ROCKVILLE, Md.—The cosmeceutical market is rebounding fairly well, according to a new report from Packaged Facts, with a 2-percent growth in 2010 and a 4-percent growth in 2011, lifting U.S. retail sales of cosmeceuticals to $9.7 billion in 2011. The research firm also noted that cosmeceuticals marketers have an opportunity to shine across multiple generations, including Boomers, Gen X-ers and increasingly Gen Y-ers.
How did cosmeceuticals weather the recession? With a little luxury appeal; and, the market's bang-for-the-buck ability to deliver curative and preventative benefits on top of cosmetic ones didn't hurt it either.
Younger generations have grown up immersed in marketing messages making them both appearance-oriented and aware of the importance preventive health care. As a result, Packaged Facts' publisher David Sprinkle said new marketing prospects are opening up at the younger end of the age spectrum, even as aging Boomers open their wallets ever wider to stave off the cosmetic tolls of aging. According to a March 2012 survey by Packaged Facts, 28 percent of U.S. adults purchase anti-aging products, while 15 percent purchase antioxidant products. Of those purchasing anti-aging products, the greatest percentage (39 percent) buys their products at drugstores.
Still, cosmeceuticals marketers may take nothing for granted. Given the new budget constraints, shoppers expect the cosmeceuticals they buy to perform, and the faster the better. Thus, any product with a quantifiable “instant gratification" benefit—which has always been a powerful appeal in the color cosmetics category—has an edge. In addition, with the upper end of the market rebounding the fastest, opportunities are greatest for premium mass market and specialty or prestige channel products, expressing pent-up post-recession demand.
