A.S. Watson's Profile and Details

Brand History

In 1828, Canton Pharmacy opened in Shamian, Guangzhou;

In 1841, Canton Pharmacy moved to Hong Kong and changed its name to Hong Kong Dispensary;

In 1989, China's first A.S. Watson's personal care store opened in Beijing;

In 1994, A.S. Watson's came back to Guangzhou, and opened its doors on Jiangnan Xi Road;

In 2009, A.S. Watson reached 8,800 stores globally, and Watsons China's 500th store was opened in Shanghai;

In 2010, A.S. Watson China's 600th store was opened in Shenzhen;

In 2011, A.S. Watson reached 10,000 stores globally, and A.S. Watson China's 1,000th store was opened in Shanghai;

In 2013, Watsons China's 1,500th store opened in Anhui;

On December 2, 2014, Watsons China's 2,000th store opened in Tianjin.

In January 2017, A.S. Watson entered into a partnership with the HungryMart takeaway platform. 84 A.S. Watson stores in Guangzhou went live on the HungryMe platform.

Group History

The A.S. Watson Group originated in 1828 and today is an international retail and manufacturing organization with operations in 25 markets worldwide. A.S. Watson operates more than 11,000 retail outlets across a wide range of categories, including health and beauty products, fine fragrances and cosmetics, food, electronics, fine wines, and airport retail. The Group is also a long-established beverage manufacturer of a range of bottled waters, juices, soft drinks and teas, and through its international wine wholesalers and distributors, it sells the world's finest wines and promotes beverages. The Group employs 98,000 people and is an international conglomerate based in Hong Kong. The Hutchison Group operates in 55 countries, with businesses in ports and related services, telecommunications, real estate and hotels, retail, energy, infrastructure, investment and others. The A.S. Watson Group has established a retail presence in Europe and Asia with a wide range of brand names that are internationally recognized and respected, representing the finest quality products and bringing a higher quality of life to customers.

The Group's global retail network combines local experience with international expertise to deliver products and services that meet customers' needs at the most affordable prices. Our retail stores are recognized for their quality and service. In addition, we pay close attention to the specificities of the regional markets and design a wide range of product mixes to suit individual market preferences and tastes. As a result, the Group is able to develop its global business while taking into account the unique needs of local customs and cultures.

A.S. Watson's products In Asia, the Group owns a number of well-known brands and retail chains, including A.S. Watson's Personal Care Stores, PARKnSHOP Supermarkets, TASTE Gourmet Shopping Malls, Great Food Malls, Gourmet Gourmet Shopping Malls, Fung Chak, A.S. Watson Wine Cellars, and Nuance-Watson - the airport retail business. The Group is also a leading producer of bottled water and other beverages in the region, and Watson's distilled water is the top-selling bottled water in Hong Kong, reflecting market acceptance of the Group's products.

In Europe, the Group has a retail presence in 26 countries with brands such as Kruidvat, Superdrug, Trekpleister, Ros *** ann, ICIPARISXL, Savers, Drogas, Marionnaud, ThePerfumeShop, Spektr, A.S. Watson's Personal Care Store and DC.

In Switzerland, Badarao, the Group's wholesaler and distributor of foreign wines, brings valuable synergies to the Group's retail business.

The Group's long-term strategy is to expand its business. We are proud of our track record, but we also look to the future to enhance the quality of life of our customers.

Business Strategy Corporate Acquisitions

In 2005, A.S. Watson acquired a controlling stake in Marionnaud, the largest perfume retailer in France, at a cost of nearly HK$5.5 billion. This was the first time that A.S. Watson had expanded its business in Europe on a large scale, and it enabled A.S. Watson to effectively execute its strategy of focusing on Europe. With Europe's economically developed middle class, the size of the consumer base is a perfect match for Watsons' consumer targeting, and such a large-scale acquisition not only increased Watsons' network by 1,300 outlets, but also increased its turnover by more than HK$10 billion.

