COSMETICS BUSINESS LIVE
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want to look at three different areas within the future of beauty: how consumers find comfort; how beauty needs to continue taking a more inclusive approach; and how tech developments and digital will take a role in beauty going forward.
COMFORT IN BEAUTY
One of the most interesting things we’ve found in our consumer data is that consumers find a lot of comfort in the familiar. This was accentuated during lockdown, during which we didn’t experiment much and we turned to the brands we trust. We see that a lot of beauty consumers like using familiar brands; brand loyalty is very strong. Also consumers like it when ‘nostalgia’ brands are relaunched or repackaged or shown in a different light. Meaningful beauty is becoming important to consumers. Consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products and the way those products make us feel is also really important: four in five Spanish consumers say buying ethical products makes them feel good. On the flip side, overconsumption is something that turns people off. Sometimes we like a simpler way of choosing what we want and we can build in that value to sell the right thing to the consumer. Transparency is going to be the buzzword in the way we now talk about sustainability. Consumers are paying more attention to what is in their beauty products. This is partly because we’ve been greenwashed for a while, so consumers are wary about claims that are made. They trust third-party sources much more than brands themselves. Looking at fun and engagement, we also sometimes use beauty products because they are fun: we like the texture, the smell, the touch. And we see from consumer data that beauty provides empowerment. People enjoy discovering new beauty products. Again we need to build on how we reach consumers, how we educate them. Right now this is via TikTok. We’ve found that four in ten people associate TikTok with education. So ‘edu-tainment’ is becoming a really big thing, especially for younger consumers. But social media does have its pitfalls. Almost a third of teenage girls who dislike their own body feel worse when they scroll through Instagram. So, although there are so many great things about social media, it’s also interesting to see how the future of beauty is going
cosmeticsbusiness.com MINTEL
The future of beauty
Speaker Andrew McDougall
to be impacted by these beauty standards, and that leads into this more inclusive approach that beauty has to be taking going forward.
INCLUSIVE BEAUTY
Consumers are tired of being told what beauty is to them. It should not be brands saying ‘this is beauty, you should meet this standard’. It’s all about ‘what is beauty to you?’
Consumers also believe society’s view of beauty is too narrowly defined. Governments and organisations are working on that. We are seeing a big crackdown on photo-manipulation, things like photoshopping. That’s where this conversation on body positivity has moved on to. Ten years ago, body positivity was about acceptance of being a larger weight. In 2022, the message isn’t so simple. It’s about self love. It’s about plus-size but also about being healthy at any size. It includes things like disability. And finally ageing. Two thirds of US consumers agree that beauty has a problematic relationship with ageing. You do reach an age where all the messaging towards you is about your wrinkles and dying your hair. And the fun elements that you used to have in your teens and 20s and 30s, those messages aren’t appropriate to you anymore. So we’re going to have to see some of the disruptive brands talking about older people in a much more positive, fun way.
THE METAVERSE
People get excited about new technology and they love being the early
adopters. And beauty is a very pioneering industry. Things like AI and AR for trying new styles and colour palettes are a lot more sophisticated now than they were ten years ago, when they were a bit clunky.
Kylie Jenner brought shoppable livestreams, which are huge in Asia, to the US. There’s streaming shopping as well; in Japan, when you’re watching a show you can click through and buy the products that people are using. Charlotte Tilbury took a first step into the metaverse with a 360-degree immersive experience. It is these first steps into what a metaverse could be. Blockchain and digital ledger systems are really useful in beauty for supply chain transparency; crypto can be used for building communities and loyalty reward programmes amid initiatives to get more women into cryptocurrency; and NFTs are being used as loyalty cards – for example, e.l.f. cosmetics gives people who have an NFT discounts, etc.
Clinique has developed the concept of the NFP – or the non-fungible person – which was started around the idea that the metaverse isn’t diverse. So, their campaign is about working with make-up artists to put make-up on digital renderings of yourself to celebrate diversity in the metaverse. At the moment, people are thinking about how we replicate the real world in the metaverse. But the future will be virtual first. Also, the most popular games right now are not aesthetically appealing, but it’s all about community. That is where the strength of the metaverse will lie: communities
December 2022 49
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