SHANGHAI – In Asia, skincare is mostly the
domain of Japan and South Korea – Shiseido
and Amorepacific are two veritable global
giants. But there is a new entrant to the
game: China. The country claims the world’s
third-largest consumer market for pres-
tige skincare, topped only by Japan and the
United States. Beyond size – numbers one
and two are each twice as large as the Chi-
nese market – the main difference separating
the three is that the US and Japan are both
native consumers and exporters, while China
almost always assumes the role of importer.
And yet, as the Made in China 2.0
wave expands to include new manufactur-
ing categories, it’s also reached the beauty
industry. Here’s where things get really smart,
really quick: instead of competing with well-
known brands under their rules, local players
are using spatial design to target newly
formed niches.
Take, for example, Junping. Founded
by a male beauty blogger, the brand offers
products that feature traditional natural
ingredients backed by intensive R&D. It’s
a formula made famously digestible by
South Korea’s beauty industry, where cute
fruit-shaped containers hide an astound-
ing amount of scientific development. And
so, Junping’s is sending a different message:
this is a brand aimed specifically at consum-
ers who appreciate knowing the precise
formulation behind each product. Enter the
Junping Lab shipping container.
Conceived by XU Studio, the 28-m2
pop-up store is made of stainless steel and
Corian in pristine white. Its central element
is a bar equipped with three magic mirrors,
which allows visitors to detect skin issues
and receive highly personalized, directly
customizable product recommendations.
Throughout, a luminous lamp-film setup
simulates the effect of a skylight, turning
the inside of the container into a transpar-
ent surface. For those outside the space, a
blur of transparent acrylic tubes positioned
vertically provides a window into the lab. ‘We
intended to demonstrate the magic behind
[these high-tech] beauty products,’ says XU
Studio partner Sabrina Xu.
But beyond the visual and functional
feast it is, one of the smartest choices in the
pop-up strategy is where it is located: the
campuses of science and engineering univer-
sities in Shanghai, the turf of research-savvy
young women. A long queue forms outside
Tongji Jiading one week, followed by troves
of curious Jiao Tong students the next. Jun-
ping’s roving laboratory targets an audience
that already has a positive relationship with
that environment – so go right ahead and
connect the marketing dots.
Although the brand was previously
available on the Alibaba online platform, this
is Junping’s first foray into physical retail.
The targeted bet seems to have paid off, as
the company reported record sales for last
November’s Singles’ Day. ‘After the Junping
Lab tour, it achieved a revenue of 25 mil-
lion RMB [€3.2 million] in one day,’ says
Xu. ‘This shows the growing recognition of
local brands. I think that in the near future
Chinese brands will become strong players
in the skincare market.’ – RM
xustudio.cnPete
r^ ZhangThe lab was intelligently set inside the campuses of
science and engineering universities, within reach
of research-savvy young women.
As Junping takes pride in its high-tech approach,
XU Studio realized this type of space would be
an effective way to transmit the brand concept
and foster consumer trust in the product.84