Changing Lanes and Overtaking: The Rise of Adolph and Other Chinese Brands

On December 12, 2023, Adolph won the ECI Awards in recognition of Adolph's strong innovation in products and marketing. One of the effective ways to implement breakthroughs and upgrades to the original industry structure is to create new categories and achieve the purpose of "overtaking" through "changing lanes". In China's huge market, more and more Chinese brands are achieving development through the competitive strategy of "changing lanes and overtaking", closing the gap with the original leading brands, including Adolph, BYD and other brands.

The story of BYD’s impact on the automotive landscape through new energy vehicles is well known. The development process of Adolph entering the first camp of the cleaning and care industry through fragranced cleaning and care products is also worthy of attention. The emergence of new categories such as scented shampoos has changed consumers' original perception of functional shampoos. International brands including Procter & Gamble, L'Oreal and other brands are also launching more and more scented toiletries.

Human beings used plant ash, soap locust, etc. to wash their hair a hundred years ago, pursuing the cleaning effect; In modern times, people focus on functions such as anti-dandruff, smoothness, oil removal, and scalp care, and also pursue primary pleasure experiences such as rich lathering... However, these shampoo and hair care products mainly focus on "efficiency upgrade" and always focus on the effect on the external scalp and hair. The ingredients are becoming more and more complex, and there are more and more functional concepts, but they are all accumulated in quantity and there is no qualitative breakthrough. The shampoo industry is also looking for a qualitative breakthrough.

This mission of change in the washing and care industry is destined to be answered by Chinese entrepreneurs who focus on "seeking wisdom from the inside." The Adolph "Emotional Fragrance Shampoo" category is based on the past cleaning and care effects, and uses a unique fragrance to bring pleasure. It not only allows users to achieve physical hygiene and health of their scalp and hair, but also achieves emotional relief to further promote hair health, achieve physical and mental pleasure, and maintain the health of their scalp and hair both internally and externally.
If BYD does not focus on new energy vehicles, it will not be able to break through the hundreds of years of absolute dominance of traditional foreign oil vehicles. Now, all well-known car brands in the world have shifted their development focus to the new energy vehicle category. If Adolph had not found the brand positioning of "high-end fragrance care", it would also have been unable to break through the absolute advantages of foreign shampoo brands in the Chinese market.

It is worth noting that these Chinese companies that have "overtaking in changing lanes" no longer rely on their original low-price tactics. They are also trying to squeeze into the mid-to-high-end brand camp and win the trust of consumers through high-quality products and brand premiums. Adolph's Emotional Fragrance Shampoo has a sales volume of over 100 bottles, and BYD's Look Up Car has sales of over a million. These brands are trying to capture the market by relying on quality-price ratio.
From "overtaking in corners" to "overtaking in changing lanes", from fighting in the Red Ocean to developing new blue ocean strategies, Chinese brands should rely on technological innovation. This has become the consensus of many Chinese entrepreneurs, and more and more Chinese companies are becoming an effective force in promoting the development of the industry, which is undoubtedly worthy of expectation and respect.