Meredith Holihan, Mintel03.14.11
Today’s working woman is busier now than ever before. From workplace pressures for meeting tight deadlines to ensuring a full-cooked meal is ready for the family at dinnertime, women everywhere feel deprived of time in their balancing acts. Manufacturers are taking note of the female consumer’s time-starved lifestyle, with some going so far to reposition their products on a convenience platform.
In the coming months, the global skin care market can expect to see an influx of product designs that uniquely support the convenience factor with regard to reducing usage times. A sizeable portion of these skin care launches will also likely continue to overtly promote their on-the-go suitability. Expanding brands with convenient-centric formats may be a promising expenditure for firms; the everyday woman consumer increasingly seeks ways to more efficiently attend to her skin-based needs.
About the Author
Meredith Hollihan is an analyst at Mintel International, where she identifies and reports on product trends foundacross a variety of consumer packaged goods sectors. For more information, please visit www.mintel.com.
The skin care category has been particularly active in adopting the convenience stance. Mintel’s Global New Products Database (GNPD) finds that between 2008 and 2010, skin care products tagged with a time/speed claim grew by an outstanding 479%, globally. Recognizing that for many, maintaining a daily skin care regime can be time-consuming, several renowned beauty lines have unveiled their products with new quick-dry formulations or in user-friendly formats and packaging.
In November, Neutrogena introduced a new Acne Treatment Body Spray from the Body Clear line. The skin treatment features a patented MicroClear® technology that speeds acne medication to the source of breakouts. Possibly most innovative about this Neutrogena launch is the product’s packaging design. The Body Clear Body Spray comes packaged in a plastic PET bottle, equipped with a 360-degree pump. Described as a packaging breakthrough for the skin care category, this 360-degree pump can be sprayed from any angle (even upside down) for treating hard-to-reach areas such as the back and shoulders. Neutrogena’s initiative to introduce a body skin care spray with a revolutionary spray dispenser is certainly noteworthy. The treatment’s fast-drying liquid formula married with an “all angle” spray format for easy application bolsters convenience as upmost importance to Body Clear Body Spray’s design.
Wipe products in beauty, personal and skin care are inherently convenient. Their ability to cleanse the face and remove makeup, dirt and oil without the use of water points to wipes as an ideal format for leveraging with ease-of-use claims. In the US, beauty retailer Sephora launched its in-house Sephora Cleansing Wipes brand with convenient-based messaging. Dubbed “Express Cleansing Wipes”, these wipes are made from biodegradable materials and position as travel-friendly. With a marketing tagline of “Here, there, everywhere”, versatility sits at the core of Sephora Cleansing Wipes’ overlying purpose.
About the Author
Meredith Hollihan is an analyst at Mintel International, where she identifies and reports on product trends foundacross a variety of consumer packaged goods sectors. For more information, please visit www.mintel.com.