Is 2020 the year when you decide to overcome the complexities associated with global expansion and finally sell your beauty products overseas? If you’re ready to capitalise on the tremendous opportunities that exist outside of the UK, China could potentially be a very lucrative market for your brand.

Currently, beauty products of every kind, but specifically those offering anti-ageing benefits, are huge news in China. Keeping the signs of ageing at bay is the top priority for Chinese women, with the rapidly growing market for anti-ageing creams recently becoming the largest anywhere in the world.

One of the drivers of this meteoric market growth is the social media generation, who are showing an interest in age-prevention at a very early age. Many Chinese women in their 20s are spending a high proportion of their salaries on beauty products and see maintaining their physical appearance as an investment. In fact, anti-ageing products have become a higher priority for this group than other luxury goods such as handbags.

What type of anti-ageing products are popular?

Anti-ageing products are not only growing in popularity in China; they’re also extremely popular in any market that has an ageing population with disposable incomes and high consumer awareness of beauty products. While beauty is big business in the UK, that pales into insignificance when compared to the US, Japan and China.

The beauty products that are popular in these markets are much more diverse than just face creams. Hair dyes, facial massages, complex skin routines, food supplements and corrective and preventative procedures such as facelifts and Botox are all big business. There’s also a high demand for luxury spas that offer exclusive treatments and an emerging interest in high-tech beauty devices that can be used at home and in salons to detect and correct beauty issues.

Why are beauty brands flocking to China?

British brands, whether they’re vehicle makers or fashion companies, are perceived as prestigious by Chinese consumers, and that gives UK beauty products a valuable head start.

There are also distinct differences between the way anti-ageing treatments are approached in China and the West. In the UK and the US, beauty products form part of a positive self-care regime, with at least some effort to accept and celebrate beauty at every age. In China, their approach to beauty tends to be far more regimented, with a very small window of what’s considered ‘beautiful’ and a regrettable culture of age-shaming women.

Another important difference is the amount of time that Chinese women routinely invest in their daily skincare regimes. Skincare routines with multiple stages are commonplace, with many different products used. Chinese consumers also tend to be less cynical than those in the West of the claims made by beauty brands, which can make them easier to market and sell to.

The challenges of selling in China

Of course, selling in a market as large, culturally diverse and competitive as China also presents huge challenges to domestic brands. There are significant cultural and linguistic hurdles to overcome, with the localisation and translation of product information and marketing materials a priority. The beauty market is also extremely competitive and fast-moving. What’s hot one day is not the next, so UK beauty brands will have to be ready to innovate to keep up with the changing demands of Chinese consumers.

Preparing your beauty products for the Chinese market

At Linguistica International, we offer a full range of Chinese translation, localisation and copywriting services to make your brand look its best in this demanding market. Call 02392 987 765 or email info@linguistica-international.com to discuss your requirements with our team.

Are you looking for simple ways to supercharge your business in 2020? Well, few strategies are easier to implement or more cost-effective than creating multilingual referral programmes.

Referral programmes are very simple processes that you put in place to encourage and reward your customers for recommending your products or services to other prospective customers. Word-of-mouth referrals can be a hugely powerful tool for businesses of every kind. Multiple studies have shown that they are not only more trusted by consumers, but they also tend to generate higher profit margins than sales made through other means.

So, if you sell to customers overseas, a very simple way to boost your international sales is to make your current referral programme available in their mother tongue.

The importance of having a referral programme

No matter how confident you are in the quality of your products or your outstanding customer service, you should never take it for granted that your customers will recommend you. Research shows that although customers feel inclined to make a referral, they often don’t get around to doing so. In fact, although 83 percent of satisfied customers say that they would be happy to refer a friend, less than a third actually do. That’s why you need to give them a little nudge in the right direction.

If you don’t already have a referral programme in place, the good news is that there are plenty of tools on the market that will help you create a formalised and automated referral programme for your business. However, the bad news is that very few of these tools allow you to create and manage multilingual referral programmes, so we’re here to give you a little help.

How to create successful multilingual referral programmes

Whatever country your overseas customers are from, you must take them through the entire referral journey in their language, otherwise they’ll decide that their efforts are not worth the reward. The person they make the recommendation to is also likely to speak the same language, so the referral path must take them to content that has been translated and localised specifically for them.

To increase the success of your multilingual referral programme, you should adhere to the EAST framework, which is often used by policymakers to encourage the public to adhere to certain behaviours. You should make it Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely for users to make a referral by following these simple steps:

• Easy – Give your customers an easy way to make referrals to your business. Place a ‘share’ button at the end of your payment process and offer discounts that customers can share with their friends that are available with a single button.
• Attractive – Giving customers the right incentive can make a big difference to your referral rates. Some businesses offer discounts to customers who successfully recommend products to their friends, while others provide service upgrades and even cash rewards.
• Social – Social validation is enough of a reward in itself for some customers, particularly in highly collectivist cultures such as China. Giving customers easy ways to recommend products to their friends on social channels is a cost-effective way to market your business to hundreds of potential new customers.
• Timely – When is the best time to ask a customer to recommend your business? Success rates tend to be highest not immediately after purchase but at a later date, once customers have had time to use your products and form their opinions.

Capturing customer referrals is not rocket science. By creating a simple referral programme that’s delivered at the right time and in the customer’s native language, you can greatly increase your sales.

How we can help

At Linguistica International, we can help you translate and transcreate your referral programmes to get your customers talking, wherever they are. To find out more, please call 02392 987 765 or email info@linguistica-international.com today.