Mergers and Acquisitions

In the same year, A.S. Watson acquired SpektrGroup, a St. Petersburg-based chain of health and beauty stores, which extended the Group's global footprint to Russia and further strengthened its position as the world's largest retailer of personal care, beauty and skincare products. A.S. Watson has made a number of acquisitions around the world, expanding its reach into Europe with the acquisition of the Savers chain in the UK in 2000. In 2002, the acquisition of the Kruidvat Group in the Netherlands significantly expanded the scope of its European business. Expanded its business in Southeast Asia with the acquisition of a leading pharmaceutical retailer in the Philippines in 2003. In 2004, the Group acquired Drogas, a leading retailer of personal care, beauty and skincare products in Latvia and Lithuania. The acquisition of Drogas marks A.S. Watson's entry into the Baltic States market, which will further strengthen A.S. Watson's business expansion and competitiveness in the European market and enhance its international strength. In 2005, A.S. Watson also acquired Merchant Retail, a chain of perfume stores in the United Kingdom, and Apex Pharmacy Sdn Bhd in Malaysia. The above acquisitions are only a part of Watsons' global acquisitions, Lee's team through the power of capital mergers and acquisitions quickly in Asia and Europe to focus on the development of the region's full-scale expansion of the enterprise, the magic wand of capital is an important password for the success of Watsons enterprises.

Brand strategy

A.S. Watson has more than 1,200 private label products, including body wash, shampoo, etc., and its sales have reached 15%. And when the retail outlet's own controllable product system reaches a certain percentage of sales volume and variety, the merchant's voice in the channel will be enhanced.

So how did Watson's steadily develop its own brand? It turns out that during the development of its own products, it conducted in-depth market research to ensure the production of marketable products. And especially set up a "simulation store", used to understand the sales trend of each branch and customer demand, to determine the development of product categories. This includes identifying the hottest-selling agency brand products in the store each month, and then reproducing our own products that are similar to the hot-selling agency products. It also includes meeting specific consumer needs and launching exclusive products with special features.

For example, in response to the fact that many female consumers are plagued by abrasive foot problems when wearing high heels, Watson's developed palm and heel patches, which have made a name for themselves in the industry, even though these small items are insignificant in the eyes of many people.

A.S. Watson's own products are not only well-positioned, but also come with good promotions and favorable prices. Compared to other brands in the market, A.S. Watson's own products are priced 20% to 40% lower than other brands in the market and come in trendy packaging to attract customers. Moreover, the products are first tried by employees before being introduced to the market and then promoted by employees to consumers, which makes them the best spokespersons for effective marketing and word-of-mouth communication.

Market strategy

The domestic retail industry can be described as a beacon of fire, a group of competitors, local brands to develop, foreign brands also want to come in to get a share of the pie. Effective procurement, low-cost logistics and strong terminals are the three keys to success in the retail industry. In the face of fierce competition, A.S. Watson has bypassed the trap of price wars and, based on years of observation and analysis of markets in Asian countries and a century of marketing experience, has found that: Asia's economy has been growing rapidly, and people's demand for quality of life is getting higher and higher. Traditional sales just stay in the stage of making consumers buy, the attention is only on the goods. But in the increasingly mature conditions of the commodity economy, consumers not only buy goods, but also demand to enjoy the fun of shopping and the pursuit of intangible value of goods, such as brand, service, etc., and finally to reach the highest level of consumption, that is, through the identification of the corporate culture to generate brand loyalty.

Undoubtedly, Watsons is pursuing the latter. With the theme of "Discovery", its personal care stores put forward the three concepts of "health, goodness and fun" (health,good,fun) to help people who love life and pay attention to quality to shape their inner beauty and outer beauty unity. A.S. Watson is the first store in China to operate under the concept of "personal care", and its unique and accurate market positioning is refreshing. The store's target customers are women between the ages of 18 and 35, who are individualistic and have strong spending power, but are time-poor and don't like to go to big supermarkets, and are looking for a comfortable shopping environment." This is very much in line with our positioning." Said Ms. Li-Hsien Tan, Group Director and General Manager of A.S. Watson China.

