BEAUTY REPORT: UNILEVER


South East Asian airports, but it is all in negotiation. “The low-cost traveller and youth


is what we know well. The mass consumer travels and [the question is] how do you capture that.” Such is the scale of the Korean


beauty opportunity that market growth is outpacing the rate of Unilever’s pursuit of a larger share of the category itself. Aside AHC, Unilever is responding


to greater demand for male grooming products. “With Toni & Guy we are entering


a new foray and introducing the beard range,” Tian Poh confirms. “This is very new for us and a


beautiful gifting item. We expect it to do extremely well.” However, the pursuit of key


strategic objectives in beauty remains rooted with AHC. “The biggest intensity we have


at the moment is on AHC itself,” according to Tian Poh. “The idea is to get this out


to the world. Korean beauty is exponentially growing. It is a best quality product but accessible in terms of price. “On top of that it is very much in


line with the current Korean culture of almost perfect skin. The idea was to encourage young people to begin to take care of their skin. There is a clear strategy in rolling out this brand.” Looking to the market, perfume


and cosmetics has further solidified its status as the global DF&TR category frontrunner in the past 12 months. In the case of Asia Pacific, sales


grew by 19.9% to total $14bn in 2017 – comfortably outpacing nearest rivals fashion & accessories, which grew its revenue by 6.2% to $4.5bn. “Our strategy for AHC is to get


new people into the market,” says Tian Pohn. “We have other brands in our portfolio, but we have not gone into that particular space [beauty & personal care] yet because we need to consolidate. “The vision is to bring more


brands into the foray. We have acquired and organically created a lot of brands that can fit into this arena. To understand this more and tackle it you need to do a


JUNE 2018


pure segmentation.” An estimated $2bn in extra


sales forecast this year would add a lucrative throw of the dice for South Korea’s $10bn estimated duty free market. Like its fellow categories, P&C is not immune to external macro-economic and market factors, but the trajectory is nonetheless healthy. “If you ask me if there is a limit to


global beauty products, intentionally I don’t think so,” states Tian Poh. “If you look at South East Asia alone, you are probably speaking about 60% of people who still don’t use a face cleanser. Sometimes it’s not about whether a product is transformative, its about the relaxation. If you can achieve that with the traveller that is a winning combination.”


Daigou: a healthy trajectory? The staggering rise in the daigou shuttle-trading phenomenon is a well-noted trend of late, linked to some degree by China’s restriction of group tour groups into South Korea over the disputed THAAD anti- missile system. The question remains whether


such traders, who often ferry large quantities of beauty products into their home markets to avoid paying luxury import duties, is healthy for the prospects of the duty free business. “You can look at it from two


perspectives: If there are people willing to buy the brand, there must be demand when people buy, sell and trade,” comments Tian Poh. “My view has always been that


the quality of the product speaks, but the price and market decides. If


“The vision is to bring more brands into the foray. We have acquired and organically created a lot of brands that can fit into this arena. To understand this more and tackle it you need to do a pure segmentation.”


Sze Tian Poh, Personal Care Lead SEA & Australasia Cluster, Unilever


every intermediary begins to take too much margin out of that price and quality equation, then daigou has a role to play.” Tian Poh agrees that the


phenomenon is being perpetuated by conditions that dictate higher margins and retailers taking bigger shares. “You are not living in the old world


where you don’t know the price,” he reminds TRBusiness. “Now, your travel is cheap.” “Internet or digital will take over


all these intermediaries in a big way if you don’t add value. Daigou is one of those intermediaries in a physical form at the moment. “Can we control it? No. The


only thing we can control is our relationship with the retailers and distributors.” «


Top: The Toni & Guy Beard Care line is new to travel retail.


Underlying sales growth in emerging markets contributed €5.1bn to Unilever’s €12.6bn Q1 turnover. Source: Unilever.


TRBUSINESS 43


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78