Beauty industry is battling within and without as challenges come from inside and outside and the solution lies in robust marketing strategy, sincere approach, health friendly products, smart and modern method to outreach customers and real time data of customers to have strong bond with them and to develop long lasting relationship with them.
BEAUTY INDUSTRY
Beauty industry perhaps took its birth with the creation of man as it is not wrong to say that beauty thy name is woman (Sorry to Shakespeare for change in quotation as the real one is ‘Frailty thy name is woman’). Human desire to look beautiful, attractive and unique is basic of beauty industry which has taken many strides through the years and centuries. Its very foundations are embedded in the history of man. The shift from natural beauty products to cosmetics was a major transformation of this industry which perhaps came with the industrial revolution in Europe while in Asia and Africa the beauty products made their inroads years later as the Asians continued to rely on natural beauty products.
Beauty industry sprawled with the advent of 18th century when new trends of fashion, lifestyle and appearance began to surface. The emergence of movie cinema and photo industry brought drastic changes in the beauty industry because the screen faces with beauty, bodily fit figures had given rise to glamour which attracted a large segment of society. In the quest to look like the heroes and heroines, the people at large brought about largescale demand for the beauty products and new industry began to flourish without consideration of basics of the industry as it still lacks rules and regulations, ethical aspects, check on greenwashing and many such issues.
The challenges of beauty industry are varied as some stem from inside and some from outside. First of all, it seems that beauty industry is battling with itself because it poses serious challenge to its own being. The chemicals are used in industry without the consideration of risk factors, health hazards as the beauty industry has never developed user friendly approach rather it sticks to its marketing strategy even at the cost of consumers’ health and all this happening under the nose of those who are at the helm of affairs. This factor is allowed to go widespread thanks to the absence of proper rules, regulations and check and balance criteria.
The excessive use of animal fats in cosmetics is another challenge of the beauty industry instead of opting for veganism. The activists of the animals’ rights have long been struggling to check the use of animal fats in cosmetics. Their protest is educating the masses and they are getting alarmed at the ingredients used in the beauty products. The beauty industry has introduced beauty items based on natural products but they are limited in number and requires a lot of research and other such strategic things as its cost is higher.
green washing
The beauty industry uses excessive greenwashing which is another challenge emanating from within. The beauty industrial concerns use aggressive marketing campaign and largescale advertisement giving only the positive aspects while the negative impacts and consequences of the chemicals used in beauty products remain hidden behind the labelling and marketing tactics. In this way beauty industry fights a war within itself and it is going on without having an iota of review of the policy.
The beauty industry faces the challenge of stiff competition because the road is not smooth but have many bumps and jumps. This $571.1 billion industry has many businesses which are fighting with one another on the tough ground for having a standing of their own in the market. The main brands are L’Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York, NYX Professional Makeup, Stylenanda, Essie, Mixa L’ORAL LUXE, Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Kiehl’s, Helena Rubinstein, Biotherm, Shu Uemura, IT Cosmetics, Ralph Lauren, Urban Decay, Mugler, Valentino, Viktor & Rolf, Maison Margiela, Azzaro, Takami, Prada, Diesel, Carita, L’Oréal Professionnel, Redken, Kérastase, Matrix, Pureology, La Roche-Posay, Vichy, SkinCeuticals, CeraVe, Skinbetter Science and many more. In this endless list of the brands, standing out is difficult.
Another challenge coming from within is skincare products and the beauty products are destined to give them into the market. The people who particularly have concern about their health prefer to use skincare products instead of outward use of cosmetics which have potential health hazards and have temporary impact while the skincare products have deep-rooted and long-lasting effects posing no threat to the health.
Though the beauty industry suffered a setback during the Covid-19 pandemic but it recovered as the pandemic died down across the globe. However, the market paradigm shifted from traditional marketing to smart and innovative methods with the advancement of technology because dynamics of customer outreach have changed. Now physical contacts have subsided giving way to digital contact. This industry faced Herculean Task to adopt modern ways to develop enduring relation with the customers. Now customer care, outreach and relationship to keep them engaged for repeat use of products is necessary.
In the modern, smart, digital world, the technology savvy youth have different priorities. They prefer to use their precious dollar on the education, qualification and developing their technical skill instead of using it on personal appearance. Now the young people prefer to work online from home and in this situation scope of cosmetics and beauty products remains limited.
As one sets foot out of the threshold, the beauty products come first. Time has gone when these are luxury items. Now these are part and parcel of daily life and have become an unbidden partner of life. Despite all challenges, it is flourishing and crossing many milestones on the road forward.
However, the matter of sincerity and well-being of the customers in particular and people in general should reign supreme. The industry should follow ethics and stop using substances posing health hazards to the people. Though rules and regulations are nowhere but they should make incumbent upon themselves to ensure safe and health-friendly products.
The industry must adopt modern and innovative methods to reach their customers and develop robust and massive campaign to keep the customers engaged. The big industrial units of beauty products should develop real time data of the customers to have strong relationship with them. The customer care is the industry care.
FAQs:
Where do the challenges of beauty industry stem from?
The challenges of beauty industry come from within and outside. The components used in the products have health hazards and it has to face stiff competition.
Are beauty industry products safe for health?
Generally, these are safe if used cautiously and sparingly however, these contain ingredients which may cause health hazards.