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Cosmetics Industry Spotlight

Cosmetics Industry Spotlight

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 andis 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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Amplify B2B Innovation

Breaking the Mold: Five Ways to Amplify B2B Innovation

Innovation has been called the “lifeblood of the organization,” fueling the development of new and improved products and services, identifying ways to satisfy unmet customer needs, and creating growth and value for the business. While innovation is most often discussed in a B2C context, many B2B companies have also earned recognition for tremendous strides in implementing a culture of innovation.

Despite the success of companies such as BASF and Dow, there are still many other B2B executives who are concerned about the ROI of innovation within their own companies and are worried that “they do not do innovation well.”

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Recent OTC Innovation: Observations and Implications for Future Growth

Recent OTC Innovation: Observations and Implications for Future Growth

Innovation is the lifeblood of the OTC industry. From a business perspective, it drives growth, and from a public health perspective, it better satisfies consumers’ health needs. Because innovation is so important, Kline and IRI have collaborated to examine recent OTC launches and identified their success factors including: A point of difference, big or small, real or imagined, to better address patient needs
Expert awareness-generating, heavy advertising and promotion investment
Brand equity plays
The nine brands included in this assessment and shown on the timeline graphic in Table 1, have the following characteristics and were chosen for inclusion jointly by Kline and IRI:

Launched between 2010 to 2014
A mix of Rx-to-OTC switches, new and line extensions of monograph items, and supplements
Part of IRI’s New Products Pacesetters tracking and annual review
Significant media support
Experienced double-digit growth the year after launch
Still growing in Year 2

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Brain Health: Unlocking White Space Potential for the OTC Industry

There are significant opportunities for OTC marketers in the area of brain health. This is an area of serious concern for many individuals who either have the disease or wish to avoid succumbing to it. Current prescription drugs offer treatment for individuals with advanced levels of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, with mixed results. However, many consumers, seeing first-hand results of brain disease in elderly parents and relatives, are eager to maintaintheir own brain health and prevent or delay the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

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Natural OTCs: Impact of Non-drug Products on the U.S. OTC Market

Growing consumer interest in natural OTCs is mirroring widespread consumer interest in seeking more natural and less synthetic products across many categories, from food and beverages to personal care products to OTCs. Natural OTCs are drug-free and may contain natural, plant, or herbal ingredients, or be homeopathic, and are used to support, prevent, maintain, or treat minor ailments such as colds, insomnia, aches and pains, or skin problems. Retailers merchandise natural alternatives near OTC medication sections or even within the same planogram. Retailers are increasingly dedicating prime areas of stores to natural OTCs, such as high visibility end-cap displays as the example below from a Target store shows. Online sales of natural OTCs are also growing fast along with sales through natural and specialty stores focused on natural products, such as Whole Foods, Sprout, and Trader Joe’s.

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Base Oil and Lubricants Markets

The Collapse in Crude Oil Prices: How is it Impacting Base Oil and Lubricants Markets?

Price volatility on the global commodity markets is an accepted fact of life, but when does short-term volatility become a trend, and what are the underlying causes behind that trend? It is hard enough to analyze those effects in mainstream oil markets because of the wide separation between cost and value, but even more challenging when assessing short-term dynamics in specialty products markets, such as those for base oils and lubricants.

In this paper, we will address several topics:
1. The Collapse in Crude Oil and Refined Products Pricing
2. Apparent Trends in Near-term Lube Oil Consumption
3. Impacts on Base Oil Production and Profitability
4. Impacts on Margins in Lube Marketing

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Even in Flat or Markets with No Growth, “Premium” Lubricants Offer Many Opportunities—Are You Ready to Play?

Even in Flat or Markets with No Growth, “Premium” Lubricants Offer Many Opportunities—Are You Ready to Play?

Lubricant demand is impacted by many factors such as vehicle/equipment/machinery sales and production, miles driven, operating rates, fuel prices, employment, synthetic penetration, industrial production and activity, OEM technical demand, maintenance practices, fluid drain intervals, government and industry policies, transportation preferences, construction activity, infrastructure spending, consumer behavior, and GDP growth. Demand for high performance, “premium” quality lubricants is expected to accelerate in both developed and developing country markets, regardless of whether there is overall top level growth, stagnation, or contraction.

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Data Over Supply

Some Data May be Cheap, but Could Prove Expensive: the Untold Stories

Companies are confronted on a daily, even hourly, basis with the need for data about their own businesses and intelligence about their competitors. Easily available, secondary data may be adequate for the purpose provided that they are reliable. Unfortunately, that is the essence of the problem: is secondary data reliable?

Complex Strategies Based on Questionable Data
All too often companies spend an inordinate amount of time and effort constructing complex strategies based on questionable, unvalidated data. Companies prepared to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on an acquisition appear ready (or resigned) to pay for good legal, tax, and environmental advice, but may base the commercial analysis on casual data found on various unsubstantiated websites.

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