How Japanese brands can capture young Chinese consumers

Brands may bank on Mangas and Animes, GlobalData said. 

Japanese brands could capture young consumers in China by banking on Mangas and Animes, GlobalData reported.

Cosmetics brand Shiseido Company Limited, for instance, launched a limited edition Anessa sunscreen line in China with Doraemon packaging. This forms part of Shiseido’s WIN 2030 strategy to emerge as a top global beauty brand. 

In this pursuit, Shiseido is banking on the Chinese market, which is projected to surpass the US as the world’s largest cosmetics and toiletries market in value sales by 2026. 

“China is the most important market for Shiseido after its home market. The company is gearing up to tap the resurgence of the Chinese cosmetics market as the stringent COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions ease. However, the 150-year-old cosmetics maker is competing with nascent homegrown startups that can quickly adapt to fluid consumer preferences, needs, and trends,” Bobby Verghese, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, said. 

“Moreover, Shiseido is facing an aversion to Japanese brands among Chinese consumers due to rising geopolitical tensions, and the ‘guochao’ nationalism/localism trend, wherein Gen Z cohorts favor domestic brands over multinational ones.”

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Kiki Wu, Consumer Business Development Manager, at GlobalData said Shinseido is trying to overcome these challenges by intensifying its focus on premium skincare and skin health. 

It is also enhancing the brand’s appeal to younger markets through a playful, young, and trendy image. 

“More domestic and multinational companies across the consumer goods and retail/apparel sectors are co-branding products with classic manga, anime, cartoon, and gaming characters, such as Doraemon, Pokémon, Shin-Chan, Conan, Star Wars, Peanuts, and Lego,” Wu said.

“As the nostalgia factor of these intellectual properties (IPs) resonates with the younger demographics that these brands target, they can realize high consumer engagement from such collaborations. As Chinese youth perceive such IPs as a part of their own POP culture, MNC consumer brands can leverage them to localize their offerings, and thereby tap the guochao trend.”