Behind the fact that the price of Hua Xizi’s eyebrow pencil exceeds the gold price, the label of ＂emphasizing marketing and neglecting quality＂ cannot be torn off.

(Text/Xie Hongjuan Editor/Ma Yuanyuan) "I didn’t start with’ all girls’ today, because Li Jiaqi let everyone down. I am sorry to see everyone in this Weibo."

In the early morning of September 11th, Li Jiaqi reflected on the inappropriate remarks that "Hua Xizi’s eyebrow pencil is getting more and more expensive" during the live broadcast, and said, "I am a makeup counter salesman, and I know that everyone’s work is hard and not easy. I am really sorry that what I said failed to live up to your expectations. "

Li Jiaqi further explained that he didn’t respond immediately because he wanted to seriously apologize to the girl in the comments after finishing his work, and anyone can put forward opinions and ideas on the products in the live broadcast room.

While Li Jiaqi apologized at the Weibo, Hua Xizi’s eyebrow pencil was also pushed to the forefront because it was "more expensive than gold per gram". Some netizens converted it according to the total price and gram weight. "Hua Xizi’s eyebrow pencil is equivalent to more than RMB 980 per gram, which is more than 900 yuan’s Uemura show. You can buy two grams of gold."

However, some netizens retort that the above calculation method is purely grandstanding, and there is no comparability between the wooden eyebrow pencil and the movable refill.

The price of most brands of eyebrow pencil exceeds the price of gold.

Is Hua Xizi Eyebrow Pencil Expensive?

According to Hua Xizi Taobao official website, there are three kinds of regular purchase methods of eyebrow pencil, two of which are to buy an eyebrow chalk and send a replacement core with the same paragraph. A single net content of 0.07g requires 69 yuan, and a net content of 0.08g requires 79 yuan; Buy one eyebrow chalk and send two replacement cores with the same paragraph, and the net content of each one is 119 yuan 0.08g

If you don’t count the gifts, the price of Hua Xizi eyebrow pencil is 985.71 yuan /g or 987.5 yuan /g, which is really higher than the price of gold jewelry in 600 yuan.

However, it is not scientific to get rid of the calculation of gifts, because most of the time gifts can often replace formal clothes and bring a premium to products. Take PASSIONALLOVER’s fire-loving cream velvet air cushion cream sold in Li Jiaqi live broadcast room as an example. The price of a single shot is 178 yuan, but it costs 208 yuan to shoot a combination of air cushion and replacement core, which is higher than the price of a single product.

In contrast, the offline store Givenchy lipstick n37 costs 370 yuan, and official website needs 295 yuan to buy a replacement core, and the difference is less than 100 yuan; Armani red air cushion is priced at 685 yuan, and the replacement core is priced at 445 yuan. The difference is about 200 yuan; Shu Uemura automatic machete eyebrow pencil 295 yuan, replacing the core 160 yuan.

That is to say, although the price of replacement core can not reach the original, in most cases, the value of replacement core far exceeds half of the original value of the product.

If the replacement core of Huaxizi Eyebrow Pencil is calculated as original, the prices of three kinds of purchase methods are 492.86 yuan /g, 493.75 yuan /g and 495.83 yuan /g respectively. At the same time, if the replacement core of Huaxizi eyebrow pencil is calculated as half of the original one, the prices of the three types of purchase methods are 657.14 yuan /g, 658.33 yuan /g and 743.75 yuan /g respectively.

It is worth mentioning that the set meal of Hua Xi Zi Mei chalk sold in Li Jiaqi live broadcast room is "buy one and get two replacement clothes, totaling 79 yuan". Similarly, if the replacement core is halved, 79 yuan can buy two formal dresses of 0.08g in the live broadcast room, which is equivalent to 493.75 yuan/g..

It is undeniable that the eyebrow pencil of 657.14 yuan /g is indeed comparable to the price of gold, but in the whole category of eyebrow pencil, Hua Xizi is not the most expensive one.

