500,000 orders were sold out in 30 minutes. It's not just the sanitary napkin industry that needs "celebrities like Huang Zitao".

Wang Ran, 22 years old, told us that she had never felt so powerless.

From the exposure of "size shrinkage" at the end of last year to the revelation of "shoddy sanitary napkins", Wang Ran gradually realized that she was wrong. She told us that she occasionally felt uncomfortable when using sanitary napkins, and side leakage was even more common. However, she rarely suspected that there was a problem with the manufacturing of sanitary napkins. "My first thought would be whether I had used it for too long and didn't replace it in time."

In China, sanitary napkins are almost the only essential hygiene products for women. According to the "Overview and Outlook of China's Disposable Hygiene Products Industry" released by the Tissue Paper Professional Committee of the China National Pulp and Paper Association, compared with the single - digit penetration rate of other forms of hygiene products (such as tampons, panty liners, menstrual cups, etc.), the market penetration rate of sanitary napkins has reached 100%.

However, the huge market has not led to the survival of the fittest. The relatively high gross profit has instead become a hotbed for the breeding of counterfeit and shoddy products.

Around 2010, as a large number of new domestic brands emerged, competing with international brands and large domestic brands for the market, product quality problems began to surface more frequently. In recent years, the "high - end" trend of sanitary napkins has been in full swing. Various upgraded products have found popular celebrities for endorsement, and the retail prices have also risen accordingly, but the problems have not been improved.

Most statistics on the market rarely involve consumer satisfaction surveys. However, a survey by the Ministry of Health shows that 70% of gynecological diseases are caused by the incorrect use of sanitary napkins or sanitary napkins that do not meet hygienic standards.

When high - priced products cannot guarantee peace of mind, and low - priced products are a gamble on health, consumers are eager for the emergence of enterprises that can change all this. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine why the news of "Huang Zitao making sanitary napkins" could easily make it onto the hot search list.

On May 18th, the Dongyang Health Industry Investment Promotion Conference and the "Dovey Blossoms, Empowering the Future" New Product Launch Conference were held in Dongyang, Zhejiang. Huang Zitao, the brand manager of Dovey, and Xie Rudong, the chairman and CEO of Yaowang Technology, were present at the event. On the day of the launch, a variety of sanitary napkin products in different specifications, such as mini pads, daily use pads, and night use pads, were released at once. More than 60 media outlets and 50 fan representatives were invited to visit Dovey's transparent factory. Huang Zitao said that creating Dovey was an important turning point in his life, and he wanted to start a meaningful business. He also hoped that "putting aside the name of the star 'Huang Zitao', when people see the Dovey brand, they think of the entrepreneur Huang Zitao rather than the star Huang Zitao. This is more important and meaningful to me."

The scene of Dovey's new product launch conference  Source: The brand

At 7 p.m. that night, Huang Zitao launched his first live - streaming sales event for the Dovey brand on the Douyin platform. Just 30 minutes after the start of the live - stream, 500,000 sets of sanitary napkin combo packages were sold out, topping the personal care list on Douyin and setting a new industry record.

A Long - Term Business

"It's a very cool thing. (As a man) I don't feel shy about it."

On April 11th, Huang Zitao seemed excited during the live - stream, saying that he had been waiting for this moment for a long time. At the beginning of the live - stream, Huang Zitao first introduced the situation of the factory he acquired.

Different from most celebrities who engage in cross - border business by finding contract manufacturers, Huang Zitao chose to invest in and acquire a factory to produce sanitary napkins by himself. The manufacturer is Zhejiang Dovey Care Products Co., Ltd., which was established in 2021. Currently, it is indirectly held by Hangzhou Longyueqian Network Technology Co., Ltd., in which Huang Zitao holds 99% of the shares, and Foshan Yaowang Technology Co., Ltd. also holds an indirect stake. During the above - mentioned live - stream, the R & D director of Dovey also came to explain the knowledge of sanitary napkin production.

"Contract manufacturers may not fully implement our concepts, while an in - house factory can give the team a stronger sense of responsibility." During the live - stream, Huang Zitao replied to the question of "why not find a contract manufacturer" in this way. He said that after the acquisition, all the previous production processes of the old factory were stopped. The new factory is equipped with brand - new equipment, and this sanitary napkin has passed 17 national tests. "It is a medical - grade sanitary napkin."

