While Japan remained flat with 0.1% growth, a rise in visits to professional outlets for skin care treatments gave way to sales growth for the professional skin care products market in the US and Europe. According Kline & Company’s recently released study [1], Europe posted a 3.0% increase in 2010, following a 3.3% decline in 2009, and sales in the United States increased by 2.7% in 2010.
Medical care brands
Growth in the US was stimulated by brands of medical care providers, such as SkinMedica and SkinCeuticals, which posted double-digit gains. Market leader Obagi, entrenched in the medical care providers segment, maintained its leading position in the U.S. market, experiencing a 13% sales gain for the year. In Europe and Japan, Guinot was the leading brand in 2010.
Sales channels
Spas and salons remains the largest purchase channel in the United States, but Kline says their market share is declining due to stiff competition from other channels and a market increasingly focusing on facial treatments. Beauty institutes are the leaders in both Europe with 59% and Japan with nearly 68% of market share.
“While some brands are well established in a single professional channel, such as Sothys and SkinMedica, an increasing number of professional skin care brands adopt multi-channel strategies,” the consulting and research firm comments.
Marketers also want to appeal to a wider group of consumers, such as teenagers, mature clients, pregnant women, and men, by expanding their portfolio with specifically targeted product lines.
Introducing smaller sizes of products for retail to appeal to a more frugal consumer would be another strategy to consider, suggests Karen Doskow, Industry Manager at Kline’s Consumer Products Practice.
Growth forecasts
Over the next five years the market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% in Europe, 6.7% in the United States, and 2.6% in Japan.
