Interview with Mr. Hu Guoqiang, the Marketing Director of Beauty Farm
Recently, famous star Liu Tao became the spokeswoman of Beauty Farm. It has drawn much attention in the industry.
Founded in 1993, Beauty Farm brought the German skincare brand DEYNIQUE to China. Beauty Farm has not only stuck to strict quality-control procedures and international services, but also offered high-end, professional and holistic beauty and body building services to every customer. Beauty and health is its everlasting pursuit.
Today, Beauty Farm has become a group integrating life cosmetology, medical cosmetology and anti-aging medical treatments. The company now has 222 Beauty Farm high-end beauty chain stores, 16 CellCare medical beauty centers, 3 Neology International Healthcare Centers in 79 major urban centers nationwide, serving over million elite customers every year. Beauty Farm is dedicated to becoming the industry leader in the realm of beauty and health.
According to Asian skin characteristics, and combined with European top skincare techniques, Beauty Farm selects dozens of product ranges and designs over a hundred corresponding treatments. It has a supply chain seamlessly joined to the global frontier beauty technology and products. Beauty Farm also holds frequent discussions with professional beauty institutes in Europe and Japan. So far, Beauty Farm has invested more than 100 million RMB in updating and supplementing hi-tech beauty equipment. No wonder it has gradually become a giant in scientific & technologic beauty.
At the end of 2017, SpaChina had the honor to interview Mr. Hu Guoqiang, the marketing director of Beauty Farm.
It is a big event in the industry that CITIC has become a shareholder of Beauty Farm. Please tell us your development plan for the next five years following CITIC’s participation.
To become the holding company of CITIC Private Equity has largely enhanced Beauty Farm’s self-development and industrial competitiveness. In fact, Beauty Farm has already begun to steadily carry forward internal strategic planning. We hope to become the industry leader of beauty and health by integrating the best resources and relying on the most powerful business support.
Beauty Farm has joined hands with PALAISPA. In addition to gaining more market share, what other goals do you have?
It is one of the most significant milestones of Beauty Farm to join hands with PALAISPA because the cooperation is not only an expansion in scale, but also an integration of business operations, personnel talents and the resources of two industry leaders. Through the cooperation, we explore new business modes and create a more harmonious industry environment.
How do you guarantee the brand quality in such rapid expansion?
First of all, Beauty Farm will continually hold to the brand’s core values by basing them on strict industry standards. We have 24 years’ history now. Our guests trust and love us because of our excellent services, techniques, products and attitudes. Secondly, we have comprehensively carried out the “customer-oriented” project in the company and every chain store. Our goal is to continually center on every customer’s needs and keep improving professional service standards. We will always be strict and meticulous in quality management and process management in order to let guests be satisfied in every detail. We know that professionalism and service are the foundation of the brand.
What is your marketing strategy in inviting Liu Tao to be your spokeswoman? What concepts and ideas do you want to convey to the customers?
We are touched by Liu Tao’s personal character. She is enthusiastic towards life and work; she is reservedly elegant and diligent; she keeps sending out positive energy with her maturity, wisdom and beauty. So we decided to invite her to be our brand spokeswoman. This is not a cold business deal, but a spiritual resonance and loving cooperation after years’ observations and considerations. We want, through Liu Tao, to convey a life attitude — seeking quality, embracing low-profile luxury, pursuing beauty and health and putting them into practice with perseverance.
What are the targeted customers groups of Beauty Farm?
Beauty Farm has now covered life cosmetology, medical cosmetology and international anti-ageing medical treatments. So we have diverse customer groups. But most of our 150,000 VIP members are middle and high-end females with high education and good economic bases and between the ages of 30 and 50. They focus on life quality and have higher pursuit to beauty and health.
Can you tell the consumption power and market demands of different regions through the data of the 222 chain stores?
We have 222 stores covering 79 main cities. But strictly speaking, we cannot tell accurately the consumption power and market demands of different cities and regions through a plain data sheet. There are many other factors such as local store numbers, location, marketing methods, etc. The beauty industry has witnessed constant 10% annual growth. So generally, customers in every region have increasing awareness to beauty and health.
How do you deal with market competition?
Beauty Farm has obvious advantages in science and technology, professionalism and standard management, which are built up step by step by doing every detail well in the past 24 years. However, as we all know, the internet, especially the mobile internet, has caused deep changes to every walk of life. Traditional enterprises must closely follow the tendency of the information and the internet era. The management group of Beauty Farm is very clear about it and regards it as one the most important strategies.
Since 2010, Beauty Farm has spent enormous energy and money on informatization. We have used the NC system for finance management so that every subordinate store fulfills the financial datamation and standardization. Moreover, we take advantage of the internet to optimize customers’ experience. For example, the CRM system provides consultations and solutions to customers 12 hours a day and 7 days a week. Different departments like sales and marketing now have perfect links to each other and together improve customers’ satisfaction. To sum up, Beauty Farm will keep its leading position in the industry by continually innovating new ideas and exploring business potentials. We aim to become a benchmarking enterprise based on information and internet in the realm of beauty and health. In the future, Beauty Farm will be dedicated to developing a new internet business mode.
We’ve heard that Beauty Farm has its own training schools. Can you tell us more about it?
Since Beauty Farm is always customer-centered, we regard staff training as the booster of company development from the day of foundation. Now the group has already opened three professional training schools in Shanghai, Wuhan and Qinhuangdao, offering the most professional and systematic training services to all the chain stores nationwide. We have nearly 50 full time trainers and 100 part-time trainers providing diverse training support covering job entry, position promotion, new project, sales promotion and new openings. Our schools have become the training base of over 40 higher learning institutions in China with nearly 1,000 graduates every year. We focus on providing professional talents to our own company which is undergoing rapid developments, as well as to the whole industry.
Please tell us more about Hainan Bo’ao International Medical Anti-aging Base.
With the tendency of populations aging, chronic and metabolic diseases caused by improper lifestyles have become a main health threat to the public. It means a huge new consumer market which emphasizes symptom control yet normal hospitals fail to satisfy has emerged. Our Qi Yan Medical Centers are opened with such a background. Qi Yan is an anti-aging medical institute that integrates global advanced medical techniques and authoritative expert teams, functional medicine and regenerative medicine. It is our third business section following the life cosmetology (Beauty Farm) and medical cosmetology (CellCare), and one of the pillar sections in the group’s future strategic development. Qi Yan offers global advanced, standard, safe and effective anti-aging medical services including health detection, functional medicine detection and assessment, medical detoxing management and precision medicine. We were among the first group of companies that gained stem cells medical anti-aging qualifications according to the policy of Hainan Bo’ao special zone.
What are your thoughts on the future health trends and development?
In recent years, influenced by the global environment and domestic economic changes, China’s consumer market has witnessed a big disparity. Staple commodiiesy such as real estate, automobile and other home appliances have experienced a decline while tourism, health, culture and beauty fields have shown a rapid increasing trend. It manifests that China’s consumer structure has undergone an adjustment process. Chinese people have a totally different consumer view toward self-health now. The Beauty & Health market capacity has increased from 432.5 billion in 2010 to 598.1 billion in 2015. In the next five years, the number will continue to grow. Such robust development makes the beauty and health industry the most powerfully developing sector in the market. A diversified health service mode will satisfy the market and China’s customers more easily.
