This era is becoming faster and faster.
From when did it start that one can’t read a few pages of a book without their thoughts drifting away, and one can’t watch a movie for a few minutes without wanting to fast forward? Patience is becoming more and more precious, and people who can calm down and “slow down” are becoming fewer.
While brands are chasing the trends, they are also trying to create sales miracles through massive advertising and rapid updates. However, the rapidly changing sales rankings on various lists also indicate that blindly pursuing “speed” can only become a fleeting historical dust.
In the rapidly transforming beauty market, what is even more challenging than “fast” is how to make a brand “slow down.” Oushiman (OSM), which has been cultivating the domestic beauty market for more than half a century, has handed in a different “slow answer” to the market.
Brands need to immerse themselves and settle in time
In today’s beauty and cosmetics consumer market, with increasing consumer demands and a growing number of brands, the pace of updates is accelerating. New brands emerge constantly, and old ones fade away. All brands are facing questions: What kind of philosophy should be conveyed, and what attitude should be maintained to win the favor of consumers in the unpredictable market?
Founded in 1967, OSM, which has been specializing in pearl research for over half a century, condenses its brand philosophy into three words – “Take it slow.”
In October of this year, OSM collaborated with fashion magazine “Bazaar” to create a cinematic emotional film titled “Crafting Beauty Slowly,” focusing on two “craftsmen” born in different eras: one is Cai Xiaowei, an inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage – pearl embroidery, and the other is OSM’s “Pearl Grandfather” Shen Zhirong, an inheritor of world freshwater pearl cultivation technology.
One guards the intangible cultural heritage of pearl embroidery dating back to the Tang Dynasty, and the other inherits the pearl cultivation technique dating back to the Northern Song Dynasty. These two “pearls” from a thousand years ago, under the protection of craftsmanship, traverse numerous cultural cycles and finally collide, sparking beautiful moments in the present.
Recently, “Crafting Beauty Slowly” received the 2023 Golden Lion International Advertising Film Award (referred to as the Golden Lion Award), sharing the Silver Award with Armani. The Golden Lion Award is regarded as the “Oscar” of the Chinese advertising industry, emphasizing creativity and production standards, highlighting the artistic, innovative, professional, and commercial value of film and television expression. OSM winning this award undoubtedly proves the correctness of its persistence: making traditional cultures, burdened by time and production costs, more visible, and spreading the “slow philosophy” of OSM to more contemporary young people.
In fact, since the release of OSM’s first emotional film “Take it Slow” in 2022, “Take it Slow” has been deeply ingrained in OSM’s brand mentality, becoming the core of OSM’s emotional marketing throughout the year. Combining with major festivals, a series of “slow stories” have been narrated.
On Valentine’s Day 2023, OSM launched the #Love, Why Not Take it Slow# series of activities, collecting 100 love questions from the entire internet. Collaborating with six emotional content creators on Bilibili and tens of thousands of netizens, they answered the “100 Questions about OSM Love.” Using immersive marketing, OSM aimed to let all users comprehend the true essence of love together and convey the value of “Take it Slow.”
In March of the same year, OSM initiated the #Beauty in Experience, Why Not Take it Slow# emotional marketing campaign and released the March 8th emotional film “A Letter from Pearl Grandfather.” The film took viewers back to the years when “Pearl Grandfather” Shen Zhirong started cultivating pearls. “It turns out that stagnant water in dangerous places is not a bad thing; it actually makes pearls shine even brighter.” This is the insight gained by Pearl Grandfather during the process of cultivating pearls, and it is also a gift he gives to all the “youngsters,” hoping to accompany them through the confusions and uncertainties of life with the “Take it Slow” philosophy of pearls.
On Mother’s Day, OSM launched the #Important Companionship, Take it Slow# plan, collaborating with Phoenix Weekly to release “Slow Companionship” street interviews, receiving millions of views. This attracted many netizens to share their feelings, fully mobilizing the genuine emotions of netizens and striking a chord with a slow and steady attitude.
In addition, on the Chinese Valentine’s Day in 2023, Pearl Grandfather selected a heart-shaped pearl from 100 clams, made it into a ring, and gave it to his wife. OSM also launched a special plan to tell the love story of Pearl Grandfather and his wife spanning half a century. With real stories, they conveyed the message that “love is a slow companionship.”
“Take it Slow” has been the thread running through OSM’s emotional marketing throughout the year, allowing the almost 60-year-old OSM to resonate across generations in the field of pearl philosophy and with contemporary young people. While breaking barriers, the “Take it Slow” tag is firmly imprinted on OSM’s brand image.
