Consumer brands are all on the road to catch the spring breeze of China-Chic rising, and Yilian brand is one of the recent efforts.
In early April, Yilian collaborated with the ancient city of Minghuo in Jinan to hold an IP campaign called “Shangsi Yaji” in collaboration with Li Qingzhao. At the end of the month, they also wore their spokesperson Tan Songyun to the Dunhuang Gobi for a campaign, attempting to strengthen the brand positioning of “high moisturizing” by comparing dry regions.
Image source: Weibo Yilian
It is worth mentioning that Tan Songyun is the spokesperson for Yilian, which has been officially announced and has maintained mutual assistance for a long time since 2022. This is also the first spokesperson for the brand to be officially announced 19 years after its establishment.
Image source: Weibo Yilian
Established in 2003, Yilian is affiliated with Lushang Furuida Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Furuida”), and it is also the first skincare brand launched by Furuida based on the research and development results of hyaluronic acid, targeting consumers. The price of Yilian is quite official, with most individual products priced below a hundred yuan, focusing on its moisturizing and repairing effects.
In theory, due to the negative situation of the hyaluronic acid material research and development workshop, coupled with the widespread presence of hyaluronic acid in Chinese shopping malls, Yilian should become a leading brand in this field. But it was not until 2022 that Furuida joined the planning and marketing of the Yilian brand, establishing various aspects such as identity popularization, chaos marketing, celebrity marketing, and civilization assistance to spread.
In 2022, Yilian Yingfa, which has been established for 19 years, only received 720 million yuan, which is lower in scope and growth rate than Dr. Aier, who has only been established for 4 years.
Dr. Aier is another sub brand of Furida, specializing in micro ecological superstition skincare. Although it is still in the category of public skincare products, its price range of 100 to 400 yuan is higher than that of Yilian. In 2023, Dr. Aier achieved a revenue of 1.348 billion yuan, leading to an increase of 27.3% in cosmetics business.
And the parent company of these two brands, Furida, did not originally focus on cosmetics as its main business. In 2023, abandoning the real estate industry and joining the beauty industry, Furida officially became a new player in the domestic skincare field.
Furuida, formerly known as Lushang Real Estate or Lushang Growth, is a listed company controlled by Shandong Provincial Trade Group Co., Ltd., a large state-owned enterprise. Lu Shang Real Estate was originally focused on real estate activities. In 2018, through property exchange and other forms, it obtained 100% equity of Shandong Furuida Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., thus entering the field of big health development, resulting in a dual main business of real estate and pharmaceutical beauty.
In July 2019, Lushang Real Estate redeemed its company title and its securities abbreviation changed from “Lushang Real Estate” to “Lushang Growth”. As real estate related businesses continue to decline, the biopharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors continue to grow, and the company has begun to continuously transform and divest various business sectors.
The high growth of cosmetics business is the key factor that Shandong merchants need to focus on. In the four years from 2018 to 2022, Furuida’s cosmetics business increased from 221 million yuan to 1.969 billion yuan, and its physical fitness increased by more than 8 times.
In 2023, Lushang Growth fulfilled the delivery of all real estate development operations in two batches. At the same time, the full name of the company has been changed to “Lushang Furuida Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.”, and the securities abbreviation has been changed to “Furuida”. Full click manufacturing focuses on cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and other key businesses, and is a health and property group that combines industry, academia, and research, and integrates science, industry, and trade.
However, due to external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and increased mutual assistance in the industry, the growth rate of Furida’s cosmetics business has significantly slowed down in the past two years. In 2022 and 2023, its cosmetics business increased by 31.7% and 22.7% year-on-year, respectively, no longer following the trend of exponential growth in 2021.
The slow growth of the Yilian brand can be attributed to Furida’s failure to shift its operational mindset from being a “behind the scenes workshop” to “moving towards the front stage” in a timely manner. Until 2020, the Yilian brand has been using the term “hyaluronic acid” in its popular science education on identity, but such an amateur academic title has not been conducive to promoting it to the public for a long time in the past.
In the mutual aid at the hyaluronic acid skincare mall, Yilian undoubtedly got up early and rushed to the evening party.
We only started brand awareness marketing in 2022, and Yilian is targeting emerging foreign brands such as Runbaiyan, a subsidiary of Huaxi Biotechnology, whose marketing momentum has declined.
On the other hand, the marketing of viewpoints has a certain degree of trendiness, and the fundamental effects of gouging out fire and repairing are no longer popular. Chinese consumers who have visited domestic and foreign skincare brands have become more mature, and their needs for segmented effects have become more diversified. The escape of hyaluronic acid has also become calm with the emergence of new identities such as recombinant collagen and egg white.
Moreover, although the main focus on cost-effectiveness can gain a share in the context of a large population, skincare for the general public priced below 100 yuan is almost a hurdle for emerging foreign brands. The high pressure of mutual assistance means that marketing is essential, while low prices limit cost space.
Yilian is also hoping to increase its price through new product launches.
According to the report of China Post Securities, the category data of Turnip Investment Tmall+Tiktok platform shows that the three categories of Yilian brand in 2023, namely, skin refreshing fire, spot film and skin care package, account for 62%, 14% and 10% of GMV respectively, and the category convergence is extremely high. The highest proportion of toner fire is also the biggest driving force for the brand’s growth. The hyaluronic acid enucleation fire spray with a unit price of 69 yuan is Yilian’s best selling product on all platforms.
In 2023, the unit price of the new Enhuo spray 2.0 increased by 10 yuan, and another new product, Yilian Bangbang Cream 2.0, also broke through the price of 100 yuan.
Furida may continue to focus on the two brands of Yilian and Dr. Aier, which are heavily invested in capital.
Due to the divestment of real estate and financial services by Mongolia, the year-on-year decline in revenue of Furuida in 2023 was more than 60% to 4.58 billion yuan. Among them, the revenue from cosmetics business was 2.42 billion yuan, while the revenue from pharmaceutical business, materials and derivatives, and additives business was 520 million yuan and 350 million yuan, respectively. The net cost attributable to the shareholders of the listed company for the realization of cosmetics and pharmaceutical business is 230 million yuan.