COVID-19 has accelerated some preexisting health and beauty trends like the movement toward wellness, forcing players to rethink strategies and adapt to a new normal in the context of shifting consumer attitudes and consumption habits.

Recessionary effects from the pandemic are forcing consumers to grapple with their definition of value. Beauty companies are now building relevance through novel positioning, category refocusing and digital engagement to sustain brand loyalty. In the health space, prevention has continued to do quite well, with interest in immunity-positioned products expected to sustain strong growth during the pandemic. For the first time, digital health is experiencing scalable and widespread adoption, allowing many consumers to take greater ownership of their health outcomes than ever before.

Consumers are gravitating toward products and ingredients that they understand and trust, making education and assurance of efficacy essential to generate consumer engagement.
Increased price sensitivity and more careful consideration of nonessential spending will be observed for a few years to come. Meeting new value criteria will be a key prerequisite for sustaining demand.

Preventative health, wellness and safety have become paramount and those factors need to permeate every brand strategy moving forward.

Building on digital activation should be high priority, but brick-and-mortar reinvention should not be left behind with physical shopping still a preferred choice among consumers and their renewed desire to return to stores post pandemic.

As a result of this pandemic-linked recession, both health and beauty players will stand to face a more brand and channel agnostic consumers. Brand differentiation and loyalty will resurface as a challenge, so strong narratives around transparency and trust, emotional engagement and new relevance would be a key rescue line.

Download Euromonitor International’s webinar, “Health and Beauty in the Coronavirus Era,” to understand which product categories will thrive given consumer demand and identify new pressures on supply chains and opportunities for channel distribution.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Irina Barbalova is Global Lead, Beauty and Health, Euromonitor International.