The DTC strategy of Guanxia, a domestic fragrance brand , is to innovate in product innovation, omni-channel layout, social e-commerce marketing, etc., to achieve more efficient direct contact and conversion of consumers. The innovative model of Guanxia as a fragrance DTC brand deserves the attention and reference of more new domestic brands, and it can also provide inspiration from a global perspective for the DTC transformation of traditional brands.
1. Guanxia seizes the "smell economy" trend and catches up with the blue ocean of the domestic fragrance market
Under the influence of the epidemic, people have to wear masks, so the effect of perfume is gradually replacing the effect of lipstick. In addition, under the epidemic prevention and control, the time at home is longer, the mental pressure is greater, and people's demand for self-pleasure has increased, and perfume has become more and more popular . Daily consumer goods for many people.
According to the "2020 China Perfume Industry Research White Paper" released by iResearch, it is estimated that China 's perfume market will reach 30 billion yuan in 2025. However, in the current Chinese perfume market, international brands account for more than 70% of the market share , and , China accounts for only 2.5% of the global perfume consumption market , but the per capita customer price reaches 500-800 yuan . It can be seen that there is still huge room for development in the domestic perfume market, showing the characteristics of "high growth and low penetration" , This is undoubtedly a blue ocean market for domestic perfume brands .
Not only that, due to the improvement of national power in recent years, Generation Y and Generation Z, who occupy the main consumption, have great support for domestic products, and have a great acceptance and desire to explore niche brands and fragrance types . There is a lack of oriental fragrances targeting domestic culture in the international market, and many domestic fragrance brands such as Smell Library, Beast, RE Perfumery, Bing Xili, etc. have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.
Guanxia also seized the opportunity in this olfactory economy, and within just four years of its establishment, it has laid out online and offline stores, completed brand building, achieved a 60% repurchase rate, and won 1.43% in 2021. billion in sales. So how did Guan Xia do it?
2. Guanxia achieved rapid growth through the DTC innovation model
Guanxia was established in 2018. In just four years, it has received investment from IDG Capital and ZhenFund, and has opened offline stores in first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing. Its public account has millions of subscriptions and loyal users 100,000+, this year also settled in Tmall, Douyin and other large e-commerce brands, last year's revenue reached 143 million.
Obtaining such good results is inseparable from Guanxia's persistence and exploration of the DTC model , including product innovation, online and offline omni-channel layout, and social e-commerce innovation . Through such a DTC strategy , it directly reaches consumers and enhances the brand Exposure and sales conversion have also gained high fan stickiness.
1) Product innovation: horizontally and vertically carry out product and category innovation to create product differentiation
The founder of Guanxia said: "Guanxia's product itself is the best marketing tool." In terms of products, Guanxia takes "Oriental Fragrance" as an entry point to create salon fragrance products. Through single-point breakthroughs in small categories, it creates product differentiation, fills the gap in the mid-to-high-end "Oriental Fragrance" products in the market, and occupies the minds of users.
Guanxia clarified its brand direction, created original aromatherapy belonging to the brand, and worked hard on the original oriental fragrance . They use the natural elements familiar to the Chinese people, and add the wilderness memory of mountains, rivers and trees to the products, which can also be reflected in the names - Kunlun boiled snow, summer golden osmanthus, academy lotus pond, etc. When it comes to Guanxia, the four words " Kunlun the success of Guanxia DTC - successfully arousing domestic consumers' sense of identity with oriental fragrance, and occupying consumers' attention. Mental blank point, successfully locked the market.
Not only that, Guanxia has also spent a lot of effort on product design . The appearance adopts a minimalist style, with a lot of white space, which is in line with the aesthetics of the national style. Limited gift boxes will also be launched according to different festivals and solar terms, such as Yihe Golden Osmanthus Golden Autumn Osmanthus Rabbit Gift Box and Kunlun Cooked Snow Lucky Tiger Limited Gift Box, etc., emphasizing the gift attribute, and the unique limited appearance design also increases consumers' purchases power.
