SPEED-TO-MARKET PACKAGING
T
he beauty industry’s ability to move between fads is borderline impressive. ‘Instagrammable’ became the phrase of the decade to make packs stand out online, while the influence of sustainability has emphasised a need for minimalist packaging, recyclable materials and refillable technology. These interchanging demands, responses to economic and social changes and attitudes towards eco-friendly is what makes beauty the lively sector that it is today, and customers want it all at the snap of a finger.
But for age-old legacy brands, being agile with their packaging and encouraging speed-to-market is not in their wheelhouse. Forbes said speed-to-market for products and technologies is “vital to ensure long term competitiveness”, and this is particularly essential for larger beauty behemoths to keep up with the nimbler drugstore competitors such as e.l.f. Cosmetics and Winky Lux.
‘Fast beauty’ has been the golden ticket via which smaller brands can compete – and it’s working. Since its inception in 2004, e.l.f. has been able to shave down its product-to-market time to a mere 13 weeks, an operation that can take some up to nine months, or even longer, and in May last year, the brand reported the greatest market growth in the US with 4.8%, according to market measurement company Nielsen. “The influx of fast-beauty players is making its mark on the industry. It’s a trend that both established beauty companies and indie brands are taking seriously,” Amanda Xuereb, founder of Beauty Trill, an extension of packaging company Toly, tells Cosmetics Business.
cosmeticsbusiness.com
And its success has sparked the lumbering Cotys and Estée Lauder Companies of the cosmetics world into launching their own dedicated in-house fast-tracking teams. “Big brands are massive ships which take a lot of time to steer in new directions. What they tend to do is pop the lifeboat over the edge and send that out for a look,” says Mintel’s Global Packaging Insights Director, Benjamin Punchard. “Most of the big brands, when they want to do something agile, launch as a whole new brand. I’ve seen a lot of small, niche brands that have been launched by the big houses in order to tap into an emerging trend because they’re testing the waters.”
By instilling these relationships, brands can ensure connections and the ability to adapt quickly to beauty’s evolving global consumer. They also help establish relationships with packaging converters that are going to be providing novel technologies going forward. “Speed-to-market is how you keep ahead of your competitors,” Punchard adds.
‘TIME IS MONEY’ With the war won against hard-to-open packs, beauty brands have swung to their antithesis with simplicity at the forefront to ensure adaptability and agility.
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