The Asian community grew 43.3% from 2000 to 2010, to 14.7 million. This rate of growth is higher than Hispanics and all other groups.

Six communities make up nearly 86% of the total Asian population in the United States:

• Chinese (except Taiwanese)
• Filipino
• Indian
• Vietnamese
• Korean
• Japanese

Each of these nationalities has different standards of beauty and concomitant preferences for personal care products. For example, a rise is seen in the use of skin whitening products for Filipinos. Furthermore, Filipinos are very brand-conscious and prefer Western brands as a status symbol.

Kline conducted consumer research on personal care product usage of Asians in the United States. Kline found, for example, that more than half of all Asians use hair conditioner every time they shampoo, with another 21% using it sometimes. Of those that use hair conditioner, Pantene is the most used hair conditioner by Asians, with 28% of them using that brand. The next most popular brand is Dove (13%).

More information can be sourced from Kline’s FlashPoint report Asians in the United States – Influences on Consumers Products Consumption, Outlook to 2020

As a consequence of this momentum, we are expanding our coverage to Asia and Europe for 2012. We will provide key insights on leading brands and companies around the world, such as Re Fa-Pro and Ya-Man from Japan, Sqoom from Germany, Smooth Skin iPulse from the United Kingdom, and Philips’ RéAura from The Netherlands. This year, our coverage is bolstered by beauty devices that tone, buff, and add contour to the body!

Wellbox-Lipomassage & Endermolift

Among last year’s blockbuster hits were sonic cleansing products, led by Clarisonic, which topped the charts with retail sales in the $250 million range. In fact, this brand was so compelling that L’Oréal expanded their list of acquisitions and acquired the Kent, WA-based Pacific Biosciences Laboratories, the marketer of Clarisonic and Opal.

This year’s report will explore some of the key questions regarding the market:

• How have marketers developed options for the price-sensitive customer?
• What ways can marketers take advantage of the wide range of age groups this market attracts?
• What are the latest developments in the anti-aging device arena?
• How do devices from Japan and China differ from those marketed in the United States and Europe?

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Shortly afterwards, Matic was interviewed by Michelle Yeomans on behalf of William Reed Business Media. Watch this short, but informative interview here.

Read Matic’s incisive article Does the Consumer Drive Actives  Development? here.

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Just as we published our findings, Procter & Gamble, one of the world’s largest marketers announced its intention to slash its traditional advertising budget to concentrate on the use of “more efficient” marketing returns through digital means.

And what has your company been doing? Did you know that social media is the 3^rd most important marketing vehicle, behind price promotions and websites and ahead of many methods including traditional media?

New ever-evolving technologies now allow consumers to more directly and immediately interact with brands and companies, which is neatly epitomized by many brands efforts’. Social media is definitely being used to popularize and propagate brands. For example, during the Fall 2011, if you “liked” L’Occitane on Facebook, you became eligible to receive a free Shea Butter hand cream at one of their U.S. stores. Some beauty retailers accommodate many new and exciting activities for their fans: Séphora’s FanFridays on Facebook are fun and so ”INSIDERS ONLY” – encouraging fidelity, commitment, engagement, and – ultimately – sales!

Some brands go even further and start selling right on Facebook. For example, makeup manufacturer and e-retailer Nyx Cosmetics quietly opened a commerce-enabled Facebook store at the end of 2011, allowing U.S. Facebook users to buy products without ever leaving the social network. The company says the Facebook store is one part of its strategy to offer consumers the opportunity to shop in every emerging online sales channel without redirecting them to their regular e-shop.

Just a few months earlier, industry giant Procter & Gamble also upped their f-commerce game, opening new Facebook stores in Summer 2011. It seems that for P&G, f-commerce is less about sales and more about studying the brand users and their shopping habits. The P&G’s Facebook stores help P&G reward brand followers for their loyalty, as well as stimulate word of mouth, it also Enables Facebook users to “share” their purchases, creating even greater viral environment.

