Research on the Different Effects and Influences of KOL and KOC in

the Marketing of Makeup Goods in China

Yingyan Dai

and Yibo Li

＊

Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, U.K.

School of Media and Communication, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

＊

Keywords: Key Opinion Leader, Key Opinion Consumer, Internet Celebrity Economy, Visual Marketing, Opinion

Marketing, E-Commerce.

Abstract: With the development of social media, KOL (Key Opinion leader) is playing an increasingly important role

in brand marketing. They have a large following and can have a significant impact on consumers' purchasing

decisions through their influence and professional insights. KOC (Key Opinion Consumer) is an emerging

marketing force that has a high degree of trust and influence among consumers due to its authenticity and

accessibility. Some previous literature suggested that KOC was about to replace KOL. This article mainly

studies the difference between the marketing strategy of KOL and KOC. The core idea of this paper is to

research the different effects of KOC and KOL on makeup goods. Based on the conclusions of the research,

this paper suggests that the beauty industry should make marketing strategies in the direction of co-existence

of KOC and KOL.

1 INTRODUCTION

Key opinion leader and key opinion consumer

marketing has become the primary way to pro-mote

products, especially in the makeup category. With the

rapid development of social media platforms and e-

commerce, the internet influencer economy was born

and became a new trend. As a result, many brands,

especially makeup brands use KOL and KOC

marketing strat-egies to help them promote and sell

products (Nidoli, 2024). KOL marketing refers to key

opinion leader marketing, which is a marketing

strategy in which a brand company collabo-rates with

internet influencers, celebrities, or industry

professionals to promote a product. These influencers

can use social media platforms as role models to share

their experiences and effects on makeup, reduce the

time it takes for audiences to understand product

information, and purchase uncertainty (Shi, 2024).

KOC marketing is also a product promotion strategy,

which is a strategy for brands to promote their goods

by using a large number of brand follow-ers, who are

ordinary consumers. However, KOL marketing is

controversial because most peo-ple believe that

celebrities or internet influencers who explain the

effects of products are unre-al and that they may be

controlled by the brand company or are contractually

bound to tell about the benefits of the goods or even a

false experience of using it (Zhu & Ratasuk, 2024).

Therefore, KOC marketing has become a more

popular way to be promoted by the public. KOC

marketing emphasizes real usage scenarios and

authentic use experiences, promoting stronger trust

between people (ibid., 2024). Although KOC

marketing has a larger audience, KOL marketing can

improve the promotion and sales of brand products

because KOL market-ing will involve celebrities or

internet influencers, and their voice and representation

are stronger than ordinary people. Both of these

marketing methods generate significant revenue for

brand companies, while also influencing consumers'

desire to buy (Nguyen, 2024). These two marketing

methods have always coexisted on social media

platforms and have not disap-peared at present.

However, most people don't understand why these two

marketing strategies can coexist all the time on social

media platforms, in addition, many people don't know

the difference between these two marketing strategies

and the communication effect they gener-ate.

Research these questions will help people better

understand KOL and KOC marketing. Therefore, this

article will first take Florasis and Perfect Diary as

examples to study the effec-tiveness and impact of

Dai, Y. and Li, Y.

Research on the Different Effects and Inﬂuences of KOL and KOC in the Marketing of Makeup Goods in China.

DOI: 10.5220/0013985300004916

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2025), pages 25-31

ISBN: 978-989-758-778-8

KOL and KOC marketing on brand communication.

After that, this paper will make a comparative analysis

of the two marketing strategies in terms of communi-

cation methods and communication content to study

their specific differences. Finally, this paper will

explore the reasons for moving from KOL marketing

to KOC marketing, and ex-plore the reasons why these

two marketing strategies can coexist on today's

Chinese social media platforms.

2 THE ANALYSIS OF THE KOL

MARKETING STRATEGY OF

FLORASIS

2.1 The Usefulness and Impact of Kol

on the Products

Florasis is a Chinese makeup brand, also known as

Huaxizi. It incorporates elements of tradi-tional

Chinese aesthetics into makeup. Over the years,

Huaxizi has been using KOL market-ing strategies to

promote its products, such as its in-depth cooperation

with Internet celebrity Jiaqi Li. For example, internet

influencer Jiaqi Li sells and promotes Hua Xizi's

makeup sets, which feature traditional Chinese silver

carvings (Nidoli, 2024). Because of his promotion,

the makeup set has received more than 90 million

views on Weibo, while his product promotion video

has also received 20 million views (ibid., 2024). As

the most influential promoter of the Huaxizi brand,

Jiaqi Li also participates in the design and

development of brand products, which is a right that

ordinary brand spokespersons do not have (Lu, 2023).

