www.nutraceuticalmag.com
Probiotics
Restoring the balance
Claims under pressure
Cosmetic Focus
Marketing products in Southern Africa
Volume 7 Number 2
March/April 2011
Functional Bakery,
Sports Nutrition,
Cognitive Health and More
Women’s Health
Supplementing the fairer sex
•
ingredients • functional foods • nutraceuticals • supplements • raw materials •
38
cosmetic focus
Developing and
Marketing Cosmetic
and Cosmeceutical
Products in Southern Africa
Consumer surveys point the way!
T
he southernmost region of the African
continent symbolizes the beauty of
nature: the Kalahari Desert, Victoria
Falls, nearly 7000 km of coastline and
incredible biodiversity and wildlife, all of which
attract thousands of tourists —Europeans in
particular — who like to visit during their holidays.
By contrast, colonialism has left its mark and,
throughout history, affected the socio-economic
development of the area. Today, poverty,
corruption and HIV/AIDS are some of the biggest
factors impeding economic growth. Nevertheless,
positive moves and policies adopted by many
African governments have played a significant role
in promoting Africa as a viable business partner
in numerous global markets. Increasing demand
from the emerging middle class and the growing
fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector will
drive growth and the need for cosmetic products
in southern Africa, offering new opportunities for
local brands as well as openings for international
ones to enter the market. International companies
linked to former colony nations like, for example,
the British-Dutch company Unilever or Johnson &
Johnson have offered locally produced personal
care products for many years in southern Africa.
More recently, other low-to-middle priced products
have penetrated the market, such as brands by
Beiersdorf, Henkel and L’Oréal. In addition, there
is an increasing trend for international top-of-therange cosmetic companies starting to promote
their products in southern Africa, like Shiseido did
in 2010, for example.
So, how does a company develop and
market cosmetic products in southern Africa?
A key requirement in the development and
marketing of cosmetic products all over the
world is to understand the market and the needs
and expectations of its target consumers. But
how should we define the target consumer
in southern Africa? It is a multicultural region,
combining several ethnic groups and many
hybrid mixtures of different cultures, making
southern Africa one of the most culturally diverse
regions in the world. Besides the different
cultures, there are also social distinctions
regarding income, connection to infrastructure
and access to education and the healthcare
www.nutraceuticalmag.com March/April 2011
system. These are all key factors. Normally, basic
insights into these topics can be obtained from
existing market studies. For southern Africa,
this is nearly impossible: only limited market
data are available and most of the studies focus
only on South Africa. Having said that, South
Africa is currently the most important economic
market, with a GDP that, alone, is many times
greater than the GDPs of all other countries in
the region. ResearchWikis estimated the value
of the South African cosmetic market in 2007 at
more than €2.47 billion and predicted a growth
of 15–20%.1 Euromonitor confirmed doubledigit growth in South Africa for the beauty and
personal care market in 2009.2 A press release
from Shiseido in 2010 indicated that they
calculated that South Africans spend €220
million for top of the range cosmetic products.3
This points to a trend towards premium
products, particularly those with proven efficacy.
These figures show that the total southern
African market has a value of more than €3
billion and, when taking into account the doubledigit growth in the region, it could easily reach a
market size that’s comparable with one of the
major markets in Europe, such as Germany,
France or the UK.4 In anticipating opportunities in
this growing market, we conducted a consumer
survey to better understand the cosmetic
consumer behaviour of southern African women
and plan to transfer the findings into research
and development programmes, as well as
marketing strategies. The goal is to bring to
market new products that satisfy the specific
needs of the southern African consumer.
Survey Principles
In the following section, the principles of
the consumer survey are summarized. We
investigated qualitative and quantitative aspects
using a standard questionnaire, developed
in-house, that was completed in writing and
augmented with additional personal interviews
related to the content of the questionnaire.
Study participants from the southern African
region were defined as consumers who
were originally from or currently reside in
one of the following countries: Botswana,
Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa,
Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Zambia. We only
included women who had their own buying
power, were employed or self-employed, had
access to basic infrastructure — even if living
in a remote area — and were used to travelling
within their country or within the southern Africa
region. We wanted to make sure that they had
access to different kinds of shops and different
ranges of products, and were not limited by only
having knowledge about local products. The
nationality of the responders was mostly South
African, followed by women from Zimbabwe
and Namibia. Blacks and whites were equally
represented. The age group surveyed was
between 25 and 65 years of age.
The income levels of the group were very
diverse, including a significant low income group
of less than €7300 per year and a small group
of people who earn more than €36,000 per
year. The average income, represented by 45%
of the study participants, was around €15,000
per year. The monthly spend on cosmetics
(skin, hair and body care) was, on average,
2% of their income. Nevertheless, we identified
that women with a lower income spent around
3.6% on cosmetics, which is much more than
average. This phenomenon is often called the
“lipstick effect,” representing a higher level spend
on small personal treats such as cosmetics
when luxury items such as holidays or visiting a
good restaurant are not affordable.5 Our results
showed that women with higher incomes
spend an average of 0.9% of their income
on cosmetics. More than half of the women
confirmed that they like to reward themselves
with a special cosmetic product.