In addition to the horizontal product innovation mentioned above, Guanxia is also continuously expanding and developing new product lines vertically, and constantly making innovations in categories. Guanxia's product categories include personal fragrance, space fragrance, body care and other product lines. The specific products include spar aromatherapy, aromatherapy candles, incense hanging and incense sticks, perfume, hand cream and body milk, etc. wait. This is an attempt to create multiple vertical product lines with common fragrance types, penetrate into more usage scenarios of consumers, create a product matrix, and form a brand effect.
Through horizontal and vertical product innovation, Guanxia’s different series of gift boxes are also very popular. These gift boxes usually contain a variety of products, and most of them are complementary products. For example, the latest "Peking Sweet" series of gift boxes contains Wood core scented candles, essential oil incense plugs, essential oil incense bricks and customized matches, these different products are sold under the same theme, which greatly increases the unit price of customers and promotes the increase in sales.
To sum up, Guanxia has taken a differentiated route in terms of product positioning, with oriental fragrance as its core competitiveness, combined with Chinese-style aesthetic design, coupled with continuous improvement in research and development of related categories, and innovation in categories, and continues to serve Consumers provide freshness, create a product matrix, and form brand influence.
2) Channel innovation: open online and offline stores to improve user consumption experience
1. Private domain operations carry out online channel laying, relying on official account mini-programs to complete transformation, and obtain customers at low cost
The most distinctive feature of Guanxia is that it did not invest a lot of money in the construction of the public domain platform at the beginning, but used the private domain traffic to direct the traffic to the mini program store through the WeChat official account, and made conversions in the private domain.
Today, Guanxia has millions of WeChat subscriptions, 100,000+ loyal users, and a repurchase rate of over 60%. It is estimated that the GMV of the WeChat mini-program mall alone exceeds 100 million yuan.
So why didn’t Guanxia open a Taobao Tmall phase ship store at the beginning of its establishment, but transformed it in a private domain?
First, the construction of a private domain can realize independent control of user data and reduce the risk of public-to-private transfer on the platform . Mastering user data can fully understand user preferences, and update product and content strategies based on user preferences.
Second, reduce costs and reduce platform commissions . Selling on online platforms requires a certain "technical service fee" to be collected by the platform. In addition to the technology development fee for small programs, the WeChat payment platform will only charge about 6/1000 of the service fee every year. Therefore, Guanxia did not choose to settle in the Tmall Taobao flagship store at the beginning because it could save nearly 2 million monthly commission budget.
Third, facilitate the operation and maintenance of fan groups and increase the repurchase rate .
Next, let’s take a look at Guan Xia’s specific approach.
The WeChat official account can be said to be the most important product promotion channel for Guanxia. Every new product and brand story is exclusively released by the official account. In addition, Guanxia will insert a link to the mini program in the article. After clicking, consumers can directly jump to the mini program to realize the whole process of content acquisition, subscription, consumption and sharing, which not only establishes the user's awareness of the brand, but also Meet the needs of word-of-mouth communication. On the other hand, the layout of its official account is also concise yet ingenious. With the official account as the core, it connects video accounts, mini programs, and WeChat mall to reflect the brand tonality and strengthen the brand image. At the same time, it also affects users and the selection of customers, and the final users must be those who have a high sense of identity with Guanxia.
It is also worth mentioning that since Guanxia’s products are only sold in the WeChat mall, and a limited number of new products are available every Thursday at 8:00 pm, when consumers reply keywords and add experience officers, they can internally test and Enjoy purchase benefits in the launch of new products, which further makes consumers "willing" to stay in the private domain pool.
Guan Xia captures every Aha moment. In this era of fast wins, Guanxia has done the opposite. They neither promoted the community with great fanfare, nor did the experience officers push the news easily. Even the most critical product release on Thursday was only prompted on the official account. , allowing consumers to experience the core value of the product in a large area of blank text, which is also the so-called Aha moment.
2. Guanxia improves consumer experience through the creation of offline stores
Guanxia's offline stores pay attention to the experience of consumers. Through the opening of stores, the sense of smell, touch, vision and interaction can enhance the resonance of consumers, allowing consumers to experience the brand's aesthetic concept more "immersively".
In terms of types, Guanxia’s offline store layout includes four types: pop-up stores, theme stores, boutique stores, and urban flagship stores. Through the creation of these four types of stores, Guanxia can achieve pop-up store trial Water consumers, theme stores are quickly replicated in urban complexes, boutiques rely on the traffic of big brand offline stores, and flagship stores build brand influence in the city.
