Blackmores China General Manager Zhang Zujun Talks About Cross Border Explosive Products

Over the past two years, overseas brands such as Hai Tao purchasing and cross-border electricity providers have caught a lot, especially mothers and babies, cosmetics and health products. On the one hand, most of the cross-border electricity providers will chase the "explosive products" and the standard products. On the other hand, they will also reflect the immature domestic market's awareness of overseas brands. As a "explosive product", without the help of purchasing agents and cross-border electricity providers, how should we continue the heat?

Blackmores (Ao Jiabao) is the representative of Australian health products brand, which is "fire" due to cross-border electricity supplier. At present, it has a wide range of sales channels in the Chinese market, including general trade import, cross-border bonded imports, purchasing agents, etc., among which cross-border electricity business accounts for 90% of the market share, and the future is likely to be bigger. However, for them, the cross-border import mode will never be the only way, nor is it the final choice.

Want to be real Chinese Market What are the challenges facing Blackmores? How to deal with the conflicts between different channels? How to maintain their competitiveness? Recently, Zhang Zujun and general manager of Blackmores China conducted a deep dialogue around these issues.

Zhang Zujun co sponsored the 2015 central (Zhengzhou) cross-border e-commerce development summit.

Reporter: Blackmores is one of the overseas brand representatives who are carrying the fire by China's cross border electricity supplier. But in addition to the cross-border bonded import mode, Blackmores has already had a general trade import mode in China. Do you worry about the conflicts between the two modes or competing with each other?

　　 Zhang Zujun: not at all worried, because we have done strict product and channel separation. For example, at present, we have two stores in Tmall, one is Tmall's Blackmores official flagship store, one is Tmall International's Blackmores overseas flagship store, Tmall stores take the general trade mode, Tmall international store products cross border mode, and the two shop product lines are different.

Under general trade, products are relatively few, because laws and regulations restrict many commodities from coming in, but we are constantly developing new products, such as collagen products, which are specially controlled for general trade, and are fully in line with China's laws and regulations. Products related to health and quality of life will do exclusive research and development in accordance with China's regulations and expand general trade rather than cross experience.

Of course, at present, cross border accounts for 90% of our share, and it may reach 95% or even 99% in the future. But our view is that general trade is also very important, because it can be targeted at many middle-aged and elderly consumers, or some inconvenient online shopping, do not trust cross-border online shopping consumers.

In addition, the biggest reason is that education in China's health care products market is very lacking. Chinese consumers have a low level of understanding of health products. Many people start buying when they do not know the difference between fish oil and cod liver oil, because they are just catching up on the Internet, but they do not understand whether this product is suitable for a certain group of people. In the early stage, we believe that the best way to market education is offline, that is, face to face's exchange and consultation.

At present, we have covered more than 2000 Watsons, 300 Wanning, and high-end retailers like Ole. In the future, we may also plan to enter 40 000 pharmacies. stay Australia In such a mature market, health care products are usually sold through pharmacies, because professional consultants can recommend products to you according to your individual needs, rather than recommend products based on what they sell.

From this point of view, online and offline itself do not conflict, but play different roles. For brands, what we need to do is to differentiate channels and differentiate products so as to avoid competition. For example, the same is fish oil, the products of general trade import and cross border imports are different, because the regulatory requirements of China for fish oil products are different from Australia. Many Australian accessories can not be used in China, and need to be removed. Therefore, there is a complementary relationship between the two import modes.

To sum up, the import of general trade import and cross border trade is one of market education and brand exposure, one is the quantity, and the other is the balance between long-term and short-term goals. Laws and regulations make a large number of products unable to enter China, but there is such a large demand for consumers. Cross border e-commerce is a relatively timely and short-term plan. But we think that heavy responsibilities and complex lines are different. The two ways of covering the same population are different.

Reporter: as a representative of "explosive products", will Blackmores be afraid of the Chinese market? For example, through various ways (purchasing, cross-border electricity suppliers, general trade), China will inevitably face the problem of confusion in the market price system. How to deal with it?

