---
title: "Liby: What Makes It Stand Out?"
description: "In 1997, a humorous ad featuring Chen Peisi promising to buy 'non-hand-hurting Liby dishwashing liquid' for his wife made Liby a household name across China, marking the brand's early success with平民化 positioning and product differentiation. Today, Liby's achievements, including top market share in dishwashing liquid and second in laundry powder, stem from strategic market entry, robust channel management, and timely marketing campaigns."
author: "林岳"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2015-08-30"
language: "en"
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# Liby: What Makes It Stand Out?

> In 1997, a humorous ad featuring Chen Peisi promising to buy 'non-hand-hurting Liby dishwashing liquid' for his wife made Liby a household name across China, marking the brand's early success with平民化 positioning and product differentiation. Today, Liby's achievements, including top market share in dishwashing liquid and second in laundry powder, stem from strategic market entry, robust channel management, and timely marketing campaigns.

In 1997, "Erzi" Chen Peisi rushed out the door, promising to buy "non-hand-hurting Liby dishwashing liquid" for his beloved wife. Unfortunately, Liby dishwashing liquid was sold out, so Erzi had to wash the dishes himself to protect his wife's delicate hands, muttering while washing: "Liby! Liby! Tomorrow I must buy Liby dishwashing liquid!" This witty and humorous ad not only won industry acclaim but, more importantly, left a deep impression on consumers. As the first dishwashing liquid to claim "non-hand-hurting," it quickly made Liby famous across the country. From this ad, it's clear that Liby got two things right over a decade ago:平民化 brand positioning and product differentiation strategy. Of course, Liby Group's current achievements—first in dishwashing liquid market share, second in laundry powder, and continuous expansion into the broader daily chemical sector—are not solely due to advertising.

**Finding the Market Entry Point**

The early 1990s was an era of fierce competition in daily chemicals, with foreign giants like P&G, Unilever, and L'Oréal entering the Chinese market. Similarly, most of today's well-known local daily chemical brands started their ventures around that time, all starting from the same starting line. However, before coming to China, foreign giants had decades or even centuries of corporate operational experience. Clearly, their systematic operations and management models have created the gap between them and local companies today. But to our delight, local companies have leveraged keen market insight, rapid response, and understanding of local consumers to become major competitors to foreign companies, such as Liby, Nice Group, and Shanghai Jahwa.

Taking Liby as an example, after over a decade of development, it has achieved annual sales exceeding 10 billion yuan, with products spanning laundry, personal care, disinfection, and cosmetics, and boasts over 30 "famous brand products" and "well-known trademarks." A crucial reason is that Liby found its market entry point.

In 1994, when Liby's founder Chen Kaixuan started his business, his only capital was his familiarity with laundry powder sales channels. At that time, there were already many companies making washing products, with P&G and Unilever ahead, and Nice, Qiqiang, Langqi, Gaofuli, etc., behind. Yet, despite these internal and external challenges, Chen Kaixuan did three things right, enabling Liby to break through.

First, Liby chose "OEM production." This "asset-light" concept was quite avant-garde at the time. They had professional manufacturers produce the products, put their own brand on them, and then had them tested by authoritative quality inspection departments. They focused their energy on marketing, communication, and sales, performing a "bare-handed trick" without capital or technology. Second, Liby chose Chen Peisi as its spokesperson, perfectly matching its brand positioning. Using a平民 comedy star to depict grassroots life with light and humorous plots made consumers remember two things at once: "non-hand-hurting dishwashing liquid" and "Liby." The clear appeal differentiated the product concept from competitors, marking a turning point for Liby's explosive growth. Third, Liby adopted a "rural areas surround cities" sales strategy, avoiding direct competition with foreign brands. They first recruited friends and relatives as distributors, who could only sell Liby products. Thanks to personal relationships and the exclusive distributor model, everyone worked together, meticulously cultivating each market level, ensuring Liby's strategy was executed effectively in township markets, and building sales channels smoothly and quickly.

Because of these three key points, Liby expanded rapidly, with its market share in second- and third-tier markets soaring. Its brand display and image presentation at the point of sale were excellent, laying a solid foundation for Liby's future entry into first-tier cities.