A.S. Watson's Distilled Water

A.S. Watson's Distilled Water started its distilled water business in 1903, and has more than a hundred years of experience in manufacturing high quality distilled water, making it a leader in the industry. The quality of A.S. Watson's distilled water is highly respected. A.S. Watson's distilled water is a subsidiary of the Hutchison Whampoa Group, Hong Kong Watson's Industrial Company invested in June 1993, engaged in the production of drinking water, sales and agency of international brands of packaged beverages sales professional companies. Hutchison Whampoa is a member of the Li Ka Shing Group.

Advanced production technology and systematic operation and management to ensure product quality, service to meet the standards of the Watsons brand, to provide consumers with perfect quality products and professional services. Since its establishment, Watsons Distilled Water has developed into a young, enterprising and professional team consisting of more than 300 employees; as a market leader, the company attaches great importance to research and product development, technological improvement and personnel training, and seeks to improve the company's business. Shenzhen Watson's Distilled Water Co., Ltd. adheres to the Watson's Industrial Company's centuries-old tradition, and will continue to make unremitting efforts to make it in the new century, and contribute to improving the quality of life of the people.

A.S. Watson's Distilled Water began producing soft drinks in 1900

A.S. Watson's Distilled Water was the first company/factory to produce soft drinks in China

Involvement in global purchasing

On March 26, A.S. Watson's launched its own low-profile online shopping platform: Watson's Global Purchasing, which has three categories of maternal and child care products, personal care, color cosmetics, and nutritional health care, and is the same as the NetEase koala shopping platform, such as the "predecessor". Compared with the scale of the "predecessors", Watson's is still a "water test" stage.

Development Overview Professional Team

A.S. Watson's has a strong team of health advisors, including full-time pharmacists and "Healthy and Vibrant Ambassadors": a team of professionally trained professionals who provide customers with free counseling and advice on maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

A.S. Watson Stores

A.S. Watson displays a wide range of personal care brochures in its stores, such as the Information Express "Skin Care Made Easy", which provides free advice on all kinds of skin care; and "Healthy Knowledge" information displays at its drug counters, which offer a wide range of health care and nutritional allocations, as well as preventive and curative treatments for illnesses. A.S. Watson is well versed in "public relations marketing". Through a series of activities, A.S. Watson's sense of social responsibility was fully demonstrated, generating a huge social impact. At the same time, the store's turnover grew significantly, and more importantly, a good social image was established for the company. In the early nineteenth century, the charity clinic and delivery of medicines for Watsons has won a good social image, more surprising is that Watsons has provided scholarships for Dr. Sun Yat-sen's schooling in Hong Kong, there is no reason why such a marketing management strategy is not successful.

