As one of the world’s largest commodity groups, there are only two skin care brands that belong to P&G: Olay and SK-II. According to P&G financial reports, the global revenue of P&G group in the 2018 fiscal year (from July 2017 to June 2018) was $66.8 billion, Olay and SK-II become major brands driving growth. With only two brands P&G has reached the top 3 on the skin care market race. The question is, how did they manage that?
Before 2016, Olay faced a problem of aging brand image. Olay targeted young women with low and medium income. However, as the competition in the skin care market was getting more and more fierce, Olay, which did not highlight its core advantages, no longer attracted consumers. Not a very lasting strategy I guess… What did they do to recapture the market? Firstly ,they streamlined their product line, cut out one-sixth of Olay’s products and eliminated those products that did not fit the brand’s ‘anti-aging’ positioning or did not sell well. Secondly, Olay started to tell stories through social media, Olay communicated with current consumers from the perspective of values, and encouraged women to break the limitations. Thirdly, Relying on the cutting-edge technical support provided by P&G, Olay started to carry out biological research and decided to focus on the science of ageless beauty. Olay stresses that their ingredients are more efficient. Nicotinamide has whitening spot, improve dark skin and other effects. The purity, concentration and ratio of nicotinamide require very strict requirements. The brand works with internet celebrities to popularize the powerful effects of nicotinamide to the masses. P&G was the first to study and produce nicotinamide and Olay used Swiss technology to successfully purify nicotinamide to 99% ultra-high purity. Such activity and penetration powers far exceed the ordinary nicotinamide on the market. However, their products are not as expensive as others. Therefore, Olay has created a professional but approachable brand.
Source: http://www.sohu.com/a/246464104_151313
P&G hopes to attract more consumers by developing new products and focusing on higher-end skin care markets, as high-end skin care products have higher profit margins. P&G has adapted a totally different approach compared to Olay with SK-II. Considered as a premium brand, it maintains high level quality of their products. They constantly innovate and keep close contact with consumers. SK-II establishes its brand image through encouraging women to show and accept their true selves with confidence. The purchasing power of young people is rising and they are eager to be identified and understood. The 25-year-old women are the core customers of SK-II. SK-II looks into the heart of consumers, finds their most anxious points and guides them to alleviate their anxiety. In 2018, SK-II launched Bare Skin Project, they invited Magnum Photos to present the naked beauty of Tang Wei, Ni Ni, Chun Xia, Yoshimi, Chloe Moretz, and Matsuoka Moyo, six famous global actresses, in front of the camera. This campaign completely broke the photographic inertia of female stars and even the whole female group. It explored the inner confidence of women where consumers could easily relate to them and see them as ordinary people, just like you and me. The significance of this brand activities is to strengthen product advantages and focus on the essence of female skin care. SK-II aims to look for an unique perspective to focus on contemporary women and resonate with them. Nowadays, most women are looking for the perfect look. SK-II timely puts forward the concept of bare skin. SK-II hopes to bring more possibilities of beauty to consumers through good products, and also encourages women to explore inward in addition to paying attention to appearance and discover their own unique temperament. In the past two years, SK-II has attracted lots of attention, largely because it has successfully built a brand image related to women’s courage. The essence of marketing is to create real value for consumers. Only sincere communication with consumers can truly receive the recognition of the audience.
As an excellent brand, P&G needs to be aware of social trends and respond quickly. The awakening of self-consciousness of contemporary female consumers makes them form more independent values, and they will prefer expert brands with unique insights in their own fields. P&G is keenly aware of this and demonstrates to consumers that they are competent enough to provide them with quality products and services.
References:
Yang Jin Zhu ( August 01，2018）”P&G group CEO David Taylor says that there are significant improvements in revenue in 2018″,Chinairn (Online), retrieved from http://www.chinairn.com/hyzx/20180801/111142369.shtml.
May 04, 2018, “For questions about nicotinamide, this is enough”, Truebuty (Online), retrieved from http://www.eeff.net/wechatarticle-272142.html.
June 14, 2018, “SK-II opens #BareSkinProject#, for the first time to join hands with global spokesmen for natural bare-muscle beauty”, ELLE (Online), retrieved from https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1603252709934044679&wfr=spider&for=pc.
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