In addition, having an in - house factory means that the pricing power is also in one's own hands.

During a previous live - stream, Huang Zitao distributed 50,000 sets of trial sanitary napkins at a price of one cent. Each set included mini pads, daily use pads, and overnight pants, a total of 22 pieces, not including the costs of production, processing, packaging, and transportation. Obviously, this level of investment far exceeds the scope of short - term marketing and is by no means a simple business model of OEM production.

At a press conference before the launch, Wu Yue, the president of the Zhejiang Hygiene Products Chamber of Commerce and the person in charge of the Dovey brand production line, revealed to us that Huang Zitao did not charge any promotion fees for this live - stream. Instead, he made a capital investment as a shareholder. As a brand shareholder, he hopes to gain an in - depth understanding of the product through personal experience.

Behind the crazy rush for the "one - cent trial", it seems to be a reflection of consumers' long - standing dissatisfaction with high - priced sanitary napkins. A report from a research institution shows that the unit price of female hygiene products has risen from 0.46 yuan per piece in 2006 to 0.76 yuan per piece in 2020, with an average annual price increase of about 0.02 yuan. Some people have roughly calculated that a woman may spend about 20,000 yuan on purchasing hygiene products during the approximately 30 years from her first menstruation to menopause.

This is only for absorbent products. If painkillers, drugs for treating acne caused by hormonal fluctuations, etc. are included, a woman may spend nearly 150,000 yuan on menstrual products in her lifetime.

For most urban women, this may not be a huge expense, but in vast rural areas, the phenomenon of being unable to afford menstrual products is very common. The bulk sanitary napkins in 2020 shocked the public. Even though the products priced at 0.2 yuan per piece were unsterilized and of poor quality, there were still many people placing orders on e - commerce platforms. Some women in even worse conditions may not even have the opportunity to access Taobao and buy unlicensed products.

A large part of this expense is paid for advertising.

Due to the almost transparent cost, a high marketing rate is one of the characteristics of the female hygiene products industry. Especially in the traditional offline supermarket channels, including barcode fees, display fees, and the cost of sales promoters, the marketing expenses of a product may account for 10% - 25% of the sales volume. As the online traffic dividend gradually reaches its peak, merchants transfer the costs to consumers. More and more people find that after some calculations, buying sanitary napkins on e - commerce platforms "doesn't save much money".

Huang Zitao continued to say that after the acquisition, the original factory also started a comprehensive upgrade - not only introducing advanced equipment but also increasing the automation level to 90%.

Dovey's fully automated production workshop  Source: The brand

Currently, the renovation project is still in progress. It is expected that full - line automation will be achieved by mid - June, and the number of automated production lines will be expanded from the current three to twelve by the end of the year - these are all reasonable cost - cutting measures on the cost side, and the saved money is not given to advertisers but rebated to consumers.

In terms of pricing strategy, according to the statement conveyed by Yaowang to 36Kr, the current pricing multiplier of Dovey is "relatively low in the industry". If the marketing expenses are maintained at a low level, this multiplier is still within an acceptable range. The specific market multiplier is not convenient to elaborate, but the cost can be estimated through the existing product prices (such as the pure - enjoyment version). "In short, we are worthy of consumers."

A Difficult but Right Thing

The complex hierarchical structure of sales channels has made the distance between sanitary napkin manufacturers and consumers too far. The long - term absence of the female perspective has also made product updates ineffective.

For example, everyone knows that there is a pair of wings on each side of a sanitary napkin, and even substandard bulk sanitary napkins have this shape. However, in the first ten years of sanitary napkin production in China, no one ever thought of this design. At the beginning of the 21st century, domestic industry analysts were still discussing whether it was feasible for "medium - and high - end winged sanitary napkins to replace straight - strip sanitary napkins".

The revolutionary tampon was invented in 1936, but there have been few product iterations in the past 90 years. Recently, two female designers finally changed the straight grooves of tampons into spiral ones. This modification allows tampons to come into more contact with menstrual blood, increasing the absorption capacity and avoiding early leakage.

