Efficacy and channels have always been important keywords for beauty brands to expand their market. How to build brand strength from efficacy and deeply expand channel development to reach new customer groups is the essential question facing all brands.
How to differentiate and gain a competitive advantage in the fiercely competitive cosmetics market, and create a dual advantage in product strength and channels? The recently revamped Chinese beauty brand “ZEROAGE” has provided its own answer.
Efficacy and Ingredient Advancement
No skincare without efficacy. According to data from CHAILEEDO Data and iResearch, the market size of efficacy skincare products in China is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan in 2023, accounting for 22.9% of the overall skincare market.
In the era of “efficacy skincare,” consumer demand for efficacy has gradually extended to various sub-categories. Take face masks, for example, this category, which used to mainly focus on hydration, has gradually become a key market for efficacy skincare. According to the “2024 Face Mask Trend Insight Report” jointly produced by CHAILEEDO and Voolga, 76% of consumers are more concerned about the efficacy of face masks when making purchases. Over 90% of consumers are open to innovative face masks, and more than 80% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for innovative products.
Recognizing this trend, ZEROAGE, a Chinese brand that recently completed its brand revitalization, has launched a new star product, the Dual Yeast Firming and Lifting Black Mask, using high-quality efficacy ingredients as its breakthrough point.
Looking back at ZEROAGE’s history, face masks have not only served as the stepping stone for the brand’s entry into the skincare market but also become its signature product. As early as 2015, ZEROAGE made a breakthrough in the fiercely competitive private domain market with its series of face mask products. Now, with consumers demanding higher efficacy requirements, ZEROAGE has embarked on a dual advancement in efficacy and ingredients.
Regarding ingredients, CHAILEEDO has learned from the brand that the core active ingredient in the Dual Yeast Firming and Lifting Black Mask is the popular anti-aging ingredient, Dual Yeast. By adding 85% dual yeast fermentation filtrate, the mask achieves a waterless formula. This not only ensures the stability of the raw materials to a greater extent but also guarantees a higher concentration of effective ingredients in the product.
In addition to the dual yeast fermentation filtrate, ZEROAGE’s new face mask also contains 24 essential ingredients, including coffee extract, hydrolyzed collagen, agave leaf extract, bird’s nest extract, niacinamide, cornelian cherry extract, dipotassium glycyrrhizate, lactobacillus/rice fermentation filtrate, tocopheryl acetate, horse chestnut seed extract, erythritol, centella asiatica extract, aloe vera leaf water, and small naked oat polysaccharide.
Among them, hydrolyzed collagen is combined with four peptides, including dipeptide-1, acetyl hexapeptide-8, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7, and nonapeptide-1, to synergistically enhance the effectiveness, promote collagen production, improve skin elasticity, and achieve anti-aging effects.
Of course, another key factor that determines the user experience of a face mask is the choice of the sheet material. According to the brand, ZEROAGE uses binchotan charcoal sheet material, which utilizes the natural adsorption principle of the material to release multiple times of negative ions when in contact with the skin. This allows the mask essence to penetrate deeply into the skin, providing a natural forest oxygen SPA experience.
Third-party testing results show that ZEROAGE’s Dual Yeast Firming and Lifting Black Mask has inhibition rates of 18.15% and 13.75% for hyaluronidase and elastase, respectively, demonstrating clear soothing and firming effects.
Overall, ZEROAGE’s new face mask offers multiple benefits, such as hydration, brightening, and firming, thanks to advancements in ingredients, formulations, and sheet materials. It is an excellent choice for addressing issues such as dullness, enlarged pores, oiliness, sagging, and facial swelling. According to brand data, on the day of the product’s launch during the Double 12 shopping festival, over 50,000 boxes were sold through offline distributor’s private domain channels.
In the face of increasingly knowledgeable consumers, ZEROAGE has undoubtedly demonstrated its commitment to excelling in the field of efficacy ingredients.
Brand Revitalization, New Channel Breakthrough
For ZEROAGE, launching new products with efficacy is just one of the results of their brand revitalization. In fact, this brand, which has been established for eight years, is facing the challenges and opportunities of upgrading and transformation.
Looking back at the brand’s development history, 2015 was the peak of the development of private domain channels. The original brand name “ZEROAGE” came from the concept of cell division and continuous regeneration. ZEROAGE aims to help consumers maintain a continuous progress and constantly rejuvenated attitude from the perspective of skincare, starting from the skin.
Subsequently, the development of point-to-point social channels brought about a significant transformation in the physical economy and the traditional cosmetics retail industry. Many beauty companies entered the field, and community marketing and private domain e-commerce experienced a peak of development. During this period, ZEROAGE broke through in the private domain with a series of high-quality products, leading to exponential growth.
