- 来源｜CBO
- 作者｜Li Jianzi & Zhang Huiyuan
In constantly changing business circles there are only a few who can succeed. Struggles for countless days and nights and the favor of the God of Luck have made Li Zhizhen unusual.
Only a few years ago the rising company Adolph was still described by the industry as a "dark horse". Now this dark horse has grown to be a major player in the fiercely competitive washing & care market in China, obtaining Top 1 sales in Tmall's Double Eleven Shopping Festival among other made-in-China washing & care products for three consecutive years and the top position in terms of sales in various offline shopping malls.Li Zhizhen, President of Adolph Group and Guangzhou Adolph Personal Care Products Co., Ltd. is the key figure causing the stir in the market.Entry into the high-end washing & care marketstarted from her unwillingness to compromiseBorn in Pingxiang, Jiangxi, Li Zhizhen has the courage and boldness that characterizes women of Hunan. According to a distributor of Adolph, Li Zhizhen is able, courageous, sensible, reasonable and harbors a holistic view. She alone has led the company through critical moments and turned the tide.When first entering the field of daily chemical products Li Zhizhen started her business as a sub-contracted product manufacturer. At that time with proximity to Guangdong, a key province in the daily chemical products industry chain in China, she entered into the sub-contracted product manufacturing business by virtue of convenient geographical location and information time with communications. She provided simple subcontracted manufacturing services with respect to facial masks, makeup and shampoo products for international clients from Russia, Southeast Asia and Europe.In the course of procurement Li Zhizhen found that really good products were rare and hard to find. The washing & care market in China was monopolized by the shampoo priced at RMB 9.9 from P&G and Unilever. However, Li Zhizhen noticed that with the increase in per capita income in China consumers' purchasing demands and habits were changing and a high-end washing & care market was emerging across various channels.On one hand Chinese techniques and processing services were cheap, with all profits ending up in the pocket of foreign companies; on the other hand, a Chinese washing & care market was growing and a high-end market segment was gradually emerging. Standing at the bottom of the profit chain Li Zhizhen could reconcile her discontent with the situation.She thought that now that Chinese companies could produce washing & care products meeting international standards Chinese should build their own brands and boost the global status of Chinese brands.Hence, she immediately decided to enter the industry of washing & care and secretly made up her mind to "establish a high-end washing & care brand belonging to the Chinese".There is no perfect rival anywhere.The key is to find its Achilles heel.According to Li Zhizhen's analysis, foreign-funded washing & care brands dominated the market in China at that time. For example, two international giants P&G and Unilever had a combined market share of 75%. However, they were not unbeatable.Both companies put excessive emphasis on their product efficacy and overlooked the constantly upgrading consumer demand resulting from economic development. As dominators of the industry, they suffered from a lack of motivation to innovate their products at that time both in terms of product concept and package design.With this in mind, Li Zhizhen embarked on a path of differentiation. In 2013 she started to build a team and gave up prior sub-contracting for foreign companies and sales of skin care and makeup products to devote herself to the washing & care industry, trying to make an impact on the high-end washing & care market.The first step was to define products and positioning. Adolph marketed itself as a high-end perfumed washing & care products manufacturer and differentiated from competing products in packaging and positioning. Right from the start Adolph adopted a differentiated positioning of "offering high-end perfumed washing & care products".The next step was about the channel. Li Zhizhen believed in the utmost importance of channels and Adolph would make full use of every channel, online or offline, Key Account or Cosmetic Store. At one point Adolph's facial masks and skin care products had goodCosmetic Store channel resources, however the daily chemical products section of this channel was usually neglected by foreign companies.By driving up sales and offering more sample products, gaining high profit margins and offering good quality products, Adolph prevailed in the Cosmetic Store channel and started to accumulate original brand reputation.Adolph then quickly went into the Key Account and e-commerce channels and began suppressing rival products across all channels.In 2019 Adolph's total retail sales across all channels exceeded RMB 10 billion. In the Top 10 Shampoo Brands on Chinese E-commerce Platforms in 2020, released by iiMedia Research, Adolph ranked second and was the only Chinese brand on the list.
