Prestige plan: Japanese brand RMK eyes ‘huge’ potential for luxury products in China

The brand recently marked its entry into China with the launch of its official flagship on e-commerce platform Tmall Global.

Following Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea, China is the fourth overseas market for RMK.

Hiroka Satou, a public relations representative from RMK said the brand’s popularity among Chinese consumers has been steadily increasing over the last few years thanks to Chinese tourists in Japan and diagou shoppers.

The Tmall flagship will consist of 178 SKUs, including bestselling products such as the RMK Liquid Foundation, RMK Make-up Base and RMK Creamy Foundation.

While the company has had the intention to enter China for several years now, its most popular item among Chinese consumers, RMK Creamy Foundation, was not compatible with Chinese regulations.

Instead, RMK responded to the growth in inbound demand from Chinese tourists by launching its official account on the Chinese social media site Weibo to drum up anticipation impending arrival while taking the time to reformulate its star item.

First step into China

As of right now, the brand plans to continue building its brand through e-commerce.

“We selected the cross-border e-commerce channel as our first step [into China] because RMK products were already sold and recognized by Chinese [daigou sellers]. And also because it is a place where Chinese consumers who are both highly conscious and influential come to search for new and unique products,” ​said Satou.

However, she said the company will eventually look into expanding into offline channels.

“Since there are further regulatory barriers for mainland China, more preparations are necessary but we are planning to enter in the future.”​

Satou said the brand plans to leverage its position as a luxury beauty brand that specialises in base make-up for Asian consumers.

“In China, the luxury cosmetics market is dominated by European and American brands and there are very few base makeup products that truly meet the needs of Asian women who have different skin texture and facial features from Western consumers.​”​

She added: “​RMK has high expertise in creating beautiful looking skin for Asian women, and we strongly believe that there is a huge potential for RMK’s base makeup in the Chinese market.”​

Despite the preference for higher coverage foundations among Chinese beauty consumers, RMK is confident its more natural-looking foundations will resonate with them.

“While the mainstream consumer need for foundations in the current Chinese market is high coverage, we believe the need for clear nude-looking skin is definitely increasing, and will increase more in the future,”​ said Satou