In terms of site selection, Guanxia tends to build stores in old neighborhoods or buildings with a sense of history, and each store will present a different style and story. The Guozijian store opened by Guanxia on Guozijian Street in Beijing was originally a courtyard built in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and Guozijian itself was an administrative institution for education management established by the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The brand style adds a touch of national charm; another example is Shanghai’s Guanxia Leisure Court, which is located in an old Spanish-style building. It is said that it was built in the 1830s and has undergone a total of 200 days of renovation, which can reflect the old Shanghai. The fashionable style combining Chinese and Western styles can also reflect the exquisite brand concept of Guanxia.
In terms of design, Guanxia's space design conveys experience and feeling to consumers in a structured way, using materials, light, terrain, etc. to bring sensory experience. Guanxia Beijing Guozijian store, Shanghai "Xianting", Shenzhen "Courtyard" and Shenzhen pop-up store are all created by FOG Architects, an international designer team established in London, England. They bring Guanxia The space design has the characteristics of the founder, and planted flowers and pine trees to convey the poetic flavor of the courtyard. This kind of design, coupled with the echo of the aroma of watching summer, is a concrete expression of the poetic national style like Kunlun boiled snow.
From a perspective other than space, Guanxia publishes her design cases on well-known overseas design platforms, such as AD, Dossier Wallpaper, IDEAT, Dezeen, etc. These platforms have attracted people who are interested in Guanxia and even Chinese culture. The unfamiliar eyes brought more traffic to Guan Xia.
Not only that, Guanxia can also combine space design with product development to form a unity of offline experience and product concept. For example, the first incense in the Guozijian store in Beijing is called "Youth Tan". I saw the handsome young man scribbling in it.
It can be seen that the offline experience is extremely important to the fragrance market. Although there are not many offline stores in Guanxia, each of them has spent a lot of effort to create, bringing oriental fragrance into the real world of consumers. Bring the yearning for tranquility and beauty to consumers, and encourage people with these feelings to consume.
3) Social e-commerce: content marketing enhances user emotional experience, joint name breaks the circle to accelerate customer acquisition
1. Content marketing to enhance user emotional experience
Aromatherapy is a very special category. Before trying the perfume in person, consumers' imagination of fragrance and desire to buy largely come from the brand's graphic creation. When describing the product, Guanxia will focus on the details of the product, add stories and drama, render the scene, picture, emotion and story of the product, and integrate the content into the marketing process to occupy the minds of consumers and connect consumers with the brand Create an emotional connection that increases purchase and repurchase rates.
In terms of content marketing, the content of Guanxia is very aesthetic. From naming, packaging, to copywriting and pictures, they all reflect oriental aesthetics.
In terms of naming, "Yihe Jingui", "Kunlun Cooked Snow", "Xixi Peach Blossom", and "Chongqing Forest" are the main four-season series products of Guanxia . The emotional resonance of consumers can reduce the cost of communication with consumers.
On the packaging, except for its own logo, Guanxia's packaging design is mostly minimalist and blank, leaving only the product names in Chinese characters such as "Gui" and "Kun", reflecting Guanxia's oriental blood.
In terms of marketing copywriting, Guanxia is committed to telling the story of Dongfangxiang. Find relevant stories from oriental humanities, art and history to create and express fragrance, which is deeply rooted in Chinese traditional culture. In Guan Xia's copywriting, there are often descriptions of the way of life used by literati and refined scholars. For example, "Returning on a snowy night, you can know the snow when you listen to the wind" allows people to combine the modern aromatherapy "Kunlun Cooked Snow" with the traditional Chinese artistic conception, and visualize the connotation of the product, making it more vivid and close to consumers emotional memory.
