Personalization Trends in Personal Care

Introduction

Personal care products are being more closely aligned with consumers’ personal values, lifestyle aspirations, attribute preferences, and individual beauty requirements. Personalized offerings are highly valued because they provide a superior fit and therefore superior user satisfaction. This leads to consumer preferences becoming stronger and more forcefully expressed.

Features and benefits

• Utilize product, consumer, and market insight intelligence to better evaluate the market opportunities that consumers’ personalized demands bring.
• Understand the implications of the personalization trend by personal care category and country.
• Identify and capitalize on the most pervasive personalization expectations shaping today’s skincare, make-up, haircare, and oral hygiene markets.
• Access insightful proprietary consumer opinion data highlighting the prevailing attitudes towards a wide array of beauty issues.

Highlights

People desire products and services which are personalized to them. With nearly three quarters (73%) of consumers attaching importance to individuality and being able to express oneself, it is clear that individualistic desires will see personal care consumers being drawn towards products offering a more intimate and personalized brand experience

Consumers' value-for-money judgments extend beyond price consciousness. For 72% of shoppers, personalized benefits are deemed the most influential factor in deciding whether a product offers good value-for-money. Personalized benefits will thus serve to raise a product’s value proposition and promote brand loyalty.

While consumers are gravitating towards narrower, highly defined products, a relatively large segment will continue to purchase all-encompassing products which appeal to the widest possible number of consumers. This necessitates a diverse product/brand portfolio in order to appeal to the differing expectations that exist.

Your key questions answered

• What are the key consumer demands driving the personalization trend within the personal care space? How do they vary by country?
• What can personal care manufacturers learn from other sectors and industries in responding to consumers’ personalization needs?
• To what extent do consumers’ personalization demands influence their value-for-money judgements and brand loyalties?
• How can manufacturers better communicate personalized branding efforts to the consumer?
• How can consumers’ personalization demands be addressed in-store using creative and engaging retail concepts?

Table Of Contents

Executive Summary
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OVERVIEW
Catalyst
Summary

THE FUTURE DECODED
The personalization trend, which captures a confluence of consumer and industry issues, will exert considerable influence on the beauty industry going forward
Four consumer and producer benefits, combined with the additional ease of customization that technological progress brings, will drive more personalized beauty products
Customized/personalized benefits favorably influence consumers’ grocery product perceptions, albeit less than other in-vogue product and marketing claims
The ability of products to effectively address personal needs is crucial in how consumers form their value-for-money judgments
Added personalization is not without complications and challenges
Key takeouts and implications: personalization/customization is a highly influential trend in the personal care sector
Trend: self-expressive, individualistic, and appearance-conscious consumers are driving demand for more personal brand experiences from beauty products
Many global citizens attach high importance to individuality and self-expression
Consumers' drive for self-improvement, particularly in the context of "Visual Culture," aligns with an individualistic, "me-centric" mindset
Key takeouts and implications: consumer societies which emphasize self-expression and individuality are broader drivers in the personalized beauty trend
Trend: consumers generally consider personalized products to be an enticing prospect
Brands reflecting one’s personal attitudes and outlook appeal to individualistic consumers
Personalized product features significantly influence interpretations of value for money
The influence of a customized/personalized claim on consumers’ grocery product perceptions varies across geographic regions
Key takeouts and implications: more personalized product propositions are deemed favorable among today’s self-expressive and value-conscious consumers
Insight: personalization expectations are influenced by the category in question, brand loyalties, and a more introspective beauty consumer
The desire for more personalized/customized features depends on the type of beauty product in question
Personalization needs, or at least the desire to obtain brands which effectively address consumers' specific demands, have implications for brand loyalty in personal care
Consumers are making more informed and considered personal care product choices, which aligns with the trend towards personalization
Personal care product formulations and ingredients are central to consumers’ personalization needs
The growing demand for more naturally formulated personal care products is a key trend shaping beauty product purchases, and one which underpins more personalized consumer expectations
The proliferation of products resulting from the provision of more personalized and targeted benefits has broader (and potentially negative) implications which manufacturers must consider
Key takeouts and implications: personalization desires are inherently linked to brand loyalty, but not without wider implications
Insight: personalized product features exert a growing influence on skincare preferences
Customization/personalization is a mid-ranging benefit in consumers’ skincare product choice preferences
Concerns about the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles transcend socio-demographics
Skin whitening is a core skincare concern among Asians and is gaining attention in the Western markets
Hispanics are more concerned with greasy skin and acne than their non-ethnic US counterparts
Men are increasingly looking to take care of their personal appearance and require products which best address their unique skincare needs
Body weight and shape concerns are influencing the slimming and body shaping skincare category
Key takeouts and implications: future innovation efforts must account for the fact that skincare needs are highly impacted by ethnicity, gender and age, skin tone, and body shape
Insight: age, gender, and ethnicity are the underlying factors shaping consumers' personalization demands across the global make-up market
Younger female consumers attach most importance to the customization/personalization benefits of cosmetic products
Tween girls value make-up products that "speak their language"
Ethnic consumers represent a lucrative, yet underserved, market segment in the make-up category
A segment of males – albeit a small one – seek cosmetics to enhance their physical appearance
Key takeouts and implications: segmentation by age, gender, and ethnicity will serve to drive growth in the global make-up market moving forwards
Insight: consumers value more personalized, formulation-specific haircare products
Today's haircare consumers have come to expect customized/personalized product benefits which meet their specific needs
Aging populations are fueling the demand for "age-corrective" haircare
For consumers the health of the scalp is just as important, if not more so, as the condition of the hair itself
Ethnic consumers have their own specific haircare needs
Key takeouts and implications: contemporary haircare preferences extend beyond basic cleanliness, with the vast majority expecting specialized haircare solutions
Insight: personalized products have been a prominent feature of innovation in oral hygiene
Customization/personalization benefits in oral hygiene products are more important to females
Consumers' demand for white teeth is one of the most prominent trends shaping the oral care category
Children display their own unique oral hygiene needs
Sensitive teeth are a common oral hygiene issue among global consumers
Key takeouts and implications: there remains untapped potential in personalized oral hygiene

ACTION POINTS
Action: draw inspiration from other sectors and industries and ensure a research-driven approach to personalized offerings
Examine innovation in other industry sectors to maximize ideation
Ensure a research-driven approach to personalized offerings
Action: ensure that marketing communications exude a personalized brand aura
Embrace branding tactics imbruing a more distinctive, personable brand identity
Continually explore emerging opportunities to deliver contextually relevant messages to consumers, particularly via digital marketing
Make brand/product names synonymous with the personalized, specific benefits they provide
Action: explore opportunities against the many differing platforms that exist for personalized offerings
Consider a one-size-fits-all solution, especially one which clearly speaks to differing ethnicities
Offer products that closely align with consumers' lifestyles and self-concept
Ensure that products accommodate specific beauty, ethnicity, age group, and gender needs
Empowering consumers to mix-and-match according to their own preferences
Link personalized/customized features with superior performance
Action: address consumers' personalization needs with more creative and engaging retail
Identify the beauty needs of specific consumer segments and tailor the retail experience accordingly
Use non-traditional retail formats that promote customization/personalization benefits

APPENDIX
Methodology
Further reading and references
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