By comparing the brands that are also active refills, on Taobao official website, Bei Lingfei’s price per gram is 2,937.5 yuan, Kate’s price per gram is 1,128.57 yuan, Shu Uemura’s automatic machete eyebrow pencil’s price per gram is 900 yuan, COLORKEY’s price per gram is 1000 yuan, Caitang’s price per gram is 564.29 yuan, Kazilan’s price per gram is 446.67 yuan, and Perfect Diary’s price per gram is 139.29 yuan.

How should online celebrity brand create long-term value?

According to public information, Hua Mantian, the founder, founded Hua Xizi in Hangzhou Xizi Lake in March 2017, taking "Oriental Makeup" as the brand entry point, and put forward the brand positioning of "Oriental Makeup, Raising Makeup with Flowers", and settled in Tmall in August 2017 to open the flagship store of Hua Xizi Tmall.

It is worth mentioning that the reason why Hua Xizi can develop from obscurity to a well-known brand in a short time has a lot to do with Li Jiaqi.

According to the report of Toubao Research Institute, since Hua Xizi appeared in the live broadcast room in Li Jiaqi in March 2019, the sales volume of its products in the live broadcast room in Li Jiaqi has maintained a rapid growth trend. For example, Hua Xizi’s product "Air Loose Powder" first appeared in the live broadcast room in Li Jiaqi, and then became the main explosion of Hua Xizi in one fell swoop.

Since then, Li Jiaqi has cooperated deeply with Huaxizi brand, not only becoming the chief recommendation officer of Huaxizi brand, but also participating in supervising Huaxizi’s explosion of concentric lock lipstick, and went to the early research and development process of Miao Impression series products in Miao Village, Guizhou Province to develop Miao Impression Gaoding series cosmetics.

During the Double Eleven in 2019, 64% of GMV of Huaxi Zi came from the live broadcast room in Li Jiaqi. With the help of Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room, in 2019, Huaxi surpassed 2018 with sales of 1.13 billion, achieving a 25-fold increase; In 2020, Huaxizi products appeared 71 times in the live broadcast room in Li Jiaqi, and the sales in that year exceeded 3 billion yuan. The sales in 2021 was 5.4 billion yuan.

Behind the close cooperation with Li Jiaqi, Hua Xizi was questioned as "emphasizing marketing" and neglecting products. According to beijing business today, statistics show that Hua Xizi spent 20 million yuan on the monthly marketing expenses on the live broadcast platform in the early days. According to Amoy data, if the total GMV from May to June in 2019 is less than 100 million per month, the marketing expense rate of Huaxizi only on the live broadcast platform is about 20%.

It should be pointed out that due to over-reliance on Li Jiaqi, the sales of Huaxi’s products vary greatly. For example, in the first seven months of 2022, the monthly sales volume of Huaxizi Jade Girl Peach Blossom Silk Honey Powder, which was broadcasted six times, was 260,000, and the monthly sales volume of Huaxizi Palace Insect Vegetable Cleansing Cream, which was never broadcasted, was only 1,023.

In addition, Hua Xizi over-packaged the products, but neglected the R&D quality control, which has also been criticized by consumers.

As a well-known brand of domestic cosmetics, Huaxizi Bainiao Chaofeng relief makeup plate is popular all over the network because of its high value and technology. Some netizens shared a post in Xiaohongshu. The relief makeup really reproduces the traditional oriental relief technology, and combined with the classical screen elements, the craft of a hundred birds facing the phoenix is portrayed as the pattern of the makeup plate, which shows the traditional elements very exquisitely.

At the same time, the "average color", "flying powder", "rough powder" and "average ductility" have also become the biggest slot of this product, and the official selling price of 259 is superimposed, which makes a lot of consumers vomit "feeling that they have spent all their money on packaging and appearance", "packaging with heart and making products with feet" and so on.

Some netizens bluntly said when sharing the relief craft, "I really can’t find a reason why I have to buy it except for looking good and supporting excellent domestic products."

How should Hua Xizi build the long-term value of the brand? Facts have proved that it is difficult for products to last long by marketing alone, and it is necessary to increase investment in R&D and promote brand transformation. For this brand that has just been established for more than six years, the game with the "re-marketing" label has just begun.