Armed with Technology and Keeping up with the Times"Adolph is like my little boy. The Chairman and I have devoted everything to it," Li Zhizhen described what Adolph meant to her and to her company in an exclusive interview with CBO.In early days of the brand research and development (R&D) centers had been established in Spain, Japan and Germany for Adolph to ensure product quality. Now the Company has an independent production base which is an industrial park composed of Phase I, II and III projects. The base is equipped with a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) class 100,000 clean room, a central air conditioning system, a Class 100,000 clean filling workshop and a set of imported cosmetics production and Quality Control (QC) equipment.Moreover, Adolph Scalp & Hair Research Institute has taken initiative to cooperate with globally famous universities and research organizations such as Jiangnan University, Beijing Forestry University and Nanjing Institute for Comprehensive Utilization of Wild Plants to focus on research of hair care solutions. Its world-class multi-national R&D team has given Adolph cutting edge in frontier scientific research in the field of global chemical R&D and designed every single Adolph product based on results of global scientific research, supporting thousands of consumers in their hair care.Li Zhizhen told the reporters that Adolph devoted over 3% of their brand revenue to R&D every year."From the perspective of products, quality has always been the greatest core competitiveness of Adolph. Our advantages in product formula, production process and source of raw materials have ensured stable product quality."As the times moved forward Li Zhizhen felt that 2021 would witness fiercer competition in Chinese washing & care market, but it would be full of new opportunities.On one hand, the epidemic caused the global economy to contract, forcing high-end international brands originally focusing on foreign markets to increase input in the Chinese market. For example, in the Double Eleven Shopping Festival in 2020 high-end brands as Kerastase and L'Oreal gave up their high-price policy and entered the mid-market in China at reduced prices, making the industrial competition even more severe. On the other hand, Chinese consumers have increasingly specific demands for washing & care product functions and such segmented demand has presented a new opportunity for brand development. In the future brands with unique product advantage in a specific area will have a better chance of development."Brand development is a dynamic process. When you run a company or a brand every single day arrives with brand-new harsh challenges." Li Zhizhen gained a new awareness of her great responsibility as new norms were established after the Covid-19 epidemic.Therefore, Li Zhizhen revealed that in 2021 Adolph would launch its overseas strategy. "We will utilize China's leading e-commerce practices to get into overseas markets such as Europe and America and make some beneficial attempts in these high-end washing & care markets with the help of our excellent product power."Li Zhizhen will make greater efforts in advertising on social media By targeting Adolph to the new generation consumers via Weibo, WeChat, TikTok and Xiaohongshu and building traffic and brand culture with social media hashtags. Recently Adolph has planted ads into hit variety shows and TV series including the Sisters Who Make Waves and the Nothing but Thirty to constantly reinforce their brand value.△ Ads of Adolph in the phenomenal hit Nothing but Thirty "In the future brands with unique product advantage in a specific area will have a better chance of development. Carrying the dreams of all the people in the Company, Adolph will offer best products and services to global consumers and create perfect products with great craftsmanship," Li Zhizhen said confidently.
04
An Industrious and Lucky Ordinary Person
Persistent pursuit of quality products has been Li Zhizhen's commitment to the industry for over 20 years. She keeps working with like-minded peers shoulder to shoulder to help Adolph go further."A habit of constant and active learning is the basis of continuous progress," She told the reporters.Li Zhizhen has been repeatedly reading the Zeng Guofan series books lately. She told the reporters that the life of Zeng Guofan had informed her of ways to pursue dreams in adversity, stay true to oneself before temptations and find the direction for progress in chaos.Known as the "head of four famous ministers in late Qing Dynasty", Zeng Guofan pursued a state of "minor fullness" and named his study "Defect-seeking Chamber". He believed that flowers not yet in full blossom and the moon not yet in its full shape gave people hopes and expectations. A life always kept close to its prime and full of hope could offer people a sense of calmness and mastery.Maybe this is also Li Zhizhen's attitude towards work and life.In her leisure time Li Zhizhen likes to exercise to relax both her body and mind. The most relaxing moments of her life are when doing house chores at home and watching TV with her family. Perhaps at these moments she returns to the role of an ordinary wife, daughter and mother instead of the boss of a company worth billions."An industrious and lucky ordinary person." This is how Li Zhizhen described herself at the end of the interview.In constantly changing business circle there are only a few who can succeed. Struggles for countless days and nights and the favor of the God of Luck have made Li Zhizhen unusual.
