Anti-Aging Products Come Of Age
Among other trends, a growing "beauty-on-a-budget" mindset is transforming the segment — to supermarkets' benefit.
American consumers are a fickle crew, but if there's one thing virtually everyone over the age of 28 can agree upon it's this: We'd all like to look younger. Leading the charge for more radiant, less wrinkled skin are the baby boomers, one of which now turns 50 every seven seconds.
Market analysts say demand for anti-aging products will be driven by this over-50 set — a demographic that will grow by more than 10 million in the United States over the next few years.
Indeed, they're already buying. Sales of anti-aging products for the face have been steadily on the rise, and according to market researchers The NPD Group Inc., "anti-aging has exceeded the performance of the [prestige skin care] sector as a whole." In the first half of 2010, sales were up 9 percent over the first half of 2009, notes Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD.
Growth potential will be billion-dollar big for this category in the coming years. In its "Anti-Aging Report," Chicago-based market research firm Mintel put the anti-aging skin care market in the United States at about $2 billion in 2010, with 97 percent of this figure attributable to anti-aging facial skin care. And according to Wellesley, Mass.-based BCC Research, the U.S. market for all anti-aging products for appearance enhancement is expected to grow to more than $5 billion by 2015.
Supermarkets in Your Face
Can supermarkets selling diapers and dish soap, pickles and produce, carve out market share in a beauty care category that commands a certain sense of je ne sais quois? Absolutely. Consider a recent Nielsen survey that polled more than 27,000 people across 55 countries about their beauty-buying habits. The survey found that when it comes to buying health and beauty products, "far and away, supermarkets were the format of choice for 60 percent of global respondents." Drug stores came in a distant second, at 39 percent.
Based on the survey results, Nielsen issued the report "Beauty on a Budget," which examined the recession's impact on health and beauty consumers' buying habits around the globe. The report also looked at consumers' feelings about mass-market beauty brands vs. premium products, revealing more good news for supermarkets: Nielsen found that 75 percent of respondents were open to purchasing mass-market skin care products.
Top Trends in Anti-aging
We know anti-aging products are selling and we know that supermarkets can sell them, but which trends will be the hottest of the hot this year? To find out, PG went to a host of experts and market researchers to compile the following top-five list:
1. Natural/Organic/Green
"Minimal ingredients that are easily understandable and as natural as possible are leading the way this season," says a new report, "WomenTrends 2011," from beauty industry consultants The Benchmarking Co. (TBC). "Gone are the days of ingredient labels that are so long they take two sides of the box to list," notes the Washington-based company's founder and creative director, Alisa Marie Beyer. That's the idea behind Safeway's new In-Kind line of beauty products, retailing for between $3.99 and $12.99, which includes an anti-aging cream. All of the products, according to the Pleasanton, Calif.-based chain, are 90 percent to 95 percent natural, which the company defines as free of petrochemicals, pesticides and other ingredients damaging to the body and the planet.
2. Multiuse, More-for-the-money Skin Care
Consumers are definitely price-conscious when it comes to their anti-aging beauty purchases. For their second-annual collaborative "Anti-Aging Report 2010," Prevention magazine and TBC surveyed more than 1,500 women between the ages of 18 and 64 who had purchased a cosmetic product in the past six months. Their research revealed that brand loyalty for many consumers is skin-deep at best. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they would try a new brand if it were less expensive, and 30 percent said they would try a new brand if they had a coupon.
The beauty-on-a-budget mentality is helping to fuel another top trend: anti-aging products that offer more than one benefit. According to beauty trends expert Romy Schorr, co-founder of the Los Angeles-based qualitative marketing research and consulting firm Schorr Creative Solutions Inc., "There's been a surge in things like makeup that also provides sun protection and anti-aging benefits all in one product, because of the economy and also because people have less time."
3. Prestige Goes Mass Market
Motivated by brand-conscious yet price-sensitive shoppers, an increasing number of prestige beauty brands are introducing less-expensive mass-market lines. Minneapolis-based Target has led this trend with a host of celebrity makeup artist names from Jemma Kidd to Sonia Kashuk gracing the affordable HBC lines found exclusively at its stores. And let's not forget the German-owned discount grocery chain Aldi, which made a splash in 2009 when it introduced the well-known European Lacura line of creams with huge anti-aging clout and tiny retail prices — $ 1.99 to $4.99.
4. Beautiful Inside and Out
Consumers are increasingly making the connection between healthful foods and beauty products with similarly healthful food-based ingredients. Take pumpkin, which is a natural exfoliator, for example, says Schorr. Sweet potatoes, touted by some as the "fountain of youth" are also on Schorr's radar. Antioxidant-rich blueberries and the carotene lycopene found in tomatoes are other anti-aging ingredients showing up in beauty products, she adds.
Schorr anticipates that this trend will extend beyond topical anti-aging lotions and eye creams to anti-aging nutraceuticals we can eat.
These products may be a slower sell, however. According to the Prevention/TBC "AntiAging Study," anti-aging nutraceuticals and supplements are lagging behind their topical counterparts. The study found that only 10 percent of respondents had purchased anti-aging beverages or supplements. But the study also revealed the potential of this untapped market segment, with 39 percent of respondents saying they hadn't purchased these products, simply because they hadn't seen them. And only one-fifth of respondents thought these products wouldn't work.
5. Men Care
While it's still a woman's world when it comes to anti-aging beauty care, "men are jumping on board" the anti-aging bandwagon, says Schorr. "The average man also wants to keep it simple and easy, and thinks spending $50 on skin cream is just ridiculous," she adds. For these reasons, products offering simplicity, affordability and performance will resonate most with male shoppers.
Recent skin care-for-men introductions from L'Oreal, Neutrogena and Dove are all going after this demographic. Products like these are just the beginning, according to Euromonitor International, which points to men's grooming as one of the fastest-growing categories in beauty and personal care.