Steady and sure, only then can one bravely seek change
Whether in the past or present, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector has always been filled with an admiration for speed, emphasizing that rapid updates are necessary to seize the market in a timely manner. OSM’s “Take it Slow” pearl philosophy may seem out of sync with the current trend, but it actually aligns perfectly with the attitude of the times.
For contemporary Chinese consumers, the era of mindlessly chasing trends has passed. Scientific efficacy has become the added value in the market. The transparency of which product is safer and more effective and which brand is more pragmatic has increased under the wave of the internet. In an era where efficacy is king, brands that blindly seek rapid change are unable to cultivate real strength. Only brands like OSM, which have accumulated profound expertise through years of dedicated work, can stand out. This is the essence of OSM’s “Take it Slow” philosophy.
As “Pearl Grandfather” said in the film “Crafting Beauty Slowly”: “I live in a big era, but in my life, I’ve always focused on the small things… By paying attention to the small things, the big things will naturally have answers.”
Of course, “Take it Slow” is OSM’s brand attitude, but in the ever-changing beauty market, relying solely on a “slow” approach cannot firmly establish OSM. “Slow” is the inner philosophy of settling down and making a living, while “fast” represents responding to external market feedback. OSM never sticks to the same old ways; instead, it always dares to seek change.
Looking at OSM’s market performance in 2023, it can be said that it not only did not lag behind the major trends but also took the lead in various areas such as research and development and skincare efficacy. OSM initiated multiple rounds of product iterations, introducing new products for hydration, whitening, and anti-aging.
For example, in May of the previous year, OSM launched the Lucent Whitening Pro featuring the exclusive self-developed core ingredient “Pearl White Pro” as the flagship for skin whitening. It not only added “Pearl White Pro” and another whitening component, 377, but also incorporated ingredients like licorice extract and sapphire fading black essence to intercept melanin signals at the source, efficiently inhibiting melanin production. OSM Lucent Shining Whitening Set received multiple praises from channels and consumers, earning recognition in various awards such as the Golden Wheat Award. Additionally, OSM applied Pearl White Pro to other products, such as OSM Lucent Shining Whitening Set and Soothing Whitening Essence among other subsequent releases.
Make the world remember Chinese pearls
Whether it’s the “slow” in brand sedimentation or the “fast” in market response, as Shen Zhirong said, OSM ultimately hopes to “make the world remember Chinese pearls.”
OSM’s founder, Shen Zhirong, is not only known as “Pearl Grandfather” but also the pioneer of large-scale cultivation and deep processing technology of pearls, truly deserving the title of “Pearl King.” Starting in 1967, Shen Zhirong began researching modern freshwater pearl cultivation technology using a pair of tweezers, two copper wires, and three sheets of oil paper.
From the cultivation of the first freshwater pearl to the promotion of the breeding and disease prevention technologies for triangle sail mussels (pearl mussels), OSM not only generously shared the core technology of pearl cultivation, leading the surrounding pearl farmers to prosperity but also gradually established a pearl deep processing industry chain, promoting pearl products and skincare to households across the country.
In fact, over the years, OSM has been steadily laying the foundation, focusing on the research and development of pearl components. It continuously raises technical barriers to bring high-tech products like “Pearl White Essence” and “Reassuring Little White Tube” into the consumer’s view.
It is learned that in addition to the self-developed core ingredient “Pearl White Pro” and the brand’s self-developed new material, pearl fermentation extract, OSM has established four core technology systems, supported by pearl peptide purification technology, submicron powder technology, pearl fermentation technology, and pearl formulation technology. The OSM Pearl Research Institute has also become a leading pearl skincare research and development laboratory in the country.
Furthermore, last year, OSM signed a cooperation agreement with the National Nano Drug Engineering Technology Research Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, establishing a joint laboratory and initiating cooperation in research on the active carrier and mechanism of efficacy components. As of now, OSM has obtained 157 international patents, published 56 papers in core journals at home and abroad, and led or participated in the formulation of 34 industry standards.
It can be said that OSM’s combination of “slow” and “fast” not only integrates the life philosophy of founder Shen Zhirong, who has devoted decades to the field of pearls but also blends the brand’s keen insights into the market. The perfect combination of “philosophy” and “technique” gives OSM the confidence to take things slowly in the face of any changes, remaining calm and composed.
