Chromavis is the one of the world's largest colour cosmetic players in the industry. It is owned by the Fareva Group which acquired a majority stake in 2013.
Cecilia Schena, VP of marketing, told CosmeticsDesign-Asia that after the US, the company will be focusing its efforts in the future on the Chinese market, where it sees the most growth potential.
According to Schena, there are three major factors that are driving growth in China: its massive size, the boom of colour and the rise of masstige local brands.
“Around two years ago, it was about make-up for the skin. Now it’s all about the lips and eyes will is the next big thing. This explosion of colour is a huge opportunity. It’s growing like crazy because the young Chinese consumer is very open to colour,” she explained
While there are plenty of local brands being born on the digital marketplace, Schena said that the real opportunity lies in local brands aiming to increase their own value in the masstige market.
“There’s too much competition on the market and local brands are having trouble pricing their products higher. The luxury market is occupied by the foreign brands, so they target the masstige market,” said Schena.
“That’s why they look to companies like Chromavis to offer that ‘made-in-Italy’ value as proof of quality to strengthen their position. These brands see Italian-made make-up as a tool to target the masstige,” she added.
Racing with time
The company has manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America and South America but has yet to open a plant in Asia.
However, the firm will soon be announcing a joint-venture with a local player which will allow it to further develop its business from a better vantage point.
“Right now, we have to ship our formula to Asia and get it bottled here. With the joint venture, we will be able to better serve, first of all, China. It will help us cut down the time to market and provide Chinese brands with quicker time to market,” said Schena.
She stressed that this was vital because of the online beauty market.
“In Italy now, cutting our time to market is our number one challenge. Time to market is influenced by the fact that the consumer has such quick access and expect things to delivered very soon,” said Schena.
Hybrid product trend
According to Schena, there is now a global trend of make-up products that have skin care benefits such as hydration and anti-pollution.
“This trend is all over the world but in Asia its very big because it is traditionally a skin care-centred region,” she said.
Another trend she sees in the Asian market is the popularity of ‘hybrid’ products.
“Hybrid products are products we can’t define. For example, something that’s not a powder and not a cream. The Asian market is very sophisticated, and they see value in this kind of new touch. We see a lot of that in Japan and Korea,” said Schena.
She continued: “All the more we have to provide products that have a super fantastic sensoriality that maybe is not as perceived in the Western market. For example, we have this blue-sky product; a foundation that feels like butter but goes on like water and also has anti-pollution actives.”