Such cooperation will not only promote product

promotion but while increase the communication

between Hua Xizi and Jiaqi Li so that he can fully

understand the effect and information of makeup

(ibid., 2023). So that he can explain the usefulness,

usage, and effect of makeup to consumers clear-ly

when promoting.

2.2 Deep Cooperation Between KOL

and Florasis

In addition to the role of product promotion for the

brand Huaxizi, Jiaqi Li can also promote China's

characteristic traditional culture. For example, Hua

Xizi produced a commercial star-ring influencer Jiaqi

Li and supermodel Juan Du, which was used not only

to promote makeup but also traditional Chinese Dai

culture, the most obvious Dai element in the ad was

the Dai peacock totem, which was viewed more than

200,000 times on Weibo (Nidoli, 2024). This shows

that the public agrees with this promotion method

because it uses novel methods to spread the national

culture and let more people know about the Dai

culture. Moreover, the brand also promoted new

products with Dai characteristics, killing two birds

with one stone. Huaxizi combines traditional culture

with internet influencer Jiaqi Li through his traffic to

in-crease brand awareness while showcasing the

beauty of Chinese tradition (Lu, 2023). The brand's

approach to working with KOL is more popular with

the masses because it conveys cultural uniqueness and

the national pride of mass consumers (ibid., 2023).

2.3 Innovative Marketing Between

Florasis and KOL

Florasis aims to spread the unique concept of

integrating traditional culture and products more

widely. Florasis and Jiaqi Li co-produced the

documentary 'Intangible of Non-generic Cultural

Heritage', which mainly showcases Florasis's concept

of promoting intangible cultural heritage for mass

consumers, which Jiaqi Li is the main actor in the

documentary (ibid., 2023). Flora-sis leverages Jiaqi

Li's online reach to let more consumers know about

the Florasis brand and their makeup products. When

mass consumers learn that Florasis is also a company

that pro-motes traditional intangible culture, they will

actively participate in brand activities or buy

products, because it uses the psychological factors of

national pride or identity in the hearts of Chinese

people to stimulate people's desire to buy. Florasis has

transformed Jiaqi Li from a simple product salesman

into a long-term brand partner, and Li Jiaqi's fans

have also become Florasis fans when buying makeup

products (ibid., 2023).

3 THE ANALYSIS OF KOC

MARKETING STRATEGY OF

PERFECT DIARY

3.1 Recruitment of KOC

Perfect Diary has built up a private Traffic pool of

over 15,000 influencers and consumers who are the

ambassadors of the brand. Perfect Diary understands

the power of social media, espe-cially on TikTok,

where the brand has successfully expanded its

influence through its official account and cooperation

with a large number of KOC. Perfect Diary works

with KOCs around the world, covering a variety of

PRMC 2025 - International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication

content forms such as recommendations, reviews, and

makeup tutorials to ensure that brands can reach more

potential users.

Brands need to understand the target audience.

Research the age, gender, location, and oth-er key

characteristics of the ideal customer, as well as the

topics, hobbies, or product catego-ries that interest

them. Their personal stories and product anecdotes

can bring the product closer to the heart. For example,

Perfect Diary's KOC can share how specific makeup

products have helped them achieve their beauty goals

and boost their confidence.

3.2 Community Marketing

Perfect Diary operates through the WeChat public

number matrix and community, using the essence of

social media to 'spread'. On the social media platform,

deep links are used between users and users. And then

achieve rapid spread after product launch through

such links to deepen brand barriers. And realize the

re-purchase of users. This may involve the cultivation

and utilization of KOC.

3.3 Virtual KOC Role

Perfect Diary created a virtual KOC character,

'Xiaowanzi', to establish one-to-one contact with

consumers through WeChat, provide personalized

customer service, and guide consum-ers to join

Wechat groups to share information about new

products, sales, and promotions. Perfect Diary

encourages consumers to add virtual KOC accounts

to receive cash rewards so that they can convert

public traffic to private traffic. Once consumers join

the private domain traffic pool, Perfect Diary begins

to retain these customers through social platforms and

send promotional information. Perfect Diary

effectively uses KOC marketing mechanisms to drive

brand impact and sales conversions while enhancing

consumer engagement and loyalty.

