Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the CEW West Coast event, which is centered around one of my favorite topics—beauty devices. The event was well-attended by 250+ members and held at the very elegant and welcoming Shutters hotel in Santa Monica, CA.
I kicked off the meeting by sharing some of the topline influencers of today’s beauty devices market, along with exciting findings from our recently published Beauty Devices: Global Market Analysis and Opportunities report. As noted in our report, there’s certainly a need for more technology-based newness and opportunities to capture additional beauty device consumers through lower price points.
Photo credit: Adamsville Photography
Dermalogica founder and owner Jane Wurand energetically moderated the event, which was a panel discussion where I was joined by Marina Randolph, CMO of La Lumiere, and Paul Peros, founder of Swedish-based Foreo. Wurand probed with questions centering around how each brand is positioned, who the target consumer is, and the importance of certain elements in the marketing mix.
Photo credit: Adamsville Photography
Randolph explained how the illuMask brand opens up an entire new audience with its under $30.00 price point, which is revolutionary for an anti-aging device. On the other hand, Peros’ Foreo Luna cleansing brush is, as Wurand so aptly put it, “like the Apple of the cleansing device world.” These devices are iconic, and the feel of it is ergonomically designed. Peros brought into discussion the importance of slowly considering the next steps for their product line, as well as some of the benefits of their cleansing device, such as that it can last for months without being recharged.
Photo credit: Adamsville Photography
One takeaway that was touched on is the importance of social media. Randolph relayed stories about illuMask users taking selfies of themselves wearing the product and posting them on Instagram. She also revealed an interesting tidbit—which is that men are an important consumer for the brand’s acne mask.
The discussion evolved into what’s next on the frontier for beauty devices. Which brings me to my visit the next day with Matt Stevens and Paula Evans from University Medical’s marketing team. I had the pleasure of meeting with the brand stewards from WrinkleMD, a wearable device brand. This prestige anti-aging brand features hyaluronic-filled patches that are transmitted into the skin through micro current, addressing wrinkle-related skin care concerns, such as crow’s feet and brow parentheses.
Evans and Stevens showed me their latest trial sizes for WrinkleMD retailing at $29.99. This is a real game changer as the full size product retails for +$199.00. All in all, I realized that Randolph from La Lumiere made a very valid point relating to lower price points, which is the importance of “democratizing beauty (beauty for all).” Viva la device world!