**Strict Channel Management**

Liby has always adhered to the strategy: "Enter a market, and penetrate it thoroughly." However, Liby does not evaluate distributors based on scale or financial strength. Instead, Liby chooses small- and medium-sized distributors. On one hand, these distributors hope to align with a major brand to enhance their own influence; on the other hand, once small- and medium-sized distributors become first-tier agents, their loyalty and cooperation are higher, which indirectly boosts their enthusiasm.

In fact, many daily chemical companies tend to make three common mistakes: First, they prioritize the distributor's financial capability, thinking that those who can pay for goods are good customers. Second, they neglect the distributor's downstream channels, failing to deeply understand whether their sales network matches the product positioning, leading to difficulties in selling goods. Third, they do not analyze how much of the distributor's financial, material, and human resources can be devoted to their brand. Since most distributors do not exclusively represent one brand, they often use big brands to drive sales of other profitable brands and do not care much about the profit margin of big brands. This is why cross-regional selling (channel conflict) is severe for many big brands.

Liby has invested heavily in distributor development. Chen Kaixuan understood that in the early stages, the company lacked financial resources for terminal image building. By focusing on distributor management and using advertising to pull consumer demand, distributors naturally knew how to manage terminal customers well. Therefore, Liby has always focused on two things in its channels: distributors' terminal capabilities and 100% prevention of cross-regional selling.

Regarding terminal capabilities, one of Liby's tricks is to shrink sales areas, seeking distributors at the county level. For example, in 1997, Liby established a presence in 56 counties in Guangdong, and in Sichuan, Liby had over 100 distributors, evenly divided into three types: one-third sold one truckload per month, one-third sold two truckloads, and one-third sold three truckloads. This made it easy for Liby to achieve over 100 million yuan in sales in Sichuan. Because distributors' sales areas were small, to meet sales targets, they had to deeply cultivate their own territories, resulting in high market coverage. The manufacturer did not need to worry much about deep distribution, and since distributors were small, the operational risk for the company was relatively low.

Some might question that with such dense distributor networks, cross-regional selling must be severe. On the contrary, Liby has been quite strategic in preventing regional cross-selling. Founder Chen Kaixuan learned the concept of "trade associations" during a research trip to Japan and innovatively applied it to Liby's distributor development. The "trade association" is a platform with distributors as the main body, promoting mutual assistance through experience exchange, social activities, and even helping each other sell goods, thereby fostering a collaborative group rather than competing for terminal customers through low-price cross-selling. This method also enhances distributor loyalty.

In addition to establishing "trade associations," Liby has also invested in hardware to prevent cross-selling. By building a sales management information database and using advanced digital anti-counterfeiting networks and internal anti-cross-selling barcodes, Liby connects manufacturers, distributors, and consumers, enabling real-time monitoring of product flow. Cross-regional selling is a persistent problem in the daily chemical industry and the entire FMCG sector, and many foreign brands are at a loss. Although achieving 100% zero cross-selling is impossible, Liby is indeed a benchmark in channel management.

**Good at Seizing Brand Marketing Opportunities**

Liby is a company that excels at seizing marketing opportunities. If Chen Peisi brought Liby a down-to-earth brand image, then becoming a sponsor of the Beijing Olympics elevated Liby's brand value rapidly. For a long time, many people regarded Liby as synonymous with low- and mid-end products. However, by becoming the only local daily chemical brand to sponsor the Olympics, Liby's product quality was recognized by authoritative departments, and it gained favor among more mid- to high-end consumers.

Taking advantage of the Olympic sponsorship, Liby collaborated with international giants BASF and Novozymes to develop and launch the Olympic-exclusive product "Quzhiba" (Stain Remover), which hit the market strongly just before the Olympics. In addition to adding the Beijing Olympics logo to the packaging, Liby also conducted a series of Olympic-themed displays, launched Olympic commemorative products, and offered promotions like buying products to get tickets. They also high-profile sponsored the Chinese national tennis team, closely tying themselves to the "Olympics" brand.

