Beauty Goes Green Webinar Explores Topics of (Consumer) Interest

Yesterday the Global Cosmetic Industry Beauty Union hosted another session of their Beauty Goes Green webinar to talk about Retailing and Point of Sale. With a stated purpose of finding "what consumers [are] really thinking right now about natural and organic beauty products," we found that there was, in fact, an emphasis on market research.

Several polls were taken ahead of time in an attempt to identify current consumer trends. For example, they asked, "In which category is natural/organic the most important?" The results showed a large number of people who thought that both skincare and baby/maternity products were rather important. However, when the poll was given to the webinar audience, skincare outshone all categories by more than 50 percentage points. Why is this?

It may be that the participants in the survey were mostly people who are in the industry, not your average consumer. Those of us who are immersed in this world are already aware of current (high) standards for baby products. Put simply, you cannot put many harsh chemicals in these; mothers are protective. Ever try to approach a baby bear when the mother is around? Don't do it.

Yet when it comes to their own skin, women are a little slow to adopt to natural and organic products. Perhaps it is a process - first baby, then me. It's going to take education, they concluded, both from the companies and at the point of sale. But are retailers really going to make space for product literature on their shelves?

We doubt it.