4 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

KOC AND KOL

4.1 Analysis of Marketing

Communication Method

4.1.1 Visual Marketing

In 2019 the makeup market size in China expanded

larger and led the industry, the market share reached

38% (Wu, 2022). The core of KOL marketing lies in

leveraging the authority and expertise of these key

opinion leaders to influence consumers in specific

industries. KOL is seen as a more trusted source of

branded content than traditional influencers. When

choos-ing KOL, the brand needs to judge whether its

fan base is highly concordant with the target market.

The planning of cooperation content should fully

integrate the personality characteris-tics and brand

style of KOL, and make the advertising content both

real and appealing through custom-tailored creation.

KOL works with brands, especially in the FMCG

sector. Companies usually use live streaming to let

KOL communicate with their fans in real time,

showing the product and solving questions. This

interaction can improve trust and loyalty be-tween the

brand and customers. Perfect Diary has a large

number of users with its live stream. This will make

consumers impulse purchase and exceed their

original spending expectations. Trends in visual

marketing include choosing vertical and delivery

matrices. Choose vertical is a measure that lets fans'

quantity transfer to quality, and vertical KOL

marketing value rises. Vertical KOLs are increasingly

favored by brands because of their deeper

professionalism and more refined fan quality.

Compared with KOL, KOC's influence is

relatively concentrated, mainly in a specific social

circle or interest group, their content is more real,

close to the people, and can penetrate deep-ly into the

minds of potential consumers. They create authentic,

visual content like product reviews and posts that

align with their personal lives, appealing to followers

who trust their opinions. KOCs post on Redbook and

DouYin with visually engaging product vlogs, tips, or

creative stories. They often shoot videos to show the

unique packaging and surprise elements of the

product. Also, KOC has frequent and in-depth

interactions with fans in the group. These activities

are increasing the sense of engagement and

interaction of the brand. Besides, KOC will be invited

to outline stores for real experiences. Then they will

share their experi-ences and feelings on social

platforms, emphasizing the perspective of ordinary

consumers.

4.1.2 Opinion Marketing

By utilizing the professionalism, influence, and

interactivity of KOL, KOL opinion marketing can

bring accurate target positioning, improve trust,

expand communication scope, and en-hance

interactivity, thus intensifying brand awareness and

product sales. Through effective strategies and

Research on the Different Effects and Inﬂuences of KOL and KOC in the Marketing of Makeup Goods in China

optimization, KOL marketing can produce significant

communication effects.

More and more consumers believe that they are

more likely to follow the recommendations of friends

and family than celebrities instead of KOL. KOC's

recommendations can play a more powerful role than

Kols in influencing consumer decisions because their

social sharing seems more natural, resulting in higher

engagement and conversion rates. KOC leans toward

original, authentic content, their content style is

natural and not artificial, and non-commercial

recommendations are more convincing. Since KOC's

content is less commercial-ized, their

recommendations are generally not influenced by the

same high compensation as Kols, which makes their

sharing more sincere.

Although the number of KOC fans is less, their

engagement is much higher influencers. KOC's fan

base tends to be more accurate, with many people

who are KOC's friends, family, or close relationships.

This small group but frequent interaction gives KOC

more real influ-ence in brand promotion.

Compared with celebrity endorsement and

Internet celebrity promotion, KOC's promotion cost

is relatively low. Brands' investment in KOC

generates more cost-effective exposure and

conversions, which can help brands reduce their

average cost of customer acquisition. Suitable for

low-cost, easy-to-distribute products: KOC is well

suited to promote products that are low-cost and easy

to transport. Brands can partner with KOC by

distributing free products at a rel-atively low cost.

The relatively low cost of KOC marketing can help

brands reduce market en-try costs and increase

market penetration. With the influence and word-of-

mouth effect of KOC, brands can quickly expand

overseas markets and achieve rapid growth.

KOC's recommendations and sharing often have a

strong personal and emotional element. Continuous

investment in KOC marketing can create a deep

emotional connection between the brand and

consumers so that consumers have a sense of

belonging and identity with the brand. As KOC's

social media presence grows, so does the brand's

visibility and influence. KOC's fan relationship is

more like trust between friends, so brands can not

only increase sales in the short term but also enhance

user loyalty through KOC's recommendations.

4.2 Comparison of KOL and KOC

Results

According to the above, here are some differences

between KOL and KOC, mainly reflected in

influence and followers, profit, Credibility, and range

of influence.

4.2.1 Influence and Followers

KOLs usually have a large number of fans, ranging

from tens of thousands to millions, and their influence

is widespread, able to cover a wide range of

audiences. KOL often has expertise and authority in

specific fields, such as fashion, technology, food, etc.