Some brands experimented with a combination of Facebook and other platforms. Such as MAC Cosmetics’ last year’s lineup of Wonder Women exclusives of eye, mail, face, and lip products promoting a custom-made Wonder Woman POW ring with the help of Foursquare. The MAC Cosmetics’ Facebook page included details on participating stores around the world and rewarded customers who checked in via Foursquare with the message received on their mobile devices with the special stickers. A select number of stickers lead to a special gift!

Cosmetics is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, and beauty brands have begun using social media such as Facebook to market directly to customers. However, for the moment, most brands have not yet created a Facebook presence that is markedly different from their websites. In other words, Facebook appears to simply be an exploratory extension of the company’s vision, not a unique opportunity to intimately market their products to their Facebook fans.

Facebook sales have not even taken off yet, but new trends and platforms are already popping up. One of them is Pinterest, the online pinboard, a new social marketing portal where some surprising companies are making the site’s visual features work for them to significant effect. While most users of the site are still individuals, brands and retailers have taken note of the major traffic the social media site has been seeing in recent months and its visually compelling format; consequently, many have begun creating their own Pinterest boards. Among these includes Nordstrom, which is already gathering many fans. The high-end retailer has won many followers by creating themed boards that change with the seasons, and some of their most popular boards include “Beauty Favorites,” which consolidates the most popular products as ”liked” by Pinterest users. This offers both consumer engagement and ad hoc market assessment.

As for a cosmetics brand, Tarte Cosmetics is being one of the great explorers of the platform, showing staff photos and product picks and ultimately linking to sell on ULTA Beauty’s website.

So, is traditional media passé? No, certainly not. People are influenced to perform an Internet searches based on something they saw on TV or read in print. Moreover, consumer products need a strong and lingering presence in customers’ memory space, which can be enhanced, but rarely established, by social media.

What remains undisputed is the symbiotic relationship between traditional and time proven media, which allows a far more pervasive and unforgettable presence, and a real-time adaptability afforded by social media. Both old and new media complement each other, and the dynamic needs to be optimized. Beauty’s social skills are now mixing and mingling in cyberspace to great effect, and your business is invited.

Like any emerging growth industry, the unmitigated success of the natural personal care segment faces certain challenges. In particular there are ethical challenges ranging from sustainability to ecological issues, and business challenges concerning ingredient sourcing, production and efficacy claims. To this end the Sheraton Hotel in New York City will be playing host to The Natural Beauty Summit America on May 14 and 15, 2012. This conference is one of a series of international summits bringing the leading natural and sustainable market players together to delve into and debate the major challenges confronting this industry.

On Monday, May 14, 2012, 9:15 am, Nancy Mills, Kline’s consumer products industry manager, will be presenting: What is the evolution of the perception of natural products in the U.S. market? Nancy will draw upon insights gleaned from Kline’s recently published Natural Personal Care: Regional Market Analysis and Competitive Brand Assessment. She will then join Dr. Liliana George, executive director at Strategic Developments at Estée Lauder, Curt Valva, CEO at Aubrey Organics, and Filipe Sabara, business director at Beraca, to discuss cultural influences on natural products usage.

Recognizing the importance and vast potential of the natural care segment Kline is offering a special promotional discount for this industry-leading summit. Please contact us to receive a promotion code.

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Things are also looking up for 2012 thanks to the reinforcement and revitalization of new products with unique and innovative features spurring excitement within the industry. Salons, ever seeking new ways to tempt customers and expand their offerings, have prompted professional hair care manufacturers to innovate and reinvigorate the market. Responding to this need, L’Oréal recently inaugurated a EUR 100 million global research center dedicated exclusively to hair care products, including hair coloring, shampoos, conditioners, and hair styling.

This week’s International Beauty Show (IBS), held April 22-24, 2012, in New York City, was positively abuzz with new salon products. Oil serums, anti-aging hair care, smoothing texturizers, keratin infusion products, natural hair care products, and low ammonia and ammonia-free hair colors were some of the more exciting trends seen.

