3CE Booming in China But Its Trademark Is A Hidden Danger
- Chaileedo Press
- Sep 30, 2021
- 3 min read
If 3CE plans to develop the Chinese market, it is urgent to solve its trademark issue.
As a brand from South Korea, 3CE boasts the spirit of innovation and combination of fashion and beauty. With the "trendy spirit" of the fusion of trendy color, brand and experience, 3CE has been loved and sought after by consumers since it entered China two years ago. The brand has also achieved remarkable results with a series of star products that have cause heated debate on social media platforms.
On January 11, 2019, South Korean imported makeup brand 3CE of L'Oreal Group, certified as "3CE official", issued an article on its WeChat public account, announcing that the 3CE has officially entered in the Chinese market. It is reported that STYLENANDA means "this is my style". The brand started with clothing and was founded in Korea in 2004. In 2009, the makeup brand 3CE was founded in order to match the overall creation of fashion styling. In 2018, STYLENANDA 3CE joined the L'Oreal Group and 3CE officially entered the Chinese market in 2019.
In its first year in the Chinese market, 3CE quickly grew to be the number one independent Japanese and Korean makeup flagship brand on Tmall and has achieved good performance.
In January 2019, 3CE entered Tmall and opened its flagship store. It became the No. 1 Korean makeup brand on its first day, with sales of $2,274,100 and sales of its three main products entering the TOP 10. In only 48 days after entering the Chinese market, it turned out to be the No. 1 in the industry in terms of sales.
In February 2019, 3CE held a Tmall Super Fan Day campaign, which also broke many records and attracted 580,000 fans on the day. Its first single product, velvet lip tint, sold over 100,000 units on the day and became the number one single product on the network that day.
As of October 22, 2021, 3CE official Tmall flagship store has gained over 9.07 million fans and 97 SKUs in total. The highest selling product of 3CE, "Blurring Liquid Lip", has been sold by over 80,000 people while the second highest selling product, "Matte Lipstick Glaze for Autumn and Winter", has also reached 70,000 units. With 14 products selling over 10,000 units a month, 3CE has proven its potential in the Chinese market to the L'Oréal Group.
The official opening of 3CE Shanghai flagship store on January 23, 2021 marked another milestone moment for the L'Oréal Group in China with 3CE Shanghai flagship store being the brand's largest flagship store in China.
3CE, a key member of the brand portfolio of L'Oréal Group's Mass Cosmetics Division, has entered the Tmall 1 billion club (equal to approximately $156 million) in two years breaking sales records and holding the top in the color cosmetics category as well as being ranked as the No. 1 international color cosmetics store in the promotional campaign on June 18th in 2020.
At the same time, the Shanghai flagship store also reflects the business model of combining offline immersive experience with online social content, which is also another attempt of L'Oreal in the field of entertainment retail and social marketing. 3CE also entered Jingdong with its whole line of products on September 22, 2021 and opened the "3CE Jingdong Self-operated Official Flagship Store" at the same time to carry out online multi-faceted layout of the brand.
It's worth mentioning that trademarks have been the biggest pitfall for 3CE encountered in entering China as its trademarks have not been owned by itself.
Prior to L'Oreal's entry, the path of 3CE to China was relatively slow and cautious. A Chinese cosmetics company registered the trademark "3 Concept Eyes" first in 2012 and opened hundreds of counters over the years. Because of this, 3CE changed its brand name to 3CE STYLENANDA and changed its global brand logo to differentiate from the Chinese "3 Concept Eyes".
In 2020, L'Oréal Group took the domain name registrar of "3ce.cc" to court for infringement of trademark rights and the user of the "3ce.cc" domain name was the same "3 Concept Eyes" that had seized the registered trademark. This means that more than a year after the introduction of the Chinese market, the road of 3CE STYLENANDA to defend its rights has officially begun.
In recent years, the integration of online and offline development has become a major trend, especially for the brand who is the new into the Chinese market. International brands urgently need to expand online channels and social media communication in order to capture young consumers. In that way, it leads to offline stores and opens up the online and offline channels. So if 3CE plans to develop the Chinese market, it is urgent to solve its trademark problem.
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