Are domestic products spoiled? Behind it lies a trend that the price of a single gram is even more expensive than gold

When it comes to "affordable domestic products" before, everyone would associate it with "cheap big bowls".

But now, consumers have new and negative feelings.

Searching for "domestic products, gram weight" on the Little Red Book, we can see that many consumers roast about some inexpensive domestic cosmetics brands, which have less formal capacity than the small samples of international famous brands, and the average unit price per gram is even more expensive.

"I am really tired of the capacity of domestic products." "Is domestic products spoiled now? The price per gram is even more expensive than gold, which is really outrageous.".

The evaluation blogger on Bilibili refers to such affordable domestic products as "cosmetics assassins" and lists "those seemingly affordable but actually priced higher than big brands" to avoid pitfalls.

What's wrong with domestic beauty products? What kind of products are consumers who are increasingly supporting domestic products paying for?

#01

The latest controversial domestic product of cosmetics is the new eyeliner gel pen launched by the domestic cosmetics brand Sipani. The new price is 19.9 yuan, and the official price is 29 yuan.

Although the price is cheap, consumers do not buy it because the capacity is too small, only 0.05 grams.

If we calculate the price per gram based on the current official price, it is equivalent to 580 yuan per gram for this eyeliner gel pen, which is more expensive than 456 yuan per gram of 9999 gold.

As a reference, the official price of the eyeliner gel pen of the international big brand MAC is 180 yuan, but it is 0.7 grams, 14 times the capacity of Sipeini. The price per gram is 264.3 yuan, less than half of Sipeini's.

Although the capacity of eyeliner gel pen is not marked on the official single picture poster of Sipeini, there are still many sharp eyed consumers who found the small words with the capacity of "50 mg" in the product information on the detail page.

So, under the official account of Shi Peini's Xiaohongshu, there have been doubts such as "so expensive", "so few grams", "why did you secretly raise the price", and "don't eat too unattractive".

#02

The affordable domestic products with a single gram price similar to or even more expensive than big brands actually began to appear in 2020.

In a video released in November 2020 by Bilibili UP host @ Sun Auntie, titled "Counting the Silly Sons of Big Brands, Is It Not as High as Domestic Products by Weight?", it was mentioned that the loose powder price of the luxury brand CPB is 650 yuan, but it is a full 26 grams, while the new generation of domestic products, Little Austin, is priced at 150 yuan, but only 8.2 grams, with a single gram price difference of only 6.8 yuan between the two.

Now, from lipstick, concealer to loose powder, we can find cheap domestic products that are more expensive per gram than international brands.

According to some products mentioned by netizens on related topics, DT Business Insights found that the single gram price of Perfect Diary Ballet and Lipstick is 136.3 yuan, while the single gram price of Armani Red Tube Lip Glaze is only 53.8 yuan; The price per gram of Colorkey's small golden chopsticks eyebrow pencil is as high as 500 yuan, while the price per gram of Uchimura Xiu's machete eyebrow pencil is relatively affordable, only 64.7 yuan.

Similarly, the single gram price of UNNY eyeliner gel pen is more than twice that of MAC, the single gram price of Ermupu tricolor concealer is more expensive than that of Phantom of Opera, and the single gram price of Perfect Diary Oil Control Powder is also more expensive than that of Deke Silk Honey Powder.

But if we look at it together with the price and weight, there is a "clear distinction" between affordable domestic products and international brands:

International flagship products have a high weight, but their prices are often as high as two to three hundred yuan; Domestic makeup products have less weight, but the overall price is cheap, usually only 100 or even 50 yuan.

For example, the capacity of domestic lipstick is usually within 2 grams, and the selling price is around 100 yuan; International top brand lipsticks usually weigh between 5-6 grams and are priced at over 200 yuan.

So there is also another voice on social media that believes that just looking at the price per gram is unfair to affordable domestic products.

Some people have proposed that the cost of lipstick is not only limited to internal materials, but also to the packaging design of lipstick shells. "We cannot use weight as a rough basis for comparison," and "overall parity is also parity.".

#03

Even if we don't talk about single gram prices, there is still a hidden trend behind this - affordable domestic cosmetics products are getting smaller and smaller.

In the past, small weight was an advantage of domestic products, and consumers also had a good impression of small weight.

Due to the high iteration rate of affordable domestic cosmetics, the old series is usually not used up yet, and the new series has already been launched. For young people who attend school or have low incomes, the trial and error cost of products with small weight is low. Buying products with small weight and low unit price can "painlessly" try more new products. Even if I don't like it in the end, it's just "one or two cups of milk tea money", and I can't help but forget.

But as affordable domestic cosmetics products become smaller and smaller, consumers feel that they have maintained a price advantage of less than 100 yuan on the surface, but in reality, they have indirectly increased their prices.

Taking lipstick as an example, some users posted pictures on Xiaohongshu for comparison. The lip gloss of the domestic colorkey is only 1.7g, while the sample of the Korean brand 3ce lip gloss purchased by L'Oreal is also 1.5g.

User @ Meaty Meal explained in the comment section what this means: "The concept of 1.7g is that it can be applied thick up to 15 times, and the pipe mouth and bottom cannot be removed. In fact, the maximum amount that can be used is only 1.4g, and many pages intentionally do not clearly indicate the weight. I can't use it all, but you cannot deceive me."

People also shouted a "consumption declaration" as a result, "I can be diligent and frugal, but you cannot be short of weight.". This sentence was copied and pasted into the comment section of different platforms, and coincidentally became the voice of most people.

In addition, in the context of consumer downgrading, consumers have a new definition of "cost-effectiveness".

Cost performance is not just about blindly pursuing low prices, but buying valuable items at a reasonable price - as long as consumers feel that its efficacy, user experience, and brand value are worth spending hundreds of dollars, it is also a high cost performance consumption.

But if the single gram price of affordable domestic products is higher than that of big brands, and the brand value and practical value are much lower than that of big brands, consumers will also be trapped in the cold palace of "low cost-effectiveness".

A Xiaohongshu user said, "Calculating the price per gram is not necessary. I will first check whether the brand and product are good to use, and then calculate the number of grams on the premise that they are equally good. Even if the product is not good, even if it is cheaper per gram, it feels like a waste of money.".

Nowadays, consumers are no longer easy to fool. They compare products with other brands and study where brands spend their money, whether they have seriously improved the quality of their products.

As one user of Station B questioned, "Can domestic products not only roll packaging, but also spend all their money on bloggers for advertising, and it's not good to use more Dim sum as products? Can you improve the sense of use, and first make the lip glaze not sticky?"

Consumers can keenly capture that the marketing efforts of some affordable domestic products are not proportional to the quality of the products. The enthusiasm for supporting domestic products will be quickly extinguished, and even generate resentment.

This has become a contradictory problem: if the capacity is brought up to be consistent with international brands, the selling price will also increase accordingly. Users who were previously attracted to "parity" may not be able to bear it and may turn to other affordable domestic products; But if we maintain the "small weight" while moving towards high-end, and suddenly raise prices, we cannot determine how consumers perceive such "cost-effectiveness" and whether new consumers will pay for it.

From this perspective, it is still unknown how far affordable domestic cosmetics that rely on "small weight" can go in the beauty market.