The $350+ billion global cosmetics industry is comprised of six main product classes: fragrances, hair care, makeup, oral care, skin care, and toiletries. According to our research, skin care products i, account for about 30% of global sales and is the largest product class. The market that changes frequently, with new innovations, shifts in consumer preferences, and mergers and acquisitions altering the landscape each year presents new niches and opportunities… lesser known spaces that are often untapped. Therefore, Kline research, rigorously tracking information for the beauty and cosmetic market, has shifted priority on these new niches and now offers a full range of market research reports that examine these otherwise unmonitored spaces, including professional beauty, natural cosmetics and personal care, beauty devices, and alternate channels of distribution.
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General Cosmetics and Personal Care Market |
When Kline first started reporting on the cosmetics market in the 1960’s with the inaugural edition of its Cosmetics and Toiletries research report, cosmetic packaging was mainly in glass bottles and jars. Many of today’s stalwart brands like Dove and Clinique were just debuting. The number of working women was on the rise, significantly boosting sales of color cosmetics. The competitive landscape was highly diversified, with producers falling distinctly into one of three buckets: soap, drug, and cosmetic.
By the 1970’s, the disco era was in full swing, giving way to cosmetic collections featuring glittery eyes and full lips. Cosmetic packaging had begun to shift to plastic containers and cardboard boxes. Olay (then Oil of Olay) was acquired by Richardson-Merrell and quickly expanded into a category leader. Maybelline and Avon were also among the leading players, and the newbie list included Caress, Irish Spring, and Coast.
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Big Hair as an Incentive for the Professional Hair Care Products Research |
The 1980s brought with it bold looks and big hair. Sales of volumizing mousses exploded, and consumers visited salons in droves to have their hair professionally permed. The number of salons steadily rose, and hair salons carried more retail products than ever. During this boom, Kline debuted the first edition of its Salon Hair Care market research report to help clients better assess opportunities in the highly dynamic and unmonitored professional hair care space. It was the first of many report titles by Kline to address explosive niches.
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Transformation within Beauty Retailing |
The 1990s was a decade of transformation for the cosmetics industry. True innovations emerged including 2-in-1-shampoos and pore strips. Many prominent trends of today saw their beginnings during that time, including makeup artist brands, designer/celebrity fragrances, and the bath and body trend. A revolution in retail was simultaneously taking place, with cosmetic specialty stores popping up all over the world. New retail chains and formats opened in record-breaking numbers, with Bath & Body Works and Sephora at the forefront. Big box discounters like Walmart and Target became retail powerhouses, threatening drug stores and mom-and-pop shops. It was during this retailing paradigm shift that Kline introduced the first edition of its Beauty Retailing research report to help its clients better assess the rapidly changing landscape of the fast-paced beauty retailing market.
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Professional Skin Care Products – the Serious Skin Care |
The 1990s also witnessed the beginnings of “serious” skin care. Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) emerged, triggering an endless string of new performance-oriented skin treatments. Avon introduced Anew, considered to be one of the company’s most successful launches in its history. By the early 2000s, consumers demanded results when it came to their beauty products, many turning to their dermatologists and cosmetic plastic surgeons for a quick skin care fix. Doctor brands such as Perricone and Dr. Brandt hit the retail scene, while the spa sector boomed with brands like Murad, Decleor, and Yon-Ka. To address this rising niche Kline launched the first edition of its Professional Skin Care market research report during this burst of activity covering all consumable topical skin care products sold through and used in professional channels of distribution, such as doctors’ offices, beauty institutes and hair salons, and spas.
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Rising Awareness of Toxicity Makes the Natural Personal Care Market Boom |
During the 2000’s, the movement toward natural and organic cosmetics and personal care products also began to take shape. Growing consumer awareness and concern over potentially toxic ingredients, escalated by celebrity and media hype, helped drive sales of “natural” cosmetics across the world. A growing supply of natural ingredients also made it easier for cosmetic marketers to address these concerns. Kline introduced its Natural Personal Care research report series during this time, which not only assessed the market opportunity and competitive landscape, but also devised a proprietary 10-point scale to rate each brand on the degree of “naturalness” of their formulations, helping to demystify the cloudy definition of “natural.”
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Men’s Grooming is in |
In the early 2000’s, the market for men’s grooming products also outpaced total cosmetic market growth, as a wider array of brands and products designed specifically for men’s needs became available. The cosmetics and personal care market was flooded with a plethora of new products and brands targeted to men including Nivea for Men, Axe, Zirh, Anthony Logistics, and Jack Black while mainstays like Old Spice and Gillette reinvented themselves. Kline debuted the first edition of its Male Grooming study in 2003 to address this growing phenomenon.
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Technology Drives Skin Care, as well as Shopping, and Goes as far as Altering the Nail Care Industry |
By 2010, technology and gadgetry firmly gripped our world. Smartphones and tablets became essential commodities. In the cosmetics market, this tech boom translated to powered cleansers, lasers, and hair removal devices for at-home use. Tech savvy consumers, a propensity for DIY products, and a perpetual level of dissatisfaction when it comes to skin concerns created perfect conditions for a new market for cosmetic devices to flourish. Hencea new research by Kline on the Beauty Devices Market is born.
Technology also changed how and where people shopped for cosmetics. Mobile apps and social media quickly became part of the marketing mix. The beauty consumer’s path to purchase became unclear as offline and online shopping became more intertwined than ever before. Alternate shopping channels and sub-channels once touted by many in the cosmetics and fragrance industry as being “negligible” or “insignificant” emerged as “essential” for the growth of brands. Digital shopping has moved from the peripheral to the epicenter of a brand’s distribution strategy. Kline’s Alternate Channel Monitor, an offshoot of its Beauty Retailing study, debuted to help cosmetic marketers better assess these rapid changes in the retailing landscape specific to beauty and personal care products. Kline also developed Shop Scout, a one-of-a-kind research service that offers unrivaled access to shopper opinions and insights captured while they are in the retail environment by using cutting-edge mobile GPS technology.
Technological advancements also helped create an explosion on the nail market in the early 2010’s, thanks to the introduction of Shellac gel polish by CND. Never before had a long-lasting/low damage manicure been available. Soon a smattering of gel products appeared, and the global professional nail care market surged by more than 30%. Amidst this market boom, Kline introduced its first Professional Nail Care research.
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The Rise of Ethnic Consumers |
All the while, the demographic makeup of the consumers was shifting each year. By 2013, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and other people of color made up more than one-third of the U.S. population, with their spending power quickly rising. The beauty and grooming needs of non-Caucasians are unique, diverse, and sometimes disparate. From hair and skin textures to varied cultural beauty norms, the differences between races and ethnic groups demand definitive formulations and appropriate marketing messages to truly court relevancy, acceptance, and success. To analyze this rapidly changing segment of the cosmetics market, Kline launched a new study Multicultural Beauty and Grooming Products.
Kline predicts that the cosmetics and toiletries industry will continue to experience moderate, yet positive growth through the next several decades. New innovations and product and ingredient trends will undoubtedly continue to be the industry’s growth engine. As the cosmetic market evolves each year, Kline will remain at the forefront to quickly assess the opportunities of niche markets as they emerge.
