The Qixi Festival, or the Chinese Valentine’s Day, falls on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month on the Chinese calendar. This year, it is on August 25. For consumer brands, especially beauty brands, it is an excellent marketing opportunity to advertise your product and increase your sales which is why many brands have launched seasonal products and Qixi gift boxes.

Level one: Gift boxes containing original products

• Armani

Armani launches two individual Qixi Gift Boxes. One contains three lip glazes, while the other contains two lip glazes and one foundation. Consumers can pick any shade of lip glaze for the gift box. The gift box is well-designed. However, all products in the gift box are their original products without any innovation to the product. ^[1]

Level two: Products with new packages

• MAC

For this year’s Qixi Festival, MAC designed new packages for two of their most popular lipstick shades, Devoted To Chili and Mull It Over. Unlike the old black packaging, the new package is in red and matte frosted. Can this combo of a new packaging and the best-selling shades help MAC achieve higher sales during this festival? Let’s wait and see. ^[2]

Level three: Products with new package + special-designed gift box

• YSL

As for YSL, it launched seven individual boxes for the Qixi Festival. Products contained within the boxes cover lipstick, lip glaze, perfume, and air cushion. All lipsticks and lip glazes are in a specially designed seasonal package pictured below. ^[3]

• Tom Ford

Tom Ford also launched new golden-package lipsticks and two kinds of gift boxes, including the lipstick gift box and the lipstick & perfume gift box. Like MAC, TF also combines its most popular lipstick shade with the new golden package in the hopes it will stimulate sales. ^[4]

• Lancome

Lancome’s Qixi gift box and its new package of lipsticks are made in leather. The high-end design has contributed to its popularity online, as evident on Little Red Book with 6717 posts appearing since it reveals. ^[5]

Level four: Products with new package + special-designed gift box + deep understanding of Chinese culture

• Florasis

As a new domestic beauty brand focusing on Chinese culture, Florasis surprised the market by its micro-carved lipsticks when it was released in 2019 becoming a trending beauty brand ^[6]. Its sales also have ranked first in the makeup segment for four consecutive months. In this traditional Chinese festival, Florasis surprised its customers again on Little Red Book and Tmall by its uniquely delicate design.

Florasis launches one lipstick and one gift box for this festival. ^[7]

The package of the new lipstick is like an old lock named “Love Lock.” This lock usually represents that two lovers are locked together and will never be separated. The lipstick has an ancient Chinese story carved into it – A husband helps his wife draw her eyebrows – meaning a good and healthy relationship between the couple.

Lipstick with carved figures

The gift box is designed like an ancient cosmetic box in which women can put all their cosmetics.  A Ming Dynasty Poem Lock then locks the box. People can use an ancient Chinese love poem to open the box. Additionally every box has a unique love code.

Love code

In this box, there is a “love lock” lipstick, an eyebrow pencil, and a pair of combs. The combs traditionally signify getting old together with your partner.

The Gift Box

Seasonal and holiday marketing plays an essential role in beauty brands’ marketing strategy. With the rise of domestic brands that better understand Chinese culture, the competition is getting more intense. International brands that want to gain traction and sales from consumers in China must put more effort into the product and package design in their marketing strategies in addition to gauging Chinese consumers’ interests.

Disclaimer: all images used are from the Internet.