Japanese cosmetics firm Shiseido Company Limited recently launched a limited edition of its Anessa sunscreen line in China, with packaging inspired by Doraemon, a classic Japanese manga comic character. The new launch is in line with Shiseido’s ‘WIN 2030’ strategy to emerge as the top global beauty brand by 2030 by leveraging its Japanese heritage. To this end, the company is banking heavily on China, which is set to surpass the US as the world’s largest cosmetics and toiletries market in value sales by 2026^*, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Bobby Verghese, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “China is the most important market for Shiseido after its home market. The company is gearing up to tap the resurgence of the Chinese cosmetics market as the stringent COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions ease. However, the 150-year-old cosmetics maker is competing with nascent homegrown startups that can quickly adapt to fluid consumer preferences, needs, and trends. Moreover, Shiseido is facing an aversion to Japanese brands among Chinese consumers due to rising geopolitical tensions, and the ‘guochao’ nationalism/localism trend, wherein Gen Z cohorts favor domestic brands over multinational ones.”

Kiki Wu, Consumer Business Development Manager at GlobalData China, adds: “To overcome these challenges, Shiseido has intensified its focus on premium skincare and skin health, accelerated product innovation in cosmetics and adjacent areas, and refined its omnichannel retail strategy. The company is also striving to enhance its brand appeal among younger audiences in China, with its Anessa suncare brand adopting a playful, young, and trendy image by using packaging designs that evoke nostalgia among the post-1990s Millennials and Gen Z consumers who have grown up watching Doraemon cartoons.”

Verghese continues: “To enrich the appeal, Shiseido also launched an advertisement campaign with Yang Zi, a young television star with a sizable social media following. Roping in celebrities is an effective marketing strategy to target Chinese Millennials, given that 75% of Gen Y Chinese consumers perceive endorsements by celebrities or organizations as an essential or nice-to-have feature that they actively look for when making a purchase^**.”

Wu concludes: “More domestic and multinational companies across the consumer goods and retail/apparel sectors are co-branding products with classic manga, anime, cartoon, and gaming characters, such as Doraemon, Pokémon, Shin-Chan, Conan, Star Wars, Peanuts, and Lego. As the nostalgia factor of these intellectual properties (IPs) resonates with the younger demographics that these brands target, they can realize high consumer engagement from such collaborations. As Chinese youth perceive such IPs as a part of their own POP culture, MNC consumer brands can leverage them to localize their offerings, and thereby tap the guochao trend.”

* GlobalData Consumer Intelligence Center—Market Analyzers, accessed in March 2023

** GlobalData Q4 2022 Consumer Survey—China, with 513 respondents, published in November 2022