Ethnic Health and Beauty Care Products in the U.S., 7th Edition

Additional Information

Market Insights: A Selection From The Report

Spotlighting Five Notable New Ethnic Haircare Products

Packaged Facts takes special note of the following five ethnic haircare products that debuted in the two years 2008-2009:

• L’Oreal’s new Soft Sheen-Carson brand-extension, Roots of Nature Remedies, offers SKUs to soothe scalps and fortify hair. Labeling vaguely suggests old fashioned remedies, but each SKU is a treatment based on up-to-date formulation with shea butter, green tea, avocado oil, and other botanicals. The collection is mass-priced; the Stimulating Scalp Oil, for example, retails at $5 for a 4.0-ounce squeeze bottle.

• Also labeled in retro styles are new haircare products from Miss Jessie’s LLC. One is Curls, a styling agent that helps produce or enhance frizz-free curls; another is Crème de La Curl cream shampoo and Crème de La Crème conditioner. Premiumprestige-priced at $9 for Curls in a 2.0-ounce tube, or $20 for either the Crème shampoo or conditioner, in a 12.0-ounce bottle.

• Mega Growth is a new collection extended from Strength of Nature’s Profectiv brand. Profectiv Mega Growth Pro Growth Sheen Spray is an aerosol sheen enhancer, and the Pro Growth Smoother Polish and Pro Growth Smoother Hi-Shine Gel SKUs are stylers. All three retail at $5-$6. Fruit oil and vegetable protein are listed below propane and isobutane ingredients.

• Alberto-Culver has rolled out TRESemme Proteccion Caida Shampoo and Conditioner. Said to be high in protein and vitamins, and gentle enough for daily use. Labels are in Spanish. Mass-priced.

• Paul Brown Hawaii’s new Hapuna Paul Brown Anti-Frizz shampoo and conditioner SKUs are all-natural, incorporating olive and tea tree oils, apricot, grapeseed, kelp, and aloe. Prestige-priced at $18 for 10.0 ounces, and $23 for 8.5 ounces, respectively.

Vibrant Ethnic Health and Beauty Care Industry Experiences Rise in “Multicultural” Label that Blurs the Lines Between Ethnic-Specific and General Market Products

New York, March 3, 2010 — The vibrant market for ethnic-specific health and beauty care products has experienced steady growth—even during the worst economic times—with retails sales increasing to $3 billion during the period 2005-2009, according to Ethnic Hair, Beauty and Cosmetics Products in the U.S., 7th Edition by market research publisher Packaged Facts. 

Yet while some marketers are intimately acquainted with the infrastructure and the quirks of the more specific aspects of the ethnic health and beauty care market, which is mainly comprised of haircare, makeup, and skincare products for African Americans and Hispanics, other marketers deem it wise to compete on a larger scale and reach beyond any one ethnic demographic niche by positioning products multiculturally.  This strategy exists between the ethnic-specific and general market ends of the spectrum, and yet blurs with them both a little. 

Packaged Facts asserts that there is now less advantage for ethnic health and beauty care marketers—particularly for smaller and midrange players—to restrict themselves to niche-positioning, and more advantage in the multicultural approach.

“In 2010, there is a strong trend to position beauty products multiculturally. That is, not only to the three principal minorities consisting of Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians, but also to Arabs, Native Americans, South Asians, and others,” says Don Montuori, publisher of Packaged Facts.  “A strength of using the term ‘multicultural’ is that products carrying the label can be marketed to everybody, including Caucasians.”

The ability to market multicultural health and beauty care products to Caucasians, in addition to consumers of other ethnic backgrounds, is important to marketers based in the U.S. who increasingly seek lucrative international involvements. The term “ethnic” does not have the same meaning in most of the rest of the world, where billions of people have skin tones that befit the use of ethnic products popular in America and where Whites are the minority. Even in the U.S., which is home to more than 100 million persons of color, the term is expected to become antiquated in the coming decades, as the ethnic nation expands to become the majority sometime around 2042.

Ethnic Hair, Beauty and Cosmetics Products in the U.S., 7th Edition continues the series of Packaged Facts’ reports on the retail marketplace for ethnic HBC (health and beauty care) products, as they are commonly found in mass (supermarkets, chain drugstores, and mass merchandisers), prestige, beauty and barber supply stores, and specialty boutiques. Sales drivers are analyzed and the report includes sales estimates for ethnic-specific hair relaxers, styling products, facial makeup, moisturizers, fade creams, and other products. Most importantly, the report anchors ethnic HBC in the broader general-market HBC and societal contexts, as well as in the rapidly transforming retail scene.  

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