However, with the rise of efficacy skincare and the rapidly changing channels, the competition in the skincare market has become more intense. ZEROAGE realizes that in order to become a long-term brand, they need to focus on brand building and product efficacy.
In October of this year, ZEROAGE underwent a comprehensive brand revitalization for the first time in eight years. In terms of the brand logo, ZEROAGE incorporated the concepts of cell division and rejuvenation into the design, combining the “0” and “age” in the brand name to capture the brand’s attitude of always staying “youthful” and “restarting,” forming a new mindset resembling the state of cell division.
This not only represents ZEROAGE’s hope for consumers to experience rejuvenation in their continuous growth but also signifies that ZEROAGE is standing at a brand-new starting point, starting from zero and embracing rebirth. This also constitutes ZEROAGE’s new brand slogan – “TIME PASSES, AGE IS LIKE A NEW BIRTH.”
It is worth mentioning that ZEROAGE’s fresh start is not limited to visual branding. In the current trend of e-commerce, live-streaming e-commerce has become a standard practice in brand building and a “shortcut” to expand customer base and directly reach consumers. ZEROAGE, in its revitalization, has also seized this key channel.
CHAILEEDO discovered that ZEROAGE is expanding its live-streaming e-commerce channels, using its original private domain channels as a foundation. So far, ZEROAGE has launched multiple products on live-streaming e-commerce platforms, including body whitening cream, blue copper peptide ampoule, and whitening body lotion. They have also collaborated with influencers in various fields, expanding the consumption scenarios of their original private domain channels, breaking the boundaries of people, products, and settings, and creating a communication matrix in different domains. They have also established offline channels for hand masks, foot masks, hand creams, and other products, gradually building an ecosystem with brand, product, users, platforms, and influencers.
New Products, New Efficacy, New Future
“We are increasing our investment in formula ingredients to create high-quality products that deliver results.” During a conversation with the brand, ZEROAGE shared with CHAILEEDO that their brand revitalization is also driven by their desire to find a long-term path that focuses on quality, rather than getting stuck in the vortex of low price and low quality often associated with Chinese brands. “We don’t want to compete on price; we want to compete on ingredients and product quality.”
Before the brand revitalization, ZEROAGE had already launched a diverse product line that covered various sub-categories, including facial cleansing clay masks, hyaluronic acid serums, 24K gold ball essence, hand and foot care products, makeup remover wipes, body scrubs, and water-based body whitening creams. However, the new “ZEROAGE” decided to leave behind some of the previous products with limited efficacy and low technological content and instead increased their investment in efficacy ingredients. They extensively screened from a vast raw material library to select the most suitable efficacy ingredients that cater to the skin characteristics of Chinese consumers, resulting in the creation of their new product series.
With their fresh brand vision and channel resources, ZEROAGE has embarked on deep cultivation in the field of efficacy.
As mentioned earlier, in addition to the new Dual Yeast Firming and Lifting Black Mask, ZEROAGE has already launched popular products based on efficacy ingredients. For example, their best-selling Blue Copper Peptide Ampoule contains 99% blue copper peptides, suitable for sensitive skin. It helps improve the weakened and damaged skin barrier, achieving dual effects of anti-aging and barrier repair. In addition, the product is enriched with Idebenone and Boswellia serrata extract, both known for their anti-aging properties, along with a triple peptide complex to reduce fine lines and stabilize the skin.
Third-party testing results show that after 28 days of continuous use, the Blue Copper Peptide Ampoule significantly increases skin elasticity and reduces wrinkle features, demonstrating clear firming and anti-wrinkle effects.
Risks and opportunities often coexist, and for ZEROAGE, competition and opportunities are far from over. They continue to expand in the product and channel domains. In terms of channels, ZEROAGE will continue to expand its customer base by leveraging mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, opening brand flagship stores, and establishing a presence on social media platforms like Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) to enhance brand awareness and tap into niche markets.
In terms of products, ZEROAGE is constantly exploring new efficacy ingredients. CHAILEEDO learned from the brand that next year, ZEROAGE will enter the highly popular field of recombinant collagen protein and launch a series of products in this category to further enhance their efficacy offerings and create more high-quality flagship products. Currently, the first product in the recombinant collagen protein series, a facial cleanser, is in the final stages of preparation and will make its market debut in 2024.
Undoubtedly, the beauty industry is accelerating, and the efficacy market is experiencing a new wave of growth. To navigate through more market cycles, it is essential to offer confident products, and this is precisely what ZEROAGE is doing. Perhaps in the near future, the efficacy skincare field will witness the rise of a new dark horse.
