No market is an island -- but why do many marketers and retailers still consider the ethnic HBC aisle as separate from the rest of the store, sleepy and low-end? In reality, ethnic haircare, makeup, and skincare products are a vibrant $2.7 billion business that reflects the upscaling of the parent HBC market. In 2010, African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and other folks of color already account for over a third of U.S. population; as of 2013, their spending power will have surpassed $4.2 trillion. Marketers have thus ventured beyond the usual hair relaxers, the few darker tints of makeup and heavy moisturizers, to offer premium-to-high-end beauty and grooming regimens sold through pop-prestige outlets such as Sephora, as well as through TV home shopping networks HSN, QVC, and others. Organic formulations are driving ethnic HBC sales, too -- because Americans of color actually skew more green-minded than Whites. Yet ethnic HBC’s sell-through in the prestige, natural grocery, and TV home shopping channels, is still small in relation to its fabulous potential. As for the effect of the struggling U.S. economy, this market achieved mid-single-digit increases during the global recession of 2008-2009, and is expected to return to double-digit progress as the recovery proceeds. ...Packaged Facts’ sales estimates for ethnic-specific hair relaxers, styling products, facial makeup, moisturizers, fade creams, and other products, are presented in this latest edition of Ethnic Health and Beauty Care Products -- together with estimates of ethnics’ spending on mainstream versions of the same items. Sales drivers are analyzed in depth. Experian Simmons demographic data and IRI brand shares are detailed and examined, too; as are the competitive behaviors of Alberto-Culver, Ales Groupe, Dudley Beauty, Johnson & Johnson, Johnson Products, Johnson Publishing, L’Oréal, and Procter & Gamble.
Read an excerpt from this report below.
Report MethodologyEthnic Health and Beauty Care Products in the U.S., 7th Edition is based on information gathered from primary, secondary, and syndicated sources. Primary research involves on-site study of how ethnic HBC is sold through retail stores; Packaged Facts also consults with industry executives. Secondary research involves the evaluation and comparison of data from mountains of articles found in financial, marketing, and retail publications, as well as on corresponding types of websites. Company literature, government agencies, and other sources also provide valuable secondary data.
Stats on market revenues and growth trends derive from all available data on the ethnic HBC marketplace, be they quantitative or qualitative; that is, a broad range of societal and economic trends are factored in, to help shape the most accurate possible view of sales progress. Brand share data are provided by Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), which taps directly into checkout scanners in the three main mass-market channels, which are supermarkets, chain drugstores, and mass merchandisers. IRI’s proprietary InfoScan Review is widely regarded as the “bible” for syndicated retail brand share. However, Wal-Mart and warehouse club data are excluded from the Review, per these retailers’ stipulations.
Analysis of consumers’ purchase and use of ethnic HBC is based on quarterly surveys by Experian Simmons (formerly Simmons Market Research Bureau, Inc.), one of the leading compilers of demographic data in the United States. Data from Packaged Facts’ own February 2009 survey of 2,606 personal care products consumers are also included.
The Bottom Line: What Your Company Really Gets...
With Ethnic Health and Beauty Care Products in the U.S., 7th Edition, you and your marketing team will gain a comprehensive overview of the ins and outs of the ethnic HBC business. 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. Such valuable qualitative perspective is supported with extensive hard data presented in well-organized tables and charts.
How Your Company Will Benefit from This Report...
If your company is already an established player in ethnic HBC, this report is bound to freshen and strengthen your marketing plan. If your company is newly targeting the ethnic consumer, then this report is a great intro to the ethnic HBC business, and thus a launching pad for a successful venture.
The whole team -- brand managers, research and development pros, ad agencies and media departments, database managers and librarians, venture capitalists, new business specialists -- all are unified by the cutting-edge analysis in Ethnic Health and Beauty Care Products in the U.S., 7th Edition.
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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