Distribution Centers

1993 - Watsons Personal Care Shanghai Distribution Center

1994 - Watsons Personal Care Beijing Distribution Center

1996 - Watsons Personal Care Wuhan Distribution Center

1998 - Watsons Personal Care Nanhai (Guangzhou) Distribution Center

2001 - Watsons Personal Care Shanghai Distribution Center

2012 - Watsons Personal Care Chengdu Distribution Center

Branches

A.S. Watson is now present in: Xuchang\Xinyang\Beijing\Anyang\Yinchuan\Weihai\Handan\Tangshan\Shijiazhuang\Baoding\Nanchang\Jiujiang\Jingdezhen\Changsha\Hengyang\Xiangtan\Yiyang\Yueyang\Shaoyang\Changde\Weifang. Nanning\Longfang\Yanjiao\Hefei\Maanshan\Wuhu\Tongling\Bengbu\Chuzhou\Anqing\Lu'an\Nanjing\Xuzhou\Huai'an\Taizhou\Changzhou\Wuxi\Kunshan\Changshu\Jiangyin\Yixing\Jining\Zhangjiagang\Huai'an\Nantong\Yancheng\Kunming\Ye'eqiu\Cheng\Chengdu\Mianyang\Dazhou\Panzhihua\Yibin\Guangzhou\Shantou\Foshan\Dongguan\Jiangmen\Zhongshan/Stuquenghua\Zhuhai\Zhaoqing\ Zhuzhou\Haikou\Suzhou\Hangzhou\Jiaxing\Wenling\Shanghai\Dalian\Wuhan\Xiaogan\Hanning\Xiangyang\Huangshi\Jingzhou\Suizhou\Shuizhou\ShiYan\Yichang\Qingqin\Qingqin\Zhengzhou\Kaifeng\Jiaozuo\Mudanjiang\Tianjin\Fuzou\Quanzhou\Xi'an\Hanzhong\Ankang\Harbin\Qiqihar\Shuangcheng\Daqing\Taipei\Zhigong\Zhi'an/Zigong/Zhigong\Yangquan\Luoyang\Ningbo\Cixi\Xiamen\Yizheng\Yangzhou\ Shishi\Taizhou\Wenzhou\Jinhua\Suzhou\Shaoxing\Zhuji\Shangyu\Haining\Guiyang\Zunyi\Lanzhou\Xining\Changchun\Songyuan\Jinan\Qingdao\Zaozhuang\Yankuang\Zoucheng\Shenyang\Yingkou\Anshan\Fushun\Benxi\Jinzhou\Huludao\Panjin\Huhehote\Zibo\Jilin\Siping\Yanji\Guilin\Shenzhen\Sanya\Yongan\Liuzhou\Huzu\Huizhou\Huabei\Nanyang\Xinxiang\ Yantai\Gaomi\Wujiang\Haifeng\Xinyu\Baotou\Jinjiang\Qiqihar\Lianyungang\Guigang\Liyang\Chenzhou\Ganzhou\Zhangjiakou\Xianyang\Linyi\Tengzhou\Zhenjiang\Yizheng\Danzhou\Tongliao\Pizhou\Chi Zhou\and other cities to open a number of outlets.

Wine Cellar

Watson's Wine Cellar Watson's Wine Cellar is a chain of foreign wine retail outlets in Hong Kong set up by the Watson's Group, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, targeting middle-class consumers and selling foreign wines from around the world. There are currently 13 outlets in Hong Kong***. The first outlet was opened in June 1998 at the One International Finance Center mall in Central.

Opened in June 1998 at the One IFC mall in Central.

In the fall of 2000, The Cellar launched its wholesale business, supplying table wines, beer and spirits to restaurants, clubs and hotels throughout Hong Kong.

In 2007, A.S. Watson's Wine Cellar and its wholesale business unit were awarded "Best Retailer" and "Best Wholesaler" respectively by Wine Business International, a leading global wine publication.

In August 2007, A.S. Watson Wine Cellar partnered with Nuance-Watson to bring the store within store concept to The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel.

A.S. Watson Wine Cellar organizes wine tasting events on weekends. Watson's Wine Cellar requires every staff member to attend an internationally recognized Wine & Spirit Education Trust course.

Products Sold

A.S. Watson's Cellar sells wines from all over the world, including:

Sourcing wines from more than 20 countries, with more than 2,000 vintages, and more than 400 exclusives.

Stocks over 300 vintages from Bordeaux and emerging wine regions.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Island

Shop 1035, One IFC Mall, Central (Opening Hours: 10:30-21:00 (Mon-Sat) / 10:30-20:00 (Sun))

Shop 131, 1/F, Hutchison House, 10 Harcourt Road, Central (Opening Hours: 10:30-21:00)

Shop 131, 1/F, Hutchison House, 10 Harcourt Road, Central (Opening Hours: 10:30-21:00) (Opening Hours: 10:30-21:00)

Shop D3b, G/F, The Park Lane Hotel, 310 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay (Opening Hours: 11:00-22:00)

Shop G03, Ground Floor, The Lee Gardens, 28 Yun Ping Road, Causeway Bay (Opening Hours: 11:00-21:00)

Shop D3b, G/F, Lei Yue Kui, 49 Village Road, Happy Valley (Opening Hours: 12:00-22:00)

G/F, 28 Hoi Kwong Street, Guillotines (Opening Hours: 11:00-21:00 (Mon - Sat))

Shop 202A, Level 2, Stanley Plaza, Carmel Road, Ma Hang, Stanley (Opening Hours: 11:00-21:00)

Kowloon

Tsimshatsui Store 313A, Level 3, Ocean Center, Harbour City, 3-27 Canton Road (Opening Hours: 11:00-21:00)

