Mavens seek ‘truly’ natural products

You are what you eat. Well, in this case, you are what you put on your skin. That’s why customers increasingly are seeking truly natural beauty products.

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Truly natural positioning is gaining importance with consumers, manufacturers and retailers, and that’s spelling healthy sales gains.



According to global consulting and research firm Kline & Co. — which estimates that the global natural personal care market increased by nearly 10% in 2014 — there is a shift taking place in the natural market.



In such mature markets as the United States and Europe, a growing number of consumers are purchasing products containing predominantly natural ingredients. Natural-inspired products are those products with natural claims but are formulated with a high proportion of synthetic ingredients. While products that are only natural-inspired continued to prevail in the United States and Europe in 2014, Kline’s ratings system — which analyzes brands’ naturalness on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being completely natural — uncovered shifts in the natural positioning in several U.S. and European brands, including Avalon Organics, JĀSÖN, Annemarie Borlind and Melvita, all receiving higher ratings in 2014 when compared with prior years.



Meanwhile, James Russo, Nielsen’s SVP global consumer insights, stated that, overall, natural and organic beauty products are giving retailers something to be happy about. Such products experienced a 24% compound annual sales growth rate over the past four years — significantly outpacing the 2.7% growth for the total beauty category.



And, according to Nielsen’s recent beauty product claim survey of more than 1,000 adults, nearly half (46%) of respondents said they would be willing to pay more for “all natural” beauty products. In addition, 53% of respondents said “all natural” label claims are “very” or “moderately” important.