　　 Zhang Zujun: there are four main challenges we face at present: the first is the supply chain, the second is the price system, the third is consumer education, and fourth is the laws and regulations. Among them, the first two challenges may be the biggest.

　　 market price System management and control, including pricing mechanism, promotion mode and so on. What we are seeing now is more of a platform between retailers and retailers to win over consumers through price competition. In the future, our brands will definitely participate in the planning of the market with everyone.

I believe that in the future, prices will converge between China and Australia, between China's cross-border electricity providers and between various channels. Because under the premise of internationalization, price transparency is very high. But this is not to say that the profits of cross-border electricity providers can not grow, but that under this premise, the platform and platform should dig more differences and unique positioning, and then cooperate with the brand to customize the products and prices suitable for his platform.

For example, our data in Jingdong and vip.com show great differences. Many Jingdong users are male users. Their demand for health products is different from that of vip.com users. So in the future, we hope that the platform will help us to study consumer trends together, and serve users of their own platforms more accurately, not all platforms that sell the same things and sell explosive products.

Reporter: the so-called "explosive goods" is also temporary. At this stage, we all admire you and may have changed for a while. The cross-border electricity supplier has opened the door to China for a large number of previously unknown overseas brands. If it is no longer a "explosive product", it will also face. What about Blackmores for competitors from all over the world?

Zhang Zujun: actually, don't worry. We have no objection to detonation, but we will never rely on exploding money. The reason why Blackmores can be accepted by Chinese consumers is not entirely determined by the purchase of some overseas products. It has its own historical and cultural heritage (more than 80 years' History), and has been named "the most trusted brand of consumers" in Australia for 7 consecutive years. These genes decide that it can not be replaced by some small and medium-sized brands at any time.

I have also communicated with many purchasing agents, asking why they choose Blackmores, but Australia does have so many health care products brands, but not everyone can become explosive money. No accumulation, no decades of R & D, quality control, and consumer education, you can't get a red overnight, or you will soon be replaced and transformed after a red explosion.

For us, our product line is very rich. The more than 400 SKU covers the nutritional supplement that every person needs from every stage of the baby to the old age. So we do not rely on a SKU or two SKU, which is different from many Brand Company.

Reporter: for health products such a standard, a large number of overseas brands will come to China after homogenization competition. How will Blackmores face this competition pattern?

　　 Zhang Zujun: we are confident. The core of Blackmores is quality control and product development. From the perspective of large product line, Australia and New Zealand health care products are quite different from European and American products. We are more focused on natural and herbal products, which are called natural therapies. So our representative products are mainly herbal products such as evening primrose, celery seeds, cranberry, and so on. I don't think other countries' brands can copy the quality and formula of our products casually.

The second point is that nutrition classification is very comprehensive and special. It can be divided into many stages from age, bone health, eye health, heart health, skin health and so on. Every subdivision has great opportunities. We will not pursue those trends, but return to basic needs.

The same is fish oil, which may be very different from raw materials. Although many companies will tell you that his fish oil is imported, what kind of fish is this fish made from? Which sea area? When did it catch? How did it catch? After that, how was it extracted? Therefore, the subdivision of raw materials, the subdivision of quality and the improvement of production technology are all our differences.

Compared with other competitors from Australia (such as Swisse, Bio island), we know very well about the Asian market. We have a history of 30 years in Thailand. In Thailand and Malaysia, we are the first in the market. In Korea, Singapore, Hongkong, Taiwan and even Kazakhstan, we all have a large market and will soon enter Japan, and there is a joint venture in Indonesia.

In addition, compared with our peers, we have a long-term development mentality for the Chinese market. We enter China as a sole proprietorship company. We have companies in Beijing and Shanghai, and are registered directly in the bonded area. Moreover, we have been localized in marketing, logistics, product development and so on. I believe that many overseas health products brands are not available in China. This shows that our commitment and confidence in the Chinese market indicate that we have already been ahead of our competitors in strategic layout.

Reporter: at present, Blackmores has a flagship store and an overseas flagship store in Tmall and Jingdong. But there are also some platforms that work with your distributors. Is there any need for brands to coordinate between platforms and platforms?

