Gaining insight into consumers’ beauty habits to better tailor product innovations and marketing strategies is paramount at a time when brands are facing increasing challenges to distinguish and diversify existing portfolios. The global beauty industry is characterised by constant evolution through high intensity of innovation and changing consumer preferences on multiple levels: as people age their skin and hair changes, their spending power evolves and as they become aware of new trends their attitudes and beauty routines take a new dimension.
Most time spent on caring for hair but highest usage frequency in skin care
Time spent on grooming, frequency of usage and number of products used are all important indicators to better understand consumers’ selection priorities, desired product features and required benefits.
Time Spent on Grooming
On a global level, a higher ratio of consumers spend more than 10 minutes a day caring for their hair than on skin care or on applying make-up. However, country level differences are significant; in Brazil one third of the respondents spend more than 20 minutes a day caring for their hair but in Japan and Australia one third of the surveyed consumers spend less than 5 minutes on hair care.
These differences are clearly manifested through consumers’ choice of most desired product features and claimed benefits. In Brazil, 59% of consumers stated that they seek hydrating/moisturising benefits from their hair care product. In Japan, only 9% of respondents selected hydrating/moisturising as a desired benefit for hair care products, and gloss enhancing and damage repair were most in demand. Key differences in hair type are indicative of the most desired product features. In Brazil, a higher than global average number of consumers have curly or wavy hair and nearly 14% of respondents stated they wear their hair chemically straightened or relaxed, which requires efficient moisturising hair care products to maintain a healthy appearance.
Information on the regional diversity of most desired product benefits aids innovation, allowing manufacturers to better target select consumers. It also provides a means to evaluate the level of market development.
Although more consumers spend a longer time on caring for their hair on a daily basis, they tend to use and buy skin care products more frequently than hair care products. The survey results help identify gaps where higher usage frequency of various hair care products will generate further growth via relevant functionality claims. For example, hair conditioner (including hair treatments) is the most frequently used hair care product after wet and dry shampoos, but still one quarter of respondents stated that they are unclear about the product’s benefits, and unconvinced of the necessity to use it, citing these as the key obstacles to usage.
Hair Care: Usage and Buying Frequency
The stronger promotion of multi-step hair care regimens and reinforcing more targeted benefits, similar to skin care, could aid growing usage frequency of many products. There is scope for the introduction of new product types into more consumers’ hair care routines, such as sun protectors, hair masks, oils, serums or emulsions.
Skin Care: Usage and Buying Frequency
Evolution of new products show increasing market sophistication
BB/CC creams’ rapid rise in popularity has been one of the most important growth engines of colour cosmetics in recent years and these products have shown the highest adoption rates in the past three years. The category has registered double-digit year-on-year growth since 2012 and BB/CC line extensions performed best in many global brands’ portfolios, such as L’Oréal’s Garnier BB cream or Procter & Gamble’s Olay Total Effects CC Cream.
Adoption of New Colour Cosmetics Products
Following the adoption of new products, brand owners need to remain engaged with consumers’ evolving needs in order to sustain product relevance as part of established beauty regimens. Some 30% of respondents stated that the reason for buying BB/CC creams was to try something new and 25% of them purchased with the aim of simplifying their routines. The most desired product functionality features consumers require from BB/CC creams are hydration, even skin tone and sun protection, which indicates the blurring lines between skin care and functional colour cosmetics. Although consumers are looking to take advantage of multiple benefits in a single product to simplify their routines, in order to remain relevant, high efficacy and continuous advancement remain key.
Product innovation in relatively new categories needs to be aligned with key purchase motivators to identify trend directions and in turn gain traction in a wide range of markets.
Euromonitor’s Beauty Survey found that current usage patterns in hair care offer scope to routine expansion and promotion of a wider range of product categories, such as hair sun protection, anti-aging hair serums and treatments. The blurring line between skin care and colour cosmetics highlights the need for continuous assessment of the priorities of one’s core consumer base in the evolving market environment.