Page 27 - Sphere No.20 (Nov 2007)

A MERE GENERATION AGO the beauty business did not exist in China. During the na-
tion’s recent past, women were discouraged from expressions of individuality, whether
it was with clothing, hairstyle or make-up.
How times change. Today, Chinese women are desperately keen to celebrate their
beauty. They want to look pretty, have fun, be flirtatious and, for the first time, they have
plenty of cash to splash at cosmetics counters.
The beauty business can barely keep up with the demand. Walk around any store in
anymajor city such as Beijing or Shanghai on aweekend and the brightly-lit cosmetics
counters will be besieged by twenty-somethings anxious to sample the latest prod-
ucts. Other developing nations inAsia are enjoying a similar surge of beauty-related
consumerism but nothing on the scale of China. The figures are simply staggering.
China has 1.3 billion people, the majority of them living in the countryside, still many
years away from spending their hard-earned money on such non-essentials as cosmetics. Along the
coastal regions, in a north-south band from Dalian down to Guangzhou, it is a different story; young
women who have well-paid jobs and minimal outgoings (most live at home) are not shy about spending
money on cosmetics, clothing, jewellery and dining out.
This is why respected retailers such as Watsons are doing such a booming business. Watsons China,
the flagship retail chain of A S Watson in China, was named “Top Ten Most Favourite Shopping Places”
by Nanfang Metropolis News and “The Most Influential Brand” by the Beijing Shopping Guide, and has
won the confidence of consumers and created an enjoyable, value-for-money shopping environment.
“We have grown in China with the customers and they trust Watsons,” says Andrew Miles, CEO Health
and Beauty Asia for A S Watson. “We have built our success and reputation on quality and innovation.
Watsons has become a good reference point for leading fashion styles.”
Evenmodestly-paidwhite-collar workers can now afford to buy entry-level cosmetics and indulge in the fun
of trying different brands. They are not set in their consumer-spending ways, as women might be in the West,
and are likely to shop around before settling on a favourite.
All of which is music to the ears of executives from L’Oréal, Lancôme, Estée Lauder, Shu Uemura, Guerlain,
Sisley and Clinique. In theory, a market leader should be able to measure customers in the tens of millions.
Beijing alone has 16 million citizens, Shanghai is nudging close to 20 million and scores of second-tier cities
boast populations of two, three, four, five and six million.
It goes some way to explaining why Vogue China, launched two years ago with an initial sellout run of
300,000 copies, generates so many beauty ads. The magazine sees a major part of its role as educating the
young women of China, leading them slowly but surely down the road to sophistication.
“In Vogue China there is probably the biggest portion of beauty coverage of any other Vogue
in the world,” says editorial director Angelica Cheung. “We devote a lot more pages,
around 50 out of 500, to beauty education, to introduce the ingredients of products
and the basic skincare routine. You don’t see that in Vogues in more advanced
markets as supposedly, after generations of education, women already know.
“For years, women were not encouraged to wear any make-
up at all. You can still see the shyness towards cosmetics
SPHERE 25
The beauty business is booming in Asia,
especially in China, where millions of newly-affluent young
women are flocking to cosmetics counters
By Marc Redvers
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PHOTO: SUN JUN/IMAGINECHINA