　　 Zhang Zujun: Yes, we have direct cooperation with Tmall, Jingdong, vip.com, NetEase, koala, Xiao Hong and so on. But there are also some platforms that work with our Chinese distributors or overseas distributors. In our system, we also recommend that they directly connect with Blackmores China, because in addition to a more stable supply chain, we will invest more in consumer education, market transformation and services. If you only go to Australia to pick up goods regularly, it is difficult to interact with brands steadily.

It is possible that some platforms have overseas purchasing channels. They do not yet know that Blackmores has wholly owned companies in China and has a professional team. But back to that, our price system will gradually become the same. In terms of supply chain, we have established cooperation and cooperation with Shanghai in the FTA, and we can serve domestic cross border consumer groups faster. I believe cooperation with the brand side is a major trend.

Reporter: from the point of view of overseas brands, how do you view the current cross-border electricity supplier market in China? Will you worry about the decline of dividend policy, and overseas brands will no longer be so optimistic in China?

　　 Zhang Zujun: thriving and splitting up. This may be my personal understanding of the current stage of cross-border e-commerce. In addition to the traditional B2C platform mode, proprietary mode, vertical and non vertical, we also see some new models, such as social media oriented App, micro store oriented mode and O2O mode, which are becoming more and more dispersed.

Blackmores is very lucky to catch up with the cross-border electricity supplier and catch up with the government in supporting the cross-border electricity supplier and FTA. But we all know that the cross-border electricity supplier is indeed a result of policy dividends and may not exist in the future.

However, the trend of globalization is beyond doubt. Global cooperation is deepening, whether there is cross-border electricity supplier or not. For example, China and Australia have signed FTA, and China and New Zealand have zero tariffs on agricultural products and dairy products. Trade agreements between China and other countries will gradually come out, which is what we call trade integration. Cross border electricity providers are only the first ones. The future must be the docking of general trade.

The whole market is becoming more and more open. It is only a matter of time and stage. With the development of urbanization and the growth of the middle class, Chinese consumers have put forward demand for higher quality products. This demand will be met in some way. Early on is the way of purchasing, and now it is cross-border electricity supplier. For brands, no matter what way they enter China is the same, because market demand is real.

Reporter: many overseas brands are very cautious about entering China, especially those with historical accumulation. On the one hand, the limited capacity is difficult to meet the huge demand of the Chinese market. On the other hand, they are very worried that the price war in the Chinese market will damage the brand image. What's your opinion?

　　 Zhang Zujun: we will also worry, and do not want to fall into such a situation of price war. This is also the reason why we set up sole proprietorship in China instead of finding a general generation, because we are responsible for brands, and we hope that what we deliver is what we want to convey, rather than passing many links and contrary to our original intention.

Indeed, the Chinese market is very exciting. But today there are so many business models, such complicated and diverse channels, how should we take the opportunity to learn the changes of China's retail environment quickly? This is what we need to break through.

　　 Reporter: this year's double eleven, Tmall international and overseas brands' participation in the war is a major attraction. But compared with domestic businessmen, most overseas brands introduced by cross-border electricity providers are inexperienced. How much investment does Blackmores have? What is the expectation for double eleven?

　　 Zhang Zujun: as a matter of fact, our general trade import section has participated in Tmall double eleven over the past three years, and has accumulated some experience. This year, we have made preparations for all aspects. Tmall has also given us many resources and brands. This year our Tmall official flagship store and Tmall international overseas flagship store are all involved, but the focus is on overseas import flagship stores. Because of the import restrictions, Tmall official flagship store (general trade import) part is not yet ready for stock.

As brands, we do not need to see a number, because these needs are actually real. Even though the sales volume of Tmall stores has increased by 10 times and 20 times, it has little to do with the whole domestic demand and our overall category data.

Our expectations for double eleven may be more about how many real consumers know about Blackmores and how many new users have contacted and recognized Blackmores through this activity. At the same time, we also want to see whether consumers in the three or four tier cities or even rural areas can try our products through the guidance of double eleven.