New Territories

Shop 51, G/F, Sai Kung Town Center, 22-40 Fuk Man Road, Sai Kung (Opening Hours: 10:30-21:00)

Islands

Shop G11A2, G/F, Discovery Bay Commercial Center (Opening Hours: 11:00-22:00 (Mon - Fri) / 10:00-22:00 (Sat & Sun))

Mainland Stores

A.S. Watson's has increased its stores by the sum of its previous years of expansion in just over 2 years. The company announced on December 9, 2012 that it had reached 1,000 stores on the mainland, completing its "100 cities, 1,000 stores" plan made before 2009. A.S. Watson's plans to increase the number of stores to 3,000 in 300 cities in the Mainland by 2016.

Marketing Strategy Product Strategy

A.S. Watson's personal care stores carry a wide range of products from more than 20 countries, including 25,000 kinds of cosmetics, medicines, personal care products, fashion accessories, candies, cards and gifts, etc., which are mainly divided into two parts: first, A.S. Watson's own brands, such as cosmetics and personal care products; and second, other brands of nursing care products, such as Procter & Gamble and Mabel & Gamble. Not a few, as well as Maybelline, Avon in the store also has a counter. Of course, the products are not only for women to provide, a variety of foreign origin of food is also enough to let the male diners feast.

A.S. Watson Leaflet

The most distinctive feature of A.S. Watson's products is that they convey three main business concepts. Pharmaceuticals and healthcare products retain the characteristics of the store since its inception, advocating "health"; beauty and hairdressing and care products account for the largest proportion and variety of products, expressing the concept of "beauty"; and the unique fun dolls and candy products convey an optimistic attitude towards life. In order to match these three concepts, the company's shelves, cash registers and shopping bags will have some cute signs, "heart", "lips", "smiley face", giving people a warm, happy, fun feeling.

Price strategy

A.S. Watson enhances its brand value through differentiation and personalization, and its pricing is generally relatively high. A.S. Watson's Group General Manager of Public Relations, Ms. Ngai Man Ling, explains that it is "a desire to align prices with market demand" rather than "competitive pricing". Nevertheless, according to a survey of more than 600 female customers at the personal care store, more than 85% said that the variety and sophistication of Watson's products was the primary attraction for them to shop here. This shows that in an increasingly homogenized retail industry, price is no longer the primary factor in attracting customers.

Marketing strategy

1. Professional guidance

Marketing strategy

A.S. Watson's has a strong team of health advisors, including 80 full-time pharmacists and 150 "health ambassadors". They are professionally trained to provide free counseling and advice to customers on maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

2. Specialized services

Each Watsons personal care store is clearly divided into different selling areas, with goods divided into categories and neatly arranged to make it easier for customers to choose; in-store displays of information courier "Skin Care Easy" and other personal care information brochures, providing free advice on all kinds of skin care; the "Healthy Knowing" information racks on the drug counters provide a variety of health care and nutritional ingredients and disease prevention and treatment methods; and actively promote the use of "Healthy Knowing" information racks to provide free advice on maintaining a healthy life. Disease prevention and treatment methods; the active implementation of computerized planning, the use of advanced retail management system to improve the efficiency of ordering and delivery. So all these things, we can see is that A.S. Watson's concern is not only the sale of goods, but also pay more attention to the customer's considerate and meticulous care, fully demonstrated its "personal care" characteristics of the service.

3. Social Marketing

A.S. Watson understands that a company is a social enterprise, and that "what is taken from the people is used by the people". 2002, A.S. Watson's personal care stores and the Hong Kong Cancer Fund launched the "Pink Revolution", a campaign to inform the public about the prevention of breast cancer and to raise funds for research into the disease, and at the end of 2003, it also supported the implementation of the Spring Bud Program of the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF). At the end of 2003, A.S. Watson successfully supported the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) to implement the "Spring Bud Program", which raised RMB 235,800 through the "Shop with Love" campaign, enabling 500 out-of-school girls to return to school. These activities fully demonstrated A.S. Watson's sense of social responsibility and achieved great social repercussions. The store's turnover gained 80% growth that year, and more importantly, a good social image was established for the company.

