What to Know About the Beauty & Personal Care Marketplace
Updated: Jun 16, 2023
Beauty and grooming brand owners and marketing miracle makers in the mass, professional, and premium markets are always researching new and innovative ways to expand in two markets: Gen Z and the millennials who buy specifically from the mass and professional categories. In order to reach this population, they have to understand what makes them “tick” and why they are loyal to products.
These two generations research Er-thang. And it goes beyond brands with AI tools that allow lip color and foundation try-ons. Product developers have to show awareness of and participation in environmental preservation and social/global responsibility.
Beauty and personal care brands recognize the need to define commonality between people and seek to break stereotypes and open doors for relatability to both the product and consumers. The market is flooded with product brands, and campaigns promoting diversity, inclusion, and reliability with messages about integrity toward global, social, and environmental impact.
One commonality between most beauty brand CMOs and CEOs is their need to stay true to the vision of benefiting the world through resourcing communities, the environment, and inner and outer self-improvement - young and old. Many CMOs are committed to the social and environmental sustainability of their company’s product lines and its suppliers. They are also committed to living green at home in their personal lives. The big fear for beauty and skincare brand managers is critics publicly shaming the brand for a “missed” social purpose. Other fears are overreaching, i.e., Starbucks’ holiday red cup, when the public responded with feelings of offense by Starbucks' attempt to be inclusive. Or fears over-saturation of marketing and sustainability, and consumers being inundated with messages of “purchase with a purpose” so to speak.
Breakthrough
One CEO did it well. Sundial Brands which manufactures Shea Moisture, accomplished what many black founders have not been able to. Another monumental accomplishment of this company is its “Breaking the Walls” campaign. Products for black and multicultural consumers being separated from the beauty products aisle and placed in the “ethnic” aisle in the back of personal care sections in stores is CANCELED. This hit!
It never occurred to me this was an issue that could be or should be addressed, and the fact that a black-owned and operated company had the audacity to pioneer such a paradigm shift is a phenomenal accomplishment.
Packaging is a Thing
A beauty brand conundrum is how to package their products to appeal to the consumer with the least capital and capture the greatest consumer slice: the millennials and Generation Zs. Lextant research on millennials shows that these groups of consumers have different motivations, fleeting brand loyalty, and different expectation than previous generations. This group is interested in what makes them feel “extraordinary”. They don’t care about the packaging of the product, they want to know about the product - the integrity of the ingredients, its history, and how to use the product for the best results. Brands need a story. Is it cruelty-free and earth friendly?, etc. Brands need to nurture a sense of self-defining for young consumers. They want to live between” weird” and “blending in”. They are not interested in trends (millennials, not gen. Z, I would imagine), but in what works for them. Brands need technology such as scan boxes and virtual try-on. Brands need to have a technology arm that will connect young consumers with experts. All of this information is being made available in an engaging format, not just paper package inserts anymore.
