Companies should see the pandemic with optimism for no reason. In the face of the common difficulties, companies should help and complement each other in terms of the internal resources of the industry and explore the survival ideas of China’s cosmetics industry in difficult times.
Due to the current severe situation of the prevention and control of COVID-19 in China, many related exhibitions in China’s cosmetics industry have been canceled or postponed. On April 13 (Beijing time), Sun Laichun, the chairman of Chinese essential oil skincare brand Forest Cabin, held a sharing meeting online with the theme of “Some Thoughts on Self-Help and Operation of Enterprises under the Regular Pandemic Prevention and Control”.
Sun Laichun, the chairman of Forest Cabin, shared Forest Cabin’s survival method with people in the Chinese cosmetics industry from three aspects: “the strategy that Forest Cabin can take under the COVID-19, Forest Cabin’s long-termism behind its optimism to respond to the COVID-19 and how enterprises should practice long-termism”.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Forest Cabin’s strategy is “adjusting the status, finding a method and strong implementation”. Above all, to adjust the state, especially for the company’s senior staff who must show their best state to their team. Companies must maintain a positive state no matter how many difficulties and setbacks are encountered.
Second, to find a way. The truth is that a good state cannot be without a good method. With the general stagnation of offline sales encountered in the Shanghai cosmetics industry, online sales are also restricted due to logistics problems. But how Forest Cabin takes the method to ensure the cash flow of the enterprise so that the enterprise can survive? Sun Laichun said: “The establishment of a sub-warehouse by Forest Cabin can guarantee that if the Shanghai warehouse can not be shipped, Wuhan warehouse, Wuxi warehouse and other warehouses in China for delivery could be transferred to so as to protect the needs of consumers.” In addition, some consumers are worried about the presence of viruses in the courier. This can explain to the customer that the goods are not sent from the Shanghai warehouse, shoot the video of the courier disinfection and take the express non-contact delivery and other ways to dispel the customer’s concerns. Then, to solve the logistics problem, it is possible to lay out inter-provincial barges to achieve cross-provincial round-trip transportation and ensure that goods can be shipped out of Shanghai.
Eventually, to order a strong execution. “When the employees are not in good shape and work in an inactive way, the boss can quickly convey a command or a clear task for them to perform, and then you will find that the ideas and methods they come up with will be more comprehensive than the boss thinks.” Sun Laichun said. After the implementation of the strategy, in the face of such a serious pandemic in Shanghai and the sharp decline in foot traffic, Forest Cabin’s offline physical store performance was still the same as that of the same period last year. On April 12 (Beijing time), the daily sales revenue of Forest Cabin’s store in Shanghai also ranked second in China.
At the sharing meeting, Sun Laichun also shared that Forest Cabin planted 280 mu (about 666.67 square meters) of camellia flowers, donated 330 mu of red camellia seedlings and expressed his willingness to encourage farmers to leave 50 million red camellia trees for the world in the future. Not only that, but Forest Cabin also donated $78,600 worth of “Camellia Repair Moisturizing Hand Cream” to China’s frontline anti-pandemic personnel.
At the end of last year, Forest Cabin also established the first carbon-neutral scientific and intelligent manufacturing base in Shanghai. The plant was built based on the carbon-neutral standards, low carbon and green philosophy, a total cost of $40.8 million, which can reduce energy consumption and facilitate the products selling in foreign countries Forest Cabin’s future and export.
“Making the skin of human beings and the earth more beautiful” is the mission of the enterprise and the social responsibility of the enterprise. It is easy to understand that making human skin more beautiful while making the skin of the earth more beautiful requires enterprises to practice the concept of green environmental protection development and to protect the earth’s home while developing the brand. Sun Laichun said, “Public welfare and charity must be a long-term doctrine that a brand should practice.”
Currently, more than 400 Forest Cabin’s stores exist in China and a total of 700 stores are in prediction. In China’s south China, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and other regions where Forest Cabin has not set its foot, it’s ready to open chain stores. In the future, Forest Cabin will open stores in a proportion of one-to-one, namely, the construction of a direct-sale store will match a chain store correspondingly.
Today, when online e-commerce is so developed, why is Forest Cabin still constantly laying out offline channels and constantly opening brand stores? Sun Laichun said: “If there is no offline store, is it still a brand? A brand still must have a consumer experience because human beings always have the need for a shop. All retail is a service industry and vice versa. Forest Cabin is a retail industry and also needs to provide skincare services to customers because services will increase the loyalty of customers.”
It is worth noting that Forest Cabin has also launched a new brand strategy to build an OMO model to respond to the COVID-19 through the support of online high growth momentum and a direct operating system. The former “O” of OMO represents online, as the main export of brand promotion and sales, and achieves rapid growth by exerting the potential energy accumulated by the brand. The latter one represents offline, undertaking the brand experience and service so as to ensure public praise.
Finally, Sun Laichun has repeatedly said that companies should see the pandemic with optimism for no reason. In the face of common difficulties, companies should help and complement each other in terms of the internal resources of the industry and explore the survival ideas of China’s cosmetics industry in difficult times.
