As non-Taiwanese person in Taiwan, I could find many similar and different things to compare to my country. Furthermore, living experience in Japan also helped me to think deeper about this kind of comparison. There are many different things between these 3 countries. But the most curious thing that I wanted to study was about cosmetics and make-up.
While spending one year in Taiwan, I realized that quite a lot of Taiwanese women use more foreign brands than Taiwanese brands. Even on the street or department stores you can see many foreign cosmetic brands have their shop or place.
First I thought there is no Taiwanese cosmetics company however there are many Taiwanese companies in this country. Why did I never know that Taiwanese cosmetics company? Unless I take a deep look inside of market, There were not many chances to hear their name. Then my question starts from why Taiwanese cosmetics could not appeal Taiwanese consumers mind?
What kinds of problems are they having now? Is there any nice case they can learn from?
On the other hand in my memory, Women in Japan and Korea people have many options for cosmetics. Many people use international brands too. But it is not hard to meet people their domestic brands. Also they have many road shops.
So I thought I would be nice if there’s something I can distribute in this country’s market that I can apply things I have been learning and seeing from the world.
This is my motivation of studying for this thesis.
DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.007.2019.F08
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立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
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1.2. Purpose of studying
Cosmetics industry occupies important role in nowadays industry. In 2016 amount of cosmetics exporting occupied 0.55% of entire Korean exporting volume. The number doesn’t look so high but it is about 3 billion USD. And in case of Japan cosmetics expert amount was about 123 billion JPY. Cosmetics are technology intensive industry and contain the impression of the country. In contrast when the end users like the products, it affects improving of one’s country impressions.
Therefore my purpose of studying is to set fine and clear solutions for the Taiwanese companies that having problems in their domestics business with marketing.
There are 3 top Asian cosmetic companies. At the same time, these top 3 countries are also ranked in world top 10 cosmetics brands. My studying is concentrated on two of these three Asian giant cosmetics companies. Throughout their problems they suffered and key marketing points led them success, I would like to suggest to Taiwanese companies growth.
Figure 1: World cosmetic companies ranking by WWD
DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.007.2019.F08
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
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1.3. Approach of studying
As I mentioned in earlier articles, I would like to talk about the weakness points and problems that Taiwanese companies are facing now. I will quote from news, magazines and some thesis that makes my study more logical. And for tendency of Taiwanese consumers, I used survey and research that actually reflect Taiwanese female consumers’ voices.
In the third article, for basic information I referred their official website and some authorized websites. Article 3.2, I would like to talk about the problems that they had in the past. Then analyzed how they could grow up so strong. For article 3.6, it is about Shiseido’s shampoo called TSUBAKI (Camellia). TSUBAKI is also famous as its successful story in marketing field. I analyzed what were behind of success of TSUBAKI.
In the fourth article about Amore Pacific, I will follow the similar way of data collecting and analyzing. And article 4.5 I would like to talk about one of Amore Pacific’s brand called INNIESFREE. INNISFREE brand is also well-known for its brand strategy and marketing for success.
In article 5, I am going to suggest some solutions according to my case studying. And for the article 6, conclude the studying.
DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.007.2019.F08
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
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1.4. Framework
This thesis framework is based on the result of awareness of Taiwanese female consumers for domestic brands and cases in other country. The solution is made with survey result for Taiwanese women’s awareness for domestic brands. Two companies from Japan and Korea were selected for analyzing and offering final direction those Taiwanese companies to learn.
For Japanese company, Shiseido will be analyzed to understand their business philosophy with long history. And Shiseido’s shampoo brand TSUBAKI will be focused on for successful marketing strategy. For Korean company, Amore Pacific will be explained in this thesis. And for succeeded marketing strategy, I chose INNISFREE of Amore Pacific. Within this framework of studying, this thesis is divided in 6 articles. In second article, we will see the current problem that Taiwanese companies are facing. And analyze what is wrong with them and how the other people, end users, judging it. In third article, Shiseido’s case will talk about how they grew up and problems they had in the past. Then analyze TSUBAKI story behind. In fourth article, I am going to talk about Amore Pacific in the same way as Shiseido’s. In fifth article, throughout two successful cases of Japanese and Korean companies, I will suggest some direction and strategy idea that Taiwanese companies can apply in their business. Sixth article is conclusion of this thesis.
DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.007.2019.F08
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
5