We found out that southern African women
select a sales outlet depending on the level of
need to get a suitable, performance-delivering
product. For example, black women in
general are more concerned about their hair
than their skin. They look for products that
reduce dandruff, prevent hair breakage and
keep their hair soft. Cleansing is also very
important; it is not usual for people to wash
their hair as frequently as they do in Europe.
Many coloured/black southern African women
cosmetic focus
use artificial hair, which is fixed on their heads
for some days. During this period, only dry
shampoo can be used. Their specific needs
and expectations are either not yet catered
for, or not well communicated by many of the
brands sold in supermarkets, pharmacies or
drugstores. Therefore, many such women
prefer to buy their hair care products in local
hair salons or via direct sales. Personal contact
and trust in the sales person is very important.
In addition, lack of infrastructure means that
small, local shops remain an important source
for products. Internet shopping plays more
or less no role at all as most people have no
private access to a computer.
Expectations for skincare products were
quite homogenous within the study group. All
of the participants were looking for moisturizing
and sun protection products. The demand for
antiageing products is still low, although current
trends suggest an increasing demand in the
future. White participants mainly requested
westernized concepts, such as aromatherapy.
Overall, it is very important for the southern
African woman to be well kept and beautiful.
They look after their beauty carefully and,
based on their appearance, it is very difficult to
ascertain their living conditions. A key driver in
product purchase is that it should be natural.
Ingredients such as natural oils or herbal
extracts are very important to southern African
women of all ethnic groups. Also crucial are
allergen- and preservative-free formulas. We
asked the participants to indicate their three
most important criteria when selecting a product.
First was natural ingredients, followed by active,
performance ingredients and, thirdly, price.
To learn more about the natural ingredients
that African women are aware of and interested
in, they were questioned about a list of extracts
and oils commonly used in cosmetic products.
The most well recognized were aloe vera,
rooibos extract, green tea extract, grape seed
extract, devil’s claw extract, sea weed extract,
kigelia extract and ginseng extract. Most of the
given oils were well known and no priority could
be identified. They included oils typically used in
Western cosmetics, such as almond oil, jojoba
39
oil, baobab oil as well as local oils, which have
just begun to appear in European cosmetics
(marula oil, Kalahari melon seed oil, mongongo
oil and ximenia oil, for example). Aloe vera,
marula oil and Kalahari melon seed oil were
most frequently indicated as traditional southern
African cosmetic ingredients.
In Summary
With the growth of the middle class and
increased spending power across many socioeconomic groups in southern Africa, a demand
for affordable yet reliable quality skincare and hair
care products exists — to fulfil the requirements
of the different ethnic groups and to meet the
demand for natural ingredients. Consumers will
reward those brands that focus on quality and
price with their loyalty. This is an opportunity
for smaller, flexible brands to enter the market
with concepts that are tailor-made for specific
ethnic groups, for distribution in supermarkets
and drugstores. Although they have to compete
with the pricing structure of international players
such as Unilever and L’Oréal, which continue
to dominate the market, such brands have an
opportunity to gain new market share from the
consumer groups that are in the process of
changing their buying habits from small local
shops to supermarkets, which are increasingly
penetrating the rural and township areas. New
products need to satisfy consumer needs and
have to develop trust.
References
1.ResearchWikis, Cosmetics — South Africa,
Marketing Research 2007 (www.researchwikis.
com/Cosmetics_-_South_Africa_2007_
Marketing_Research).
2.Euromonitor, Beauty and Personal Care in South
Africa, 2010 (www.euromonitor.com/Beauty_
and_Personal_Care_in_South_Africa).
3.Business and Finance, South Africa is Shiseido’s
Latest Target, 2010 (www.cosmeticsbusiness.
com/news/article_page/South_Africa_is_
Shiseidos_latest_target/56871).
4.Global Insight, A study of the European
Cosmetics Industry; Study prepared for European
Commission, 2007 (www.pedz.uni-mannheim.de/
daten/edz.../study_eu_cosmetics_industry.pdf).
5.Euromonitor, Marketing: The Top 10 Consumer
Trends, 2010 (www.cosmetic-business.com).
For more information
Dr Sybille Buchwald-Werner, Founder and Managing
Director, and Sabrina Scholz, Scientific Manager
Vital Solutions GmbH
Hausinger Strasse 4–8
D-40764 Langenfeld, Germany.
Tel. +49 2173 1098 202
[email protected]
www.vitalsolutions.biz
March/April 2011 www.nutraceuticalmag.com