Credit-Crunching Beauty

Getting back to basics or piling on the frippery: Which approach stands to win the greatest share of the beauty wallet in 2009?

By Jonathan Ford, Pearlfisher

With the glitter, glamour and excess of the festive party season fading fast, bleak—and more frugal—winter days still stretch far ahead. It’s a starkly contrasting picture, but one that perfectly reflects the current state of the beauty marketplace. The credit crunch is bringing the polarization of the beauty market into even sharper focus with more basic products (with basic prices) and pared-back simplicity at one end and seductive frippery and layering at the other. But which approach will win the greatest share of the beauty wallet as we move into 2009? 

Bargain Basement Buys

The beauty bibles and blogs have been on fire with reports of budget and store-brand beauty buys outranking the brand leaders. In the UK, Tesco’s Q10 Derma (priced at £1.79) has been reportedly selling 1.5 packs per minute and outselling the popular Nivea Visage Q10 range by 150 to one (source: www.marieclaire.co.uk). Similarly, Waitrose shelves have been stripped of Waitrose Baby Protecting Bottom Butter (£2.49), which women are buying not for their babies, but for the amazing effect it is having on their own faces.

Bottoms up! Baby butter is not just for little bums anymore.

However, even though we are in the grip of recession it’s not just about the price. When it comes to beauty, it has to also be about efficacy. If you can offer both, as these two examples do, then you are pretty much onto a winner.

But what about the packaging? It’s always been important to us to have products that not only make us look good, but which also look good on our bathroom shelves.

Buttons, Bows and Bling

The mass “luxe-off” of recent years, and the relentless rise of the quality bar, made for an easy code of conduct for brands to add value as we relentlessly rewarded ourselves with sleek design that communicated best, better and beyond, and products—name brand and own-brand alike—were “surfaced” with premium equities. And while we are seeing the rise of more basic beauty brands, there is also no sign of a slowdown when it comes to high-end brands trying to stand out by adding buttons, bows and bling.

The fragrance sector, as always, is pushing the boundaries with increasingly flamboyant bottles and ideas. Hermès’ latest addition, Hermes 24 Faubourg Limited Edition Oil, comes with real gold flakes, and a new fragrance from Van Cleef & Arpels, Van Cleef & Arpels Féerie, features a controversial silver sculpture stopper. It’s definitely eye-catching, but maybe like Marmite [a yeast extract food], I think women will either love it or hate it, and I’m not sure that the sculpture is really luxe enough to match the price.

Does Van Cleef & Arpels Féerie go too far out on a limb?

Realizing the threat to them with the credit crunch and the success of the bargain basement buys, other high-end brands have focused on brand layering and multi-usage as a way of offering value for money and a desirable extra factor. Givenchy’s Givenchy Couture Makeup Palette, inspired by its latest season “rock ’n roll meets pretty princess look,” is a matte black leather-look case spiked with silver grommets, which contains an assortment of candy-hued cosmetics and a range of mini brushes for beauty on the go. The case turns into a usable clutch once the makeup has been used.
  
Recession pushes us to reconsider our resources and it’s no different for brands. As we pare down, brands will be tested to be pioneers and to show exactly how their strengths meet our newly refined needs in the leaner times that are now upon us. But these are times in which we don’t need excess, fun, spin and obvious seduction techniques. Many brands, such as Givenchy and Hermès are coming up with novel, creative ideas, but creative ideas that have little to do with the all-important core message. Changing times mean reigning in this seduction and abandoning such indulgent visual messaging. A brand’s core visual equities are what differentiates it, what it owns and what shows its value and describes its truth. The borrowed attributes have to be handed back and what’s left behind will be laid bare.

Resourceful Creativity

The case for Givenchy’s Couture Makeup Palette turns into a usable clutch once the makeup has been used.

Newcomer and brand of the moment, MAD et LEN, houses its bath salts and home tonics in a variety of black, over-sized apothecary style bottles. The packaging is basic, but starkly beautiful, and fits perfectly with the reputed heritage from a revered French perfumer and a name that’s an offbeat reference to Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past.

Those who have a past to lean on should find a reinvigorated loyalty in customers who engage with this traditional evaluation of worth and pursue a more trusting and balanced relationship. Limited resources do not allow for frills, and instead, brands will rely on being creative with what they have—or perhaps had. Brands should always aim to represent the spirit of their time: They represent our lives, our culture and our changing needs. The way they communicate these truths, alongside their strengths, their goodness and perhaps, most importantly, their necessity, will be tested perhaps more strenuously than at any other point in living memory, at a time when the marketplace has never been more competitive.

Single-minded Seduction

But it’s not just about swapping one for the other: embellishment for a more startling straight-talking and stripped back approach. The term “austere chic” has started to be bandied about in this marketplace, but I think that this is maybe a little too harsh and prescriptive. What may be better to say and a better phrase to coin and keep front-of-mind is “single-minded seduction.” Obviously, basics like straightforward value will be important, but brand heritage and long-term emotional relationships should also be remembered and returned to.

Elizabeth Arden’s successful return to its ’50s vibe appeals to existing and new customers alike.

Elizabeth Arden is a good case in point of a high-end brand trying a new, honest, real, emotional and, above all, single-minded direction. The company is celebrating the launch in the ’50s of its much loved and coveted Eight Hour Cream with its new Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant Vintage Edition 1950s—the first in a line of annual limited editions paying homage to each decade since the ’50s. The ’50s vibe has, of course, been much emulated and a great source of inspiration for beauty brands such as Benefit in recent times. But, it’s more than just jumping on a formula that works, it’s about the heritage and efficacy of the Elizabeth Arden brand reflected in a beautifully simple new design and structure that may appeal to not only existing customers, but may attract a new following.

Times may be hard but we will still buy cosmetics. And for brands to keep their share of the beauty wallet and beat off the competition, how they look will still be important. But a clear, meaningful and single-minded message could be the deciding factor. So, think outside the box—but about the box—and look at ways to seduce us through single-minded and simply stunning design.

About the Author
Jonathan Ford is creative partner of Pearlfisher, a future-focused design consultancy in New York and London. Email: [email protected]