Case Study | Marubi 'Red Pen' Eye Cream: How Recombinant Dual Collagen 2.0 Drove a Heritage Brand Past ¥3.4B

I break down a legacy Chinese brand's comeback this time — Marubi. Many still remember it for the "bounce-bounce, bounce away crow's feet" TV-era ads, but the numbers tell the truth: Marubi Bio posted ¥3.459 billion in 2025 revenue, a record high; the main Marubi brand grew +23.94%; eye-care revenue hit ¥834 million at a 77.1% gross margin. The engine isn't marketing mystique — it's a self-developed ingredient moat called recombinant dual collagen 2.0.

The data, before the logic

• Group revenue: ¥3.459B in 2025, +16.48% YoY — a record since listing.
• Main brand: Marubi brand revenue ¥2.547B, +23.94% YoY, the core growth engine; PL Lianhuo revenue ¥906M (foundation segment).
• Eye-care segment: ¥834M revenue, +21.04% YoY, gross margin 77.1% (+2.1pct) — the highest-margin, sharpest-mindshare category for Marubi.
• Hero SKU status: the Red Pen eye cream topped 48 sub-category lists for the full year, holding the eye-cream bestseller crown; the Golden Needle super mask (recombinant collagen 2.0) topped Douyin's rinse-off mask list at launch.
• Channel structure: online revenue ¥3.059B, 88.56% of total, +20.42% YoY, with self-broadcast up +95%.

The key signal: Marubi's 2025 growth wasn't from piling on new SKUs — it was the concentrated blast of "one ingredient + one hero eye cream." That's exactly what I'll unpack.

Expert view (data analyst): Marubi's financials hide a tension — net profit attributable to the parent fell 27.6% to ¥247M (selling-expense ratio stays high at 59.6%), yet revenue, gross margin, and eye-care mix all rose. It's trading short-term profit for brand mindshare, betting long on eye cream as a high-margin, high-repurchase deterministic category. For OEM, eye cream is precisely the "formulation barrier buildable, margin generous" premium lane.

Target audience + pain-point match

• Who: urban white-collar women 25–45 with mature/early-aging skin, fine lines, dry lines, and dark circles around the eyes — the "stay-up-late" crowd as the core.
• Pain point: the eye area is the thinnest on the face (~0.3–0.5 mm), barrier-weak, and the first place age shows.
• Mindshare angle: shrink "eye care" from the big vague "anti-wrinkle" to a perceivable, verifiable under-eye anti-wrinkle narrow scene, then back it with "recombinant collagen" — a research story consumers can grasp.

Formula breakdown — what is recombinant dual collagen 2.0

Marubi's tech base is "recombinant dual collagen" — pairing recombinant type III collagen with another recombinant functional protein to mimic the skin's dual collagen network, targeting "support + repair" on two pathways. The technology won a Geneva International Invention Gold Award in 2026, making Marubi the only Chinese brand to win it for recombinant dual collagen.

• Hero ingredients: recombinant dual collagen 2.0 (type III collagen-led), pro-xylane (pro-xylane), niacinamide, sodium hyaluronate, peptides (acetyl hexapeptide-8 class).
• Evidence grade: recombinant collagen's "firming, repairing" claims have human-study support (grade B) — a rare case of a Chinese ingredient where the research narrative actually lands in the product; but "anti-wrinkle" claims still need human efficacy evaluation (NMPA filing requirement).
• Formula logic: eye cream = "recombinant collagen (anti-wrinkle support) + sodium hyaluronate (instant fill & moisture) + peptide (soothes expression lines)" three layers — the "efficacy + moisture + safety" framework I always cite.
• Cost estimate: recombinant collagen raw cost runs higher than ordinary peptides, but eye cream's high retail band (hundreds of yuan) gives margin room to absorb it; on the OEM side, per-unit eye-cream formula cost stays within tens of yuan, so margin is workable.

Marketing breakdown

1. Hero-SKU strategy: cut long-tail SKUs, focus on Red Pen eye cream + Golden Needle line, and concentrate budget and traffic onto one "repeatable" product name.
2. Shelf + content dual engine: Tmall does refined hero-SKU operations (topping sub-lists), Douyin does "influencer breakout + self-broadcast conversion," sinking public traffic into self-broadcast growth (self-broadcast +95%).
3. Channel-specific SKUs: offline-exclusive "collagen firming eye cream" and "energy eye oil," fully separated online/offline to protect price (paired with its strictest-ever anti-channel-conflict pricing order).
4. Topic words: "recombinant collagen," "eye-cream No.1 stock," "Geneva International Invention Gold Award," "bounce away crow's feet" — translating research credibility into consumer-grade seeding language.

QuickOEM-replicable elements

1. Bet on one self-developed ingredient: you don't need 13 self-developed recombinant proteins — pick 1–2 research-backed hero actives (recombinant collagen, cyclic hexapeptide, pro-xylane) and build a hard "ingredient = brand" link.
2. Eye cream is a high-margin deterministic lane: at 77.1% gross margin, OEM entry is friendly (eye cream/mask MOQ 500–1,000 units) — ideal for emerging brands to enter at small batch.
3. Hero SKU > full-category sprawl: focusing resources on one repeatable SKU name ("XX Pen eye cream") beats 20 SKUs for mindshare and list momentum.
4. Channel-specific SKUs protect price: online hero + offline-exclusive separated, anti-conflict pricing — channel discipline legacy brands execute better than new players.

Risk notes

1. "Instant wrinkle removal" is a red flag: under-eye anti-wrinkle is a slow variable — beware products claiming "7-day de-wrinkle" or "instant fill"; recombinant collagen's real effect needs weeks of consistent use.
2. Recombinant collagen ≠ human collagen: it's biomimetic, not identical. Don't be fooled by "replenish collagen" wording; claims must pass NMPA human efficacy evaluation.
3. High gross margin ≠ high net margin: Marubi's falling net profit shows "traffic-for-mindshare" is a double-edged sword; emerging brands shouldn't blindly burn traffic — do the fee math before scaling.

QuickOEM eye-cream OEM reference

Summary

Marubi's comeback is essentially a trio: "self-developed recombinant dual collagen + eye-cream hero SKU + channel-specific pricing." It proves that in the ingredient-saturated beauty red ocean, one ingredient with a clear research story, plus one high-margin deterministic category, can still power a legacy brand's second growth curve.

Want to enter eye cream / under-eye care OEM/ODM? QuickOEM connects top eye-care factories for recombinant collagen sourcing, eye-cream formula sampling, and five-document verification — start with one "Red Pen"-style hero SKU.

🔗 Ready to sample an eye cream or eye-care line? → https://www.quickoem.com/en/contact