4. Extensive e-commerce

On December 16, 2011, A.S. Watson China announced that it had officially entered Taobao Mall and opened its official flagship store, which was founded in 1989 and now has 1,000 offline retail outlets in China, covering more than 100 cities across the country. The Watsons Taobao Mall flagship store will be the 1001st Watsons store in Mainland China. The Watsons Taobao Mall flagship store not only serves as an extension of Watsons' successful offline model, but is also seen by Watsons as a new point of contact for closer communication with consumers in the online era.

Targeting Consumers

In an increasingly homogenized retail industry, the only way to win is to provide consumers with the right choice of products and a quality shopping experience. The first and foremost way to achieve this is to accurately target consumers. A.S. Watson's targets the fashionable women aged 18-35 with a monthly income of RMB 2,500 or more in mainland China. Why does it favor this group? It turns out that most of the older women have long had their own fixed brands and lifestyles, and it's hard to make changes.

This group of people under the age of 40 has a challenging spirit, is more focused on individuality, and likes to experience high-quality novelty products. At the same time, it is the fastest-growing income group among women, with strong spending power, but usually with time constraints, not too fond of shopping in hypermarkets or supermarkets, and in pursuit of a comfortable shopping environment. These consumer characteristics are very much in line with Watsons' product positioning.

Shaping the image of an expert

When you walk into Watsons, you will find that the feeling you get is not that you are walking into a supermarket, but that it is a professional personal care store, so why do you feel this way?

This is because after precisely targeting the consumer group, A.S. Watson's went on to introduce the concept of "personal care" as a specialized service and marketing concept. The store not only provides a complete product line for personal care, but also displays products in the order of cosmetics - skin care products - beauty products - hair care products - fashion products - medicines, making it easy for customers to choose.

At the same time, Watsons has set up a strong team of health advisors, including full-time pharmacists and suppliers' in-store promotional representatives, to provide free professional advice on all kinds of skin care. In addition, Watsons has set up in-store information racks to display various information brochures on personal care, healthcare and nutritional distribution, and disease prevention and treatment methods. In this way, consumers are easily impressed by the store's atmosphere, the quality of the sales staff, the display of goods, the distribution of information and a series of specialized purchasing and marketing tools, so that the brand image of Watsons personal care experts are also y popular.

Systematic promotion

According to the national "affordable is the hard reason" consumption habits. A.S. Watson's has implemented a number of promotional strategies to attract customers, such as adding 1 yuan for one more item, "20% off on all items", and "buy one get one free". In addition, Watsons pay more attention to consumer psychology research, for example, novelty *** activities on the white-collar workers have a "petty mood" more attractive, Watsons launched a "60-second mad rush", the lottery winner can be in the store on the designated shelves of the goods "sweep", 60 seconds to get the goods belong to the winners, such a way to allow consumers to experience the freshness of the experience *** and enjoy it.

In short, by relying on a series of interlocking fine management initiatives such as precise consumer positioning, specialized services, affordable private label products, and professional and systematic promotions, Watsons has firmly captured a large number of loyal customers and effectively avoided homogeneous competition with shopping malls, hypermarkets, convenience stores, specialty stores, and online stores, and effectively realized its own business characteristics. The company's business characteristics.

O2O marketing

A.S. Watson has teamed up with the marketing app "i Dieer" to release the first cell phone and mobile device game, Watson's i Dieer, which electronizes and entertains coupons, making the shopping process lively and fun, and thus creating a more enjoyable shopping experience for consumers.

Marketing Positioning Internet Marketing

It is reported that "utilizing more different media for more brand promotion" will be one of the future focuses of A.S. Watson. The person in charge said, "As a personal care expert, Watson's service also leads the customer's consumption needs and habits, for the increasingly popular trend of Internet consumption, Watson's will try to interact with consumers online Internet fresh communication methods, targeted to provide consumers with more accurate service."