2. Cross-border joint name breaks the circle and acquires more new users
联名营销是社交电商创新中重要的一环，可以让品牌快速破圈，扩大知名度，吸引不同领域的粉丝群体。观夏的联名营销，相比大幅度的跨界，更加倾向于聚焦自身品牌特性，精准选择合作对象，从而进一步传达自身的品牌理念。
观夏的联名活动包括观夏——陈坤“行走的力量”公益项目、观夏——松美术馆、观夏——seesaw等等，在生活、美术、食品等领域进行拓展，将自身的美学理念和香味元素完美融合进联名品牌中，提高了自身品牌的话题度和曝光度。
在2019年，观夏加入了陈坤发起的“2019行走的力量分享展”，“行走的力量”是2011年开始的心灵建设公益项目，秉承着用正能量影响更多人的理念，关注为存在心理困境和情绪困扰的人们提供情绪能量。这与观夏用香味营造氛围、调动情绪的理念不谋而合。
在此次活动中，观夏打造了一个巨型的体验互动式的香味扩散器装置，由68串晶石串组成，并且参考了冥想沉思的概念，为参展的人们提供了一个个安静安全的空间——情绪小屋。空间的不同颜色分别以橘子汽水、仲夏雨夜、黑檀与猫、雪融白茶等香味相搭配，传递颜色、气味和情绪的统一，唤醒身体觉知。
通过这次活动，观夏将自身的品牌概念传达给亲临现场的人们，为人们找回安静、安宁的情绪力量，获得众多忠实粉丝。
除了展览类的跨界活动，观夏也在产品上选择了调性相似的合作对象进行联名。例如在2020年7月，观夏的首款联名香就是和松美术馆进行的合作，松美术馆是一座纯白的现代主义空间，它与观夏的留白设计理念和对东方审美的自信不谋而合。观夏借助松美术馆的人气，推出了以松香为主香调的四季系列，并且限时发售，获得大量的曝光和关注。
除此之外，观夏与四季酒店也进行了合作，开发了联名款四季香薰“序”，在酒店套房、SPA中心等公共空间都可以见到这款香薰，进而提升了观夏的品牌曝光度，吸引了像四季住客一样注重生活品质的消费者的注意力。
In just a few years, Guanxia has also co-branded with the coffee brand seesaw, issued a co-branded gift box with the beer brand Corona, and launched a co-branded gift box with silk scarves, ceramics and incense hangers with the intimate clothing lifestyle brand. Undoubtedly, they have found a new way to break the circle. Although the collaborators span multiple fields, they remain the same. They can always form a unity in tone and style , and there will be no sense of disobedience.
3. Aroma brand Guanxia achieves rapid growth through DTC innovation
Guanxia has achieved annual sales of over 100 million in just a few years since its establishment. Its growth is inseparable from the DTC innovative marketing model, which includes horizontal and vertical product innovation to create product differentiation; the construction of online and offline channels, To improve consumption experience; content marketing and co-branded social e-commerce innovations to enhance user emotional experience and acquire more consumers, which undoubtedly have great enlightenment significance for the marketing of newly established brands—that is, How to acquire users at a low cost and occupy the minds of users at the initial stage of the brand to form brand awareness? I hope this article can inspire and help the brand's DTC innovation and the transformation of traditional brands.
4. Key experiences and inspirations of DTC innovation of new consumer brands
1) Create differentiated product and category innovations
Taking "Oriental Fragrance" as the entry point, making breakthroughs in small categories, creating product differentiation, filling the gap in the mid-to-high-end "Oriental Fragrance" market, and occupying users' minds; creating multiple vertical product lines with the same fragrance type, and penetrating more usage scenarios , creating a product matrix and forming a brand effect
2) Channel innovation dedicated to improving consumer experience
The online public account is used as the carrier to complete the transformation into a small program, realizing the whole process of content acquisition, subscription, consumption, and sharing; the opening of offline stores enhances consumer resonance and brand awareness through smell, touch, vision, and interaction. sense of experience
3) Social e-commerce innovation with high penetration and low cost
Improve user emotional experience through content marketing, and cross-border joint name quickly break through the circle to increase exposure, acquire more new users, and achieve marketing and sales with higher penetration rate and lower customer acquisition cost
Original link:
Extended article:
1. The enlightenment of Bingdundun Top Streaming Road to brands on how to do a good job in DTC
2. Innovation case｜How Winona DTC has grown into the top 10 new consumer beauty brands in 4 years
For more exciting cases and solutions, please visit the Runwise Innovation Community .