How can personal care brands turn disruption into…

From scrolling on social media to strolling past storefronts, anti-ageing products are everywhere. But the intensity of these treatments has kicked up a notch. Peptides, fillers, laser peels, and injectables are a far cry from non-invasive wrinkle creams – and they’re capturing consumers’ attention. In a rapidly shifting health and beauty environment, how can traditional personal care brands stay relevant?

High-priced, high-involvement personal care is big business. The market for med-spas, a hybrid between traditional spas and medical clinics, is projected to be a $47 billion business by 2031. Annual botox treatments are up 460 percent since the early 2000s. Peptides, a novel ‘anti-aging’ skincare ingredient, is projected to be an $8 billion business by 2035.

Gentle, feel-good promises of softer skin or clearer pores can struggle to compete with clinical claims. At the same time, traditional advertising channels are being supplanted by social media and e-commerce channels, enabling more frequent messaging and direct sales. The upshot is that many people are abandoning gentler products in favor of more dramatic results.

To manage this evolution, mainstream personal care brands can lean into customer-centered specificity, trend awareness, and a portfolio approach to product development and marketing.

1. Get specific

A one-size-fits-all approach only serves to frustrate consumers who increasingly expect personalization. Brands should be highly specific about exactly who their products are designed for, and communicate with consumers about why the product is right for them at this specific moment in time – whether it’s a hand cream for perimenopausal hands, a pre-natal shampoo with extra vitamins, or the gel cleanser designed to prevent breakouts.

Brands can retain relevance and build crucial connections with consumers by identifying a clear consumer segment and life stage, explaining the changes those people are likely to experience, and providing a solution that answers their unique needs.

In cosmetics, for example, traditional make-up application tools can be difficult for people with physical conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease to use. We collaborated with Guide Beauty to support the launch of three ergonomic, ultra-useable makeup tools, redesigning cosmetics for inclusive and accessible beauty.

2. Tap into trends

There’s more to gain from working alongside more intense treatments than trying to displace them. For example, instead of claiming to be ‘better than Botox’, an incumbent skincare brand could create a moisturizer that prolongs the effects of Botox or prepares the skin to be more receptive to future injections.

By understanding which treatments are on the rise and building product sets that drive desired results, incumbent brands can become a mainstay within broader routines. They can deliver dependability, while also innovating to reflect consumers’ wants and needs – the two main drivers of brand engagement, according to our survey of 9,000 US consumers. People choose brands that make their lives better and easier, recognizing the value that personal care brands bring to their lives. In our research, when consumers were asked to rank brands from a range of categories, a fifth of the top 50 brands chosen were in health, beauty, and personal care.

3. Move from product to portfolio

Multi-step skin care routines, age-targeted product lines, and daily product launches, just to name a few, means consumers have more choice than ever before. Not only is it overwhelming; it’s increasingly difficult to make confident selections. Focusing on single products or treatments is a missed trick. Brands can solidify their place in consumers’ lives by moving from product to portfolio. This means understanding individuals as complete people, and using intelligent tools to analyze habits and needs.

With this knowledge, brands can provide personalized guidance on effective personal care routines – not hinging on one product, but utilizing a range of solutions. Guidance can be shared through targeted messaging, influencers, and interactive digital tools including augmented reality (AR). The right channels will differ for individual customers – some will be more receptive to in-store messaging. So, it’s not just the information itself that matters, but how it’s delivered and when.

Evolution as an opportunity

It’s never easy to be an incumbent brand in the midst of market disruption. But, by embracing market and product evolution as an opportunity, and focusing on whole journeys rather than singular products, personal care brands can retain their relevance, take advantage of consumer shifts, and achieve better growth.