Many times, the so - called innovation of sanitary napkin products belongs to the designers' "I don't care what you think, I care what I think". A brand once launched a sanitary napkin with a heating function, but it was finally taken off the shelves due to consumer complaints of being scalded by the product. Some sanitary napkin products that claim to have a sterilizing function by adding various traditional Chinese medicine ingredients are often exposed by regulatory authorities for exceeding the microbial limit.

However, for most consumers, the most urgent problem at present is not the so - called product innovation, but to solve the most basic problem of 'whether it is easy to use'. For example, the absorbent surface of many sanitary napkins on the market is printed with patterns, which is not good for sensitive private parts. And the poor adhesion of the product's back glue is a more common feedback - most sanitary napkins are far from as good as they claim in the advertisements.

Dovey's fully automated production workshop  Source: The brand

Even if an enterprise develops a good product that truly solves the pain points, it is still a challenge to make consumers perceive and trust these improvements. A survey shows that 68% of consumers still judge product performance based on vague claims such as "ultra - thin" and "instant absorption" on the packaging (and almost all brands make similar claims). However, professional parameters such as the core structure and pH balance that really affect the user experience are difficult for ordinary consumers to understand. This information asymmetry has led many substantial innovations to become technical specimens in the laboratory and cannot be transformed into key considerations in consumer decision - making.

Huang Zitao said during the live - stream that instead of spending huge amounts of money on hiring popular celebrities for endorsement or demonstrating the product's water absorption with blue liquid in TV advertisements, it is better to adopt a more convincing way - to make the production process public. It is reported that Dovey's sanitary napkin production factory has installed 9 cameras in the workshop, and 5 of the camera views are available for consumers to view in real - time. In addition, the workshop is designed to be fully transparent and will be open for consumers to visit in the future.

Returning to the product level, the real differences in competition, such as fabric comfort, disinfection level, absorption speed, and anti - side - leakage performance, have been difficult to compare horizontally because people are shy to talk about menstruation itself in public.

The "medical - grade" level of Dovey sanitary napkins mentioned by Huang Zitao during the live - stream is based on the classification method in the "Hygiene Requirements for Disposable Hygiene Products" revised in July last year. According to this standard, there are four grades of sanitary napkins in total, namely: ordinary grade, disinfected grade, medical - grade, and medical - use grade. Among them, the users of medical - use grade are mostly women who have just given birth, as well as patients who have undergone major gynecological surgeries or suffered from heavy bleeding; the medical - grade follows closely, and the disinfection requirements for bacterial colonies are also very strict, belonging to the highest - level group standard.

Judging from the initial feedback from consumers, the Dovey sanitary napkins launched by Huang Zitao have received a good market response. Many users mentioned "strong water absorption", "skin - friendly material", and "no discomfort" when sharing their experiences on social platforms. These real - user reviews are gradually verifying Huang Zitao's business logic of "letting the product speak for itself".

As of now, many consumers have reported receiving their goods. Regarding the issue of product delivery that consumers are concerned about, Huang Zitao himself also posted a video at noon on the 19th to remind consumers to buy products from Huang Zitao's personal live - stream room and the official Dovey flagship store, and not to buy from other channels to avoid being deceived. According to the Dovey brand, currently, the factory is making every effort to speed up production and stock up, and will complete the order delivery as soon as possible. Due to capacity limitations, limited replenishment will be available at 12:00 and 19:00 every day in the official flagship store.

Putting aside this incident, perhaps the most gratifying thing is that in the face of more disruptors like Huang Zitao, the industry rules are quietly changing. In June last year, the national standard project "Sanitary Napkins (Panty Liners)" was officially drafted, with a project cycle of 16 months. In addition to the sanitary napkin enterprises participating in the drafting, consumers' feedback will also be an important reference indicator.

We hope that when more and more brands start to replace blue - liquid advertisements with workshop cameras and replace celebrity endorsements with medical - grade certifications, this industry that has long been shrouded in the fog of marketing will finally show the dawn of transformation towards "product - oriented".

(The interviewee Wang Ran in this article is a pseudonym)