The concept of “clean beauty” – make-up and skincare products marketed as free of artificial ingredients – is a relevant trend in the market for sustainable, environmentally friendly, or simply safer products.
In 2021, sales of beauty products perceived as natural or “clean” increased by approximately 33% generating a market of 1.6 billion dollars compared to 2020. The skincare and beauty sectors alone have recorded a volume growth of more than 20% each [Bloomberg, 2021]. The trend is confirmed by a research conducted by Statista predicting that the natural beauty industry will reach the value of $ 54.5 billion expected for the year 2027 [Statista, 2018].
The data reveals a trend in the cosmetics market that is estimated to persist in the future as consumers continue to generate demand for increasingly “clean” products. Consumers’ awareness of the type of products purchased is growing. In 2021, 68% of consumers said they were looking for skincare brands that highlight “clean” ingredients [NPD Group, 2021]. In the specific case of cosmetics, an increasing share of consumers tends to purchase natural and/or organic cosmetics.
The intensification of communication regarding the processing and ingredients that characterize natural products is one of the ways that the major brands in the sector are exploiting to remain competitive. Many brands have long begun to direct their marketing objectives towards promoting the absence of ingredients possibly harmful to health within their products. Paraben-free and silicon-free have become common claims in the commercials of many cosmetics to attract more consumers.
Hand in hand with the emergence of “natively” clean brands (Honest Beauty) and clean lines of primary brands that offer a mix of clean and non-clean products (L’Oréal Paris, Kiko, etc.)
Technological innovation is proposed as the solution to address an increasingly complex environment, pushing beauty companies to remain competitive by making business decisions guided by the enormous amount of data generated by the sector. A data-driven approach concerning the strategic analysis of competition supports brands in addressing the new trend in the demand for natural and green products.
Competitive Intelligence represents a significant approach available to companies to respond to the new needs imposed by the market by identifying and understanding the strategies undertaken by competitors and top brands in the field of clean beauty. Imetrics offers a Competitive Intelligence solution that monitors the competitive perimeter of interest of the Client by carrying out frequent and updated monitoring of the beauty sector for the demand for natural and non-natural products, within the online channel. Imetrics’ benchmark of the beauty sector also provides an overall view of the positioning of cosmetics manufacturers concerning the offer of products with natural ingredients.
The further application of Artificial Intelligence allows you to extract insights capable of highlighting hidden patterns in the data, the so-called “intractable business problems“.
Imetrics conducted a study on the components used for the production of beauty products, verifying their origin. The green line of a well-known low-budget make-up brand, made up of 22 products, was analyzed as the subject of examination, comparing the so-called green products with their mirrors in the non-green line.
The use of AI algorithms makes it possible to classify the ingredients used in products, according to their origin: plant-based, mineral, animal, synthetic, mixed / processed. The classification was made possible thanks to the integration of a dictionary of cosmetic ingredients built on the INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) list, a mandatory nomenclature on cosmetics since 1999. For each product, the first eight ingredients were examined. The highest concentration was for a total of 176 ingredients.
Below, Imetrics provides the results of the study, focusing on the comparison of ingredients for individual mirror products and the aggregate results of the green and non-green offers.
First, the results show that the synthetic ingredients in the non-green line have been replaced in almost totality by components of plant-based origin. However, synthetic ingredients are still present to the extent of 11.9% while the most common origin remains the mixed/processed one. The incidence of components of mineral and animal origin remained unchanged.
Imetrics provides data and solutions for Competitive Intelligence
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