"Stubborn stains, all wiped out," with endorsements from Athens Olympic women's doubles champions Li Ting and Sun Tiantian, Liby's brand image was elevated. Tennis, a sport with aristocratic undertones, and the national players demonstrating the product's miraculous stain-removing effects at the launch event helped Liby move closer to white-collar consumers. It can be said that many of Liby's marketing moves appear at the right time. For example, in 1999, Liby invited Lin Xinying (Ruby Lin), who became famous overnight with "My Fair Princess," to endorse Liby toothpaste. The jingle "Ding-ding-dang, ding-ding-dang, Liby helps you" was catchy, and Liby quickly extended into oral care. In 2001, coinciding with the popularity of Dicky Cheung's "Kangxi and Xiaobao," Liby adapted the TV plot for its Biying shampoo ad, where Wei Xiaobao, faced with his wives asking "Who's the prettiest?" could only helplessly answer "Biying is the prettiest," leaving a lasting impression. In 2009, as Xiao Shenyang quickly rose to fame after the Spring Festival Gala, Liby immediately invited Xiao Shenyang and his wife to endorse Quzhiba laundry powder, again using humorous ad plots and ordinary life to gain consumer recognition, quickly capturing the high-end laundry market. In contrast, rival Nice's Chaoneng soap powder, launched around the same time, did not perform well. At the end of 2009, Zhou Xun received critical acclaim for her role in "The Message" and won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress, and soon after endorsed Liby Quzhiba laundry liquid, causing a stir in the washing industry. Liby then leveraged this to enter the highly profitable laundry liquid segment.

Although Biying shampoo later faded out due to product positioning and channel issues, most of Liby's marketing communication attempts have been well-executed. Doing the right thing at the right time and doing it right is a principle of successful marketing. On the path to a comprehensive daily chemical strategy, Liby has successively acquired Blue Sky Liubizhi toothpaste and Shanghai cosmetics brand Gaoci, and recently regained the once-glorious Oni shampoo brand. This demonstrates Liby's ambition, but past successful tactics do not guarantee future success. To compete with daily chemical giants in various fields, Liby still has a long way to go.

**How to Navigate the Future**

After over a decade of transformation and restructuring, the washing daily chemical market has passed the chaotic stage. In other words, the market structure in this niche is relatively stable, and new brands find it difficult to gain a share. This means that if Liby does not pursue a comprehensive daily chemical strategy, its growth space will be limited.

Under such circumstances, Liby has chosen to develop a comprehensive daily chemical strategy, which implies greater challenges ahead. Besides foreign giants like P&G still leading, local companies like Nice, Langqi, and Qiqiang are eyeing opportunities. With any misstep, Liby could be overtaken by newcomers. Relying solely on celebrity endorsements and advertising bombardment is no longer as effective as before. Liby's failed Biying shampoo, Piaojie, and Caiqi laundry powder illustrate this. Product diversification has not been ideal either; Liby toothpaste has performed lukewarmly in the market, confirming this. Because the brand name "Liby" is synonymous with laundry and dishwashing in consumers' minds, using Liby toothpaste might feel like rinsing with dishwashing liquid. Therefore, extending into personal care is unlikely to achieve great success. In fact, Liby's expansion through acquisitions is wiser than building new brands from scratch, but the key is how to generate new profit growth points from them.

Just as Oni may struggle to regain market share in "plant-based hair care" and "black hair" because Sunsilk and Rejoice are deeply entrenched, Liby needs to focus on two things in the future: differentiated product positioning and innovative brand marketing. Bawang shampoo rose rapidly with anti-hair loss claims, Herborist cosmetics grew quickly with traditional Chinese medicine, Blue Moon seized the first-mover advantage in laundry liquid, Yunnan Baiyao toothpaste gained high-end market favor with its national secret formula, and Liushen's success shows that even a small bottle of floral water can build a brand. To gain comprehensive competitive advantages, Liby must possess the capability for differentiated marketing.

In terms of marketing communication innovation, Liby must break free from the fixed mindset of celebrity endorsements and think more about opportunities brought by emerging media. With the advent of e-commerce, internet marketing has been put on the agenda by many companies. Giants like P&G and L'Oréal have already opened online stores, engaging in various interactive and precision marketing, using popular social networking sites, microblogs, video sites, and other social media to spread brand culture, increase consumer attention, and indirectly enhance brand reputation. In this regard, local daily chemical companies are clearly a step behind.

Regardless, Liby's achievements today are worth learning from for all local companies. But business is a marathon, not a sprint; it's not about who runs faster in the short term, but who runs farther. More critically, many local companies will face the issue of succession in the next decade, so besides marketing transformation, building a corporate management system is also a major task. "Survival of the fittest" is most apt for local companies in the thick of it.

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