Some products cleverly combined several of these innovations, such as Keratin Complex It’s A Blonde Thing that consists of a keratin hair-lightening system that infuses hair with keratin while lightening the hair. Many of the recently introduced lines also have an exclusive in-salon conditioning component which affords salons added service revenues. Many of these products use keratin or a keratin-like ingredient to help transform the texture of the hair. Some products tackle thinning hair and provide in-salon scalp treatments to help regrow hair. Other products of note help hair look and feel younger, including Tigi’s Hair Reborn, Redken’s All Soft, Wella Age Restore, and Joico’s K-Pak Revitaluxe Bio-Advanced Restorative Treatment.

Among other major trends, the use of oil products–mostly argan oils–remains high, and most brands now offer this ingredient in some of their products. Interest in straightening and smoothing products remains challenging as companies are searching for ways to infuse keratin without the use of harsh or hazardous chemicals.

The full 2011 results for the U.S. and 21 other leading markets around the world are now available in Kline’s Salon Hair Care database.

The Hispanic market in America is a dynamic, complex market segment composed of multiple groups of distinct cultures. Hispanic or Latino is the largest minority group in the country, comprising 16.3% of the total population and growing at a very fast rate. With the ever increasing population of Hispanics in the United States, there has been a tremendous increase in their spending power as well. Thanks to their culture of high grooming standards, the young Hispanic population uses personal care products frequently and likes to experiment with new products.

The Hispanic community’s expenditure on personal care products and services is slightly higher than the national average. Hispanics are far more brand-conscious compared to people of other ethnicities. While trading down from favorite brands to better priced private-label brands is not unusual for the general U.S. consumer, the incidence of such is much lower among Hispanic consumers. Despite the recent recession, the majority of Hispanics continue to buy personal care products of the same brands that they used to.

Many Hispanics purchase personal care products online–with 32% of them purchasing perfume in this manner. Other popular categories for online purchases include face and eye makeup. Kline’s consumer research for Hispanics also found that a majority have used tooth whitening products, with almost 60% of these consumers selecting the Crest brand.

Hispanic consumers tend to be inspired by Latino or Hispanic role models, and role models are growing in influence and number. Some examples include Jennifer Lopez, Javier Bardem, Christina Aguilera, Eva Longoria, and Salma Hayek, who in their respective ways have put the Hispanic perspective of beauty in the mainstream, influencing not only the Hispanic population, but others as well.

With the established influence of Hispanics in both the West and South, as well as their growing influence in the East, retailers in these regions are increasingly accommodating and focusing upon the Hispanic marketplace.

Market leaders, such as Walmart, are increasing shelf space for products targeted at the Hispanic market, as well as opening stores specifically aimed at Hispanic customers in areas dominated by Hispanics. Retailers are typically creating more shelf space; tailoring in-store advertising and marketing offers to specifically capture the Hispanic consumer’s interest.

While purchasing power for many Hispanic families has suffered significantly in recent years, often more than many other segments of the population, the purchasing power of Hispanics as a whole remains resilient and uncompromised.

More information can be sourced from Kline’s imminent FlashPoint Hispanics in the United States: Influences on Consumers Products Consumption, Outlook to 2020

The 2011 year began with yet another year of excess inventory at the distributor level; however, the industry began to rebound as high corn and cotton prices resulted in increased planted acres. Major crop acres planted rose by almost 7 million acres sowing a recovery in crop protection sales after two consecutive years of market declines. Despite a positive year, distributors report they are focusing on their strategic business plans more than ever, and growth strategies were the recurring theme among interviews during the development of the report. These growth strategies include: territory expansion, pursuit of private labels, focus on value-added products (biopesticides, surfactants, inoculants, etc), grower marketing programs, and making strategic choices among crop protection suppliers.