The number of KOC's followers is relatively less,

perhaps only hundreds to thousands, but their

influence is more fo-cused and precise, often active

within specific social circles or interest groups. KOC

is closer to the average consumer, and the content

shared is mostly personal experiences and real feed-

back.

4.2.2 Profit

For-profit, through cooperation with brands,

advertising placement, and sales commissions, KOL

often creates content to maintain a professional image

and fan engagement. Although it is possible for KOC

to get some revenue from recommending products, it

is more for sharing and recommending, rather than

the main means of profit. KOC's sharing focuses more

on re-ality and personal experience, building a

trusting relationship with fans.

4.2.3 Credibility

Credibility comes from KOL's expertise and

influence in a particular field. Their opinions and

suggestions are considered authoritative because they

have accumulated a certain reputation and experience

in a specific field. However, KOC's credibility comes

from its real experience and recommendations.

Because KOCs are similar to the average consumer,

their views reso-nate more with other consumers and

are considered a more authentic and trusted source of

recommendations.

4.2.4 Range of Influence

KOL's reach is broader, they have a large number of

fans and followers on social media plat-forms, and

can directly influence more consumer groups. The

scope of influence is small for KOC, mainly

concentrated in their social circles and communities.

Their recommendations and opinions mainly

influence their friends, family, and social media

followers.

KOL and KOC play different roles in brand

marketing. KOL emphasizes professionalism and

PRMC 2025 - International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication

authority, which is suitable for brand cooperative

promotion. KOC emphasizes authentici-ty and

emotional resonance, which is suitable for brand

word-of-mouth communication. Brands need to

choose KOC or KOL to cooperate reasonably

according to their own needs and the characteristics

of the target audience to achieve the best marketing

results. At the same time, KOL and KOC can also

complement and enhance each other to promote the

develop-ment and influence of the brand on social

media.

5 KOL COEXISTS WITH KOC

MARKETING

5.1 From KOL to KOC

In China, most Key opinion leaders are internet

influencers or celebrities, they have a large number of

fans, which makes KOL more commercially valuable

for brand companies because it can bring more traffic

to the brand, as long as there is traffic, the product has

a great chance of being exposed and sold. KOL

marketing is the go-to strategy for fashion brands

because the advice and explanations of key opinion

leaders are easily welcomed by fans (Yang, 2020).

When fans see an internet influencer or celebrity they

like, they will buy the product they have used.

However, if the KOL says the wrong thing or does

something wrong in the process of explaining or

promoting a product, it can also negatively impact the

brand and even reduce its followers. For example, this

is the case with Jiaqi Li, KOL of makeup brand

Florasis. Douyin is China's version of TikTok, public

opinion spreads quickly, and doing something wrong

can easily cause KOL and the brand to suffer a lot of

bad influences. It can be seen that KOL is a double-

edged sword. In addition, the content created by KOL

on social media plat-forms is becoming more and

more repetitive and less innovative, which makes the

masses bored and uninteresting. Therefore, many

ordinary people began to promote products and pro-

duce exciting and interesting content, and KOC

marketing gradually emerged. KOC is more trusted

by mass consumers because they primarily rely on

video content, interactions, and re-views to promote

products (Yang, 2020). In addition, KOC can become

friends with mass consumers and even go out and

communicate privately. Many makeup brands have

also seen the effectiveness of KOC and have started

working with KOC to promote their goods. For ex-

ample, Perfect Diary leverages key opinion

consumers to promote its products across multiple

social media platforms, key opinion consumers

produce and disseminate content from the per-

spective of mass consumers based on their product

experience (Hu, 2023). Nowadays, KOLs with more

fans on social media platforms do not mean that they

can sell a lot and be liked by mass consumers, KOCs

with exciting and interesting content are more popular

with the gen-eral public, at the same time, their

product promotion content is more likely to be recom-

mended by social media platforms (Yang, 2020). As

a result, KOL marketing has become less popular

with the masses than KOC marketing.

5.2 Marketing of Chinese Internet

Celebrities

Today, Chinese makeup brands are increasingly

relying on digital social media to operate, and brands

are not only looking to increase sales of their

products, but they also want to form a close

communication relationship with the mass consumer

while protecting the interests of consumers. Because

of this, internet influencers have become more

economical, KOL and KOC also need to be used by

many fashion brands as a new marketing strategy, as

they can turn viewers into buyers (Nidoli, 2024).