Taking the A.S. Watson "RenRen Beauty Journey" marketing campaign as an example, in the first half of 2010, RenRen had more than 120 million registered users, and A.S. Watson's choice to partner with RenRen to establish an interactive online marketing campaign is equivalent to directly connecting with this 120 million fashion consumer group. In terms of content, A.S. Watson is also using free trials of products of high consumer interest to attract users, which can directly respond to netizens' feedback on A.S. Watson's brand and products. The person in charge pointed out that although "Renren Beauty Journey" has just been launched, each trial sharing report has been able to maintain a certain amount of netizen's attention and response, together with timely online activities to promote, A.S. Watson's is full of confidence in the theme of this activity.

Mobile marketing

In stark contrast to advertising on TV, more and more companies are focusing on a variety of exclusive cell phone domain names, wireless Web sites, the industry is quietly setting off a wave of mobile marketing frenzy. It is reported that Watson's in addition to SNS social networking sites, but also launched its own mobile platform software, such as IPHONE APP, which can be said to have tasted the "first bite of soup" in the country.

Data show that in 2010, China's use of cell phone Internet users reached 277 million. Obviously, with the arrival of the mobile commercial era, through the mobile network for enterprise marketing is a major trend. It is understood that the launch of the A.S. Watson APP, equivalent to allow download users to carry Watson's promotional brochures, so that consumers can be the first time to understand the dynamics of Watson. Industry insiders point out that this initiative of Watsons is not only a leap in marketing means, but also an important step to seize the consumer market, "people who make good use of the cell phone network to a certain extent is on behalf of the active consumption frequency and strong consumption power, is the best practice of leveraging the power of the best practice."

The Innovation Process Developing Steadily

A.S. Watson has summarized the most appropriate positioning and development strategy for brand development through years of in-depth research and study of the retail market in Mainland China. A.S. Watson has long established a solid position as the largest health and beauty personal retailer in the Mainland, and has been closely monitoring market changes, seizing the opportunity to build momentum at the right time. The development of a company is not measured by the speed of its growth, as everything develops in its own way, influenced by timing and a variety of factors. Over the years, A.S. Watson has always been keen to understand, study and analyze market trends. On the basis of respecting the laws of the market, understanding consumer needs and the various policies and regulations of the retail industry in the Mainland, A.S. Watson has continued to improve its internal management and actively adjusted its development strategies.

A.S. Watson Stores Healthy Lifestyle

A.S. Watson's winning formula is a unique product mix (daily necessities, beauty and healthcare products, and specialty items) + guaranteed high quality + new products every week + a shopping environment with constant surprises. The winning formula is "to understand the market and the real needs of customers". With the foundation laid earlier, A.S. Watson will invest more in marketing in the Mainland in 2005, aiming to double the number of stores in 12 to 18 months. A.S. Watson's marketing model has become a winning formula in the competition with local companies and European and American giants. As a well-established international retail brand, A.S. Watson not only possesses the brand advantage of being a market pioneer, but also has a strong mix of global presence and local sourcing. A.S. Watson has been in China for 15 years, and its success lies in its grasp of consumer fashion and promotion of healthy lifestyles. A.S. Watson not only understands the market as well as the local consumers, but also utilizes a strong marketing strategy to build a solid and win-win cooperation model with its partners and suppliers.

Developing Private Label Brands

A.S. Watson's market position is to be the "personal care expert". At the same time, the development of private labels reflects A.S. Watson's expertise and innovation in personal care products. A.S. Watson plans to introduce more private labels to meet the growing demand of consumers. Private labels are not just "important" to retailers, they are "essential". Consumers patronize Watsons not only for other brands but also for new private label products. Its growth will help the company increase and balance its margins, while complementing other exclusives and giving customers more choice. In the Chinese market, A.S. Watson has more than 700 private label brands, equivalent to about 20% of the total number of products sold; in terms of selling price, they are about 20% to 40% cheaper than other brands in the same category. As a worldwide chain group, A.S. Watson's offers a wide range of shampoo, skincare and bath products, as well as some food and lifestyle products. These items cater very much to urban youngsters in terms of product development and design on the one hand. Ms. Liu, a staff member shopping at Watsons, said she likes shopping at Watsons because the products are unique and its bath and skin care products are cheaper.