The leading growth strategy over the past five years for ag distributors has been acquisitions and restructuring. The consolidation of the distribution sector has followed the pattern of chemical manufacturers, resulting in fewer, larger national distributors interspersed by smaller, niche participants. This industry change has resulted in the distributor sector diverging toward two industry business models: logistics-driven and service-driven. Logistics-driven refers to the lowest cost and most efficient delivery of chemicals while service-driven relies on chemicals being part of a value-added service program which includes creation of value to the customer through various tools supplied by the ag retailer. These tools may include services for precision ag, crop nutrition, value-added offerings, crop genetics, and sustainability practices.

With biotech seed traits driving industry growth and impacting crop protection chemicals, the leading ag distributors (including ag retailers) have been spending more time assessing the most reliable and profitable options in developing strategies that provide a coherent product portfolio position. The result has been a level of integration among the partnering of manufacturers and distributors that replaces any previous experience. “Crop protection is now defined by a complex of formulated chemicals, seed treatment and genetics, with the crop protection value contained in seed approaching 45% of the market,” states Joe Prochaska, Kline’s Specialty Pesticides practice Project Manager. This new definition of crop protection will certainly create opportunities arising within an industry defined by significant year-to-year market swings to distributors and manufacturers who are willing to exploit them.

The U.S. crop protection chemical market is expected to maintain strong growth with the 2012 year ahead. A continued demand for corn and corn-derived ethanol from countries such as China and India is expected to keep corn commodities high, fueling growth within the industry. As one distributor mentioned, “the industry is developing and producing innovative active ingredients and formulations for the improvement of crop health and yields and we are experiencing exciting times within our industry.”

There is a lot of excitement in the makeup category. Eye makeup, for example, had a rousing year. Growth of the category was driven by the smoky and dramatic eye trend, starting from the runway and promoted heavily by makeup artist lines. Eye shadow, eye liner, and mascara, used to complete the dramatic eye look, contributed to the fact that all segments in the category grew. Some brands used video tutorials to help consumers obtain the smoky and sultry look.

Eye shadows exhibited the highest growth in the category. New product activity in the eye shadow segment includes Rimmel Glam’Eyes HD Eye shadow. The bold, dual-use shadow works wet or dry, allowing one to customize the color. The shadow lasts up to 10 hours. Laura Mercier’s Eye Color formula features baked technology in shades that last all day, as well as Caviar Stick Eye Color, which offers a new technique to enhance the smoky eye look. The Eyes Lips Face (E.L.F.) brand had a phenomenal year, growing faster than any other brand in any of the trade classes.

The nail polishes category also had a tremendous year, up almost 30% from 2010 as consumers continued to save money by doing their nails at home instead of going to a salon. Kline saw this trend start a few years ago (see our 2010 press release), and more marketers seized the opportunity since to offer products that provided that coveted salon manicure in a DIY fashion. Also, igniting the growth in nail polishes was the plethora of bold colors, special effects, and colors containing glitter  that attracted woman of all ages; from those who follow high fashion to teens that experiment regularly. Sally Hansen and Revlon brands were among the marketers at mass that helped drive nail sales – Sally Hansen, with its crackle polish, and Revlon, with its Color Stay formula.

Sales of fragrances for men and women grew more in 2011 than in any of the past five years. Whether this is really a rebound or just the category slowly inching back upwards remains to be seen, as category sales are still below that of 2008 when the recession began.

Most of the men’s fragrances category growth was from either stalwart brands, such as L’Oréal’s Acqua di Giò and Chanel’s Blu, getting stronger or expanded franchises from established brands, such as Procter & Gamble’s Gucci Guilty Pour Homme. In women’s fragrances, in addition to classics and established franchises contributing to category growth, new brands that were geared to a younger demographic of tweens and teens also helped grow the category. These include Justin Beiber’s Someday (Give Back Brands), Taylor Swift’s Someday (Elizabeth Arden), and Rihanna’s Reb’l Fleur (Parlux).

The winning trade classes overall were specialty and luxury. High-end department stores and specialty boutiques enjoyed surges in traffic and purchases in 2011, as wealthier patrons returned in droves.

For more insights get our Cosmetics & Toiletries report!