KOL and KOC are both buyers and sellers. Therefore,

a good web influencer must have the ability to

provide quick feedback and excellent customer

service to ensure smooth and close communication

with consumers to get them to purchase products

based on their product presentation (Yang, 2020). In

addition, content diversification is also an area where

online influencers need to improve, as the promotion

and sales of prod-ucts on self-media platforms depend

on the content created by these online influencers. For

example, online influencers can add buying

suggestions, matching suggestions, tips and tricks,

and price discounts to their creative content (Yang,

2020). Therefore, the product prices and activities

promoted by KOL and KOC on self-media platforms

need to be more cost-effective and cheaper than

physical stores. For example, their products can be

sold at a lower price than the original brand store,

many times they can use a sample to sell multiple

products at a lower price, which is also a reflection of

excellent customer service, consumers can use the

trial to try the product effect first, if it is not suitable

for consumers, they can also return the goods to

ensure the rights and interests of consumers. In

addition, these people are differ-ent from ordinary

people, they need to have a beautiful or handsome

appearance and have a good positive attitude towards

Research on the Different Effects and Inﬂuences of KOL and KOC in the Marketing of Makeup Goods in China

the product to be favored by the public, the first

impression of online influencers is crucial (Yang,

2020). Moreover, with the rapid development of

online shopping and the influencer economy,

celebrities or influencers who endorse various brands

on social media platforms are now the main reference

objects for the public, especially young people

(Meng, 2023). Online influencers also have the dual

role of persuader and facilita-tor, their behavior

influences the audience's attitude towards the

product, and they need to in-troduce the product in an

exaggerated tone and exaggerated action in the live

streaming (Sun & Tian, 2024). After that, consumers

know that the KOLs are sponsored by the brand, and

the KOL must clearly state the effectiveness and

usefulness of the cosmetics, if the consumers buy the

cosmetics but the product does not work as perfectly

as they say, the consumers will question the

authenticity of the brand's products, in addition, they

will bring negative reviews about the brand and the

influencer (Nidoli, 2024). This requires influencers or

celebrities to have a detailed understanding of the

production process, production materials, makeup

effects, and usefulness of cosmetics so that they can

have more information for mass consumers to re-fer

to when selling and promoting products and

strengthen the public's desire and purchase

possibilities (Meng, 2023). To protect the interests of

consumers, brands need to use both KOL and KOC

marketing strategies because the two complement

each other. Subsequently, makeup brands need to

consider whether their skin type and appearance

match the beauty concerns that makeup products can

solve when choosing KOL and KOC, who meet the

re-quirements will be more likely to attract the

attention of consumers of the same skin type when

making product descriptions (Nidoli, 2024).

6 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, through research, it is found that KOL

marketing can greatly increase the ex-posure and

followers of products, and even facilitate brand

companies to spread the company's philosophy and

values to the public. KOC marketing is a marketing

strategy close to the pub-lic, KOC can have deeper

and closer communication with consumers so that

consumers can clearly understand the usefulness and

usage of the product is in line with themselves, and at

the same time, it is convenient for the brand to carry

out secondary communication. However, KOL

marketing is not as popular as KOL marketing

because if the product effect that con-sumers back is

not as good as the KOL explains, they will have a

certain risk of public opinion and even affect the sales

of the brand when promoting and introducing the

product. In addi-tion, KOL is not as close to the

people as KOC because KOL signs contracts with

brand com-panies and they have to tell the good side

of the product, the product introduction is not nec-

essarily true. Subsequently, the product promotion

content released by KOLs on media plat-forms is not

novel and the content is relatively similar, which

makes it difficult to attract con-sumers' purchase or

attention. Therefore, KOL must have a full

understanding of the product before they can

publicize and explain, such as the production and

processing process of the product, the raw materials

of the product, and the harm of the product to the

human body. At the same time, the type of content

they publish on social media platforms cannot be

single and the content style is innovative, more

product information must be added to it to attract

consumers. Subsequently, since most consumers are

young people, the tone and actions of KOL during

live streaming need to be a little exaggerated to affect

them. Although KOC mar-keting is more authentic

and popular than KOL, it is difficult to bring more

revenue and ex-posure to brand companies, which is

a business value that brand companies need very

much. Consumers' pre-purchase behavior is not only

influenced by the product introduction of influ-encers

or celebrities but also by social factors, such as the

word-of-mouth and purchase rec-ommendations of

most people in society, KOC refers to these people.

Therefore, KOL and KOC coexist in the context of

the boom of the internet influencer economy, both are

indis-pensable.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTION

All the authors contributed equally and their names

were listed in alphabetical order.

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Research on the Different Effects and Inﬂuences of KOL and KOC in the Marketing of Makeup Goods in China