customers look to explore new brands and products, especially those that are less known and even less available
This assertion was backed up by the recent China Insight Report, The New Face of Beauty in China, produced by Reuter: Intelligence, the China-focused research platform for luxury brands.
The report research spanned qualitative focus groups, mobile ethnographies, big data analytics and a quantitative online survey covering more than 300 Chinese consumers across the first-tier cities of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
When survey respondents and focus group participants were questioned on the differences between big, well-known brands and niche brands, there were a few clear takeaways.
Consumers clearly associate trust and overall quality with the well-established “big brands”.
China’s younger generation live an urban and very global lifestyle – rather than being overwhelmed by the number of brands available, they are excited to try what’s new and discover even more
However, over 60 per cent mentioned that they were very curious about niche brands, with little curiosity for the big brands.
During focus group discussions, the same trend became evident: while established brands are often top in most people’s minds, younger consumers are increasingly interested in smaller, lesser known brands.
Male beauty consumers are all about niche brands – 92 per cent responded that they prefer niche, and 76 per cent prefer the packaging on niche beauty compared with the big brands.
One of the experts quoted in the report, Shine Wei, brand general manager of SpaceNK, said: “One strongly growing trend in beauty in China is niche – customers look to explore new brands and products, especially those that are less known and even less available in China.