It’s clear that in cosmetic product development it is important to be particularly creative, to give the product clear user benefits that embody a genuine and desirable additional advantage, and to design a package that is not only attractive and seductive, but also one that makes the application of the product easier. And of course, for cosmetic products, traditionally with their many and varied alternatives and brands, competition from the Internet has grown enormously.
The Internet has given birth to the “neo-consumer” and the “neo-shopper” who in their free moments are constantly “on line” with smartphones, and have become totally involved with the Internet as part of their daily lives. The opportunities to develop “M-Commerce” (mobile shopping) should be excellent here and should represent a real booming market.
At the 4th Neuromarketing in May in Munich Dr. Anna Barbara Holstein of the Nymphenburg Consult company presented the Neoconsumer 2009 study regarding the on-line behaviour of consumers. According to the Ebeltoft Group, who carried out 5,500 interviews in 11 countries, 88 percent of those interviewed already used the Internet to make purchases. In addition it was seen that 32 percent of those interviewed (and as many as 39 percent of those in Germany) obtained their information on the price of cosmetics via the Internet.
Many retailers have already reacted to this change in consumer behaviour by establishing Internet sales sites as well as running fixed location shops, and see themselves obliged to take part in all of the latest distribution channels, namely their own web site, Twitter and Facebook etc. as well as contacting their clients via mobile smartphone apps.
It is expected that the classic, fixed location shop will continue to lose its share of total turnover and that the multi-channel distributors, who according to Accenture/GfK enjoyed a 10 percent market share in 2009, will clearly gain more ground. But what actually makes neo-consumers tick – what really prompts them to buy – is rather more difficult to identify than it ever was using the classic consumer target group analysis. And what does all this mean for product development? One thing is clear: new products will in future have to be more innovative and more appealing in order to avoid sinking without trace in the stormy seas of the Internet … a real challenge!
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