Ethnic Market Sees Competition

Concurrently, mainstream brands continue to develop tactics to capture a growing percentage of the ethnic personal care market. While mainstream brands like Revlon, Lancôme, and Cover Girl have long reached ethnic consumers via the creative use of spokesmodels and targeted advertising, the approach for many brands has become even more savvy and genuine. Some marketers, including Estée Lauder and Shiseido, use beauty advisors who speak the language of the local ethnic community, whether it is Mandarin, Vietnamese, or Spanish, to create a greater connection with these consumers. Some also launch products targeting certain ethnic groups in the United States that are simultaneously released in that group’s country of origin.
 
The movement of mainstream companies into the multicultural space will not only open possibilities of more M&A in the coming years, but it will also be beneficial for consumers as they will be provided with a wider array of products targeting their needs. Smaller multicultural companies will also need to innovate in order to gain sales and create a niche for themselves or position themselves for a potential acquisition. In addition, the competition coming from the general market is also blurring the lines and having a challenging impact on the multicultural marketers.

The multicultural beauty products market continues to outpace the growth of the overall market for cosmetics and toiletries, posting a 3.7% increase in 2014. To gain share of the ethnic consumer’s pocketbook, beauty marketers now competing from both ends of the spectrum need to understand a myriad of new market undertones found in the soon-to-be-published Multicultural Beauty and Grooming Products: U.S. Market Analysis and Opportunities by global consulting and research firm Kline & Company.
 
Rapidly growing ethnic populations have given way to intensified competition and catch multicultural beauty marketers breaking boundaries between general and multicultural beauty. On one end, there are brands such as Carol’s Daughter that are positioning away from being an exclusive ethnic brand to now also target a broader audience, regardless of ethnicity. This holds particularly true in the natural personal care segment where popular ethnic hair brand Shea Moisture is now rebranding to become suitable for all consumers.
 
“This widening approach helps move multicultural brands beyond the ethnic section of the beauty aisle to sit side-by-side nationally advertised brands,” comments Donna Barson, Senior Associate at Kline’s Consumer Products practice. “However, this audience expansion needs to be done without alienating long-time consumers who might feel deserted if they feel like their brand no longer speaks exclusively to them.”
 
 
During the forecast period through 2019, the ethnic beauty market will continue to face intensed competition from general cosmetic and toiletry brands, and the fine line between mainstream and multicultural markets will continue to blur. However, competition will give an incentive for a surge of innovative, quality products entering the market.