Focused skin care: Q&A with Beiersdorf's Andrew Kingery

Drug Store News caught up with Beiersdorf director of shopper and customer marketing Andrew Kingery for a rundown on skin care today.



DSN: The skin care category is an important business for pharmacy retailers, driving a lot of trips and generating a good deal of profit margin ... given that retailers count so much on the category. Talk about the current state of the business. Where is the growth coming from?

Andrew Kingery: In the skin care category, growth continues to occur in the premium segments of the category, and we continue to see manufacturers experiment with new applicators and formulas. One area we are watching closely is the in-shower lotion segment. Our Nivea in-shower body lotion has reinvigorated in-shower applications and has been showing strong trial since it launched earlier this year. Shoppers also are showing strong interest in treatment or therapeutic products to solve specific skin needs; for example, eczema or the dry skin that often occurs in people diabetes, and we expect this to continue.

DSN:  What are some important emerging trends in skin care that retailers need to be aware of? What's next for skin care?

Kingery: There are at least two big trends influencing shoppers in the skin care category — participation in health insurance and adoption of information technology. The recent enactment of the Affordable Care Act is providing more consumers with health care, but asking them to make reasonable efforts to avoid unnecessary trips to costly healthcare providers. This is influencing consumers [and] causing self-diagnosis on minor issues, which in turn, brings people to information technology for forums, wikis, patient communities, etc. In order to help shoppers in product selection, store employees will continue to rely more on such information technology as handheld devices, apps and online training to help shoppers select the best products. What’s next for skin care? On-demand applications that are easy to use and help consumers perform better self-diagnosis of skin conditions with product recommendations and where to buy. If you go a little farther out, there are biometric devices, such as discrete skin patches, that can link to a smartphone or other computer to provide real time monitoring of bodily conditions that affect the skin like, exposure to UV rays, electrolyte levels and moisture content.

DSN:  How is Beiersdorf leveraging social media to engage the skin care customer?

Kingery: At Beiersdorf, social media is a great platform to help people tell their life stories, and when they include our brands we call that successful. We leverage social media across all brands by sharing relevant skin care tips, healthy lifestyle posts and interesting ways to use our products for beauty, grooming and skin care. We engage with our consumers on various social platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr — to start a conversation, introduce them to our products or share benefits and new stories about our product uses.

Our goal in social media is to listen to how our brands are part of our consumers’ life story, and continue to grow the conversations and level of engagement with our followers. We’re constantly learning more about how they use the products and why they love our brands.

DSN: How are cultural competency and the need to engage the multicultural consumer in a more meaningful way than the traditional 4-ft. "ethnic section" changing the game in skin care?

Kingery: I think Rich Dennis, CEO of Sundial Brands, said it best when he raised the question, “Why is it illegal to segregate outside of the store, but in-store it is ok to have the African-American skin care products segregated in one place away from the regular section?” In the New General Market, the old ways of segregating the market will (must) become less visible, and we must use a deeper understanding of behavior to develop more authentic relationships with shoppers. If we are truly culturally competent we focus on the value we create for our shoppers, not on their demographics.

DSN:  What about the male customer — how important is the male shopper to the future of the category and how is Beiersdorf targeting this shopper?

Kingery: Catering to men represents a growth opportunity for retailers, as males are a relatively untapped demographic group in the category. Appealing to the convenience-driven mindset of the male shopper through simple packaging formats, and leveraging secondary placements to trigger impulse purchases can help drive category growth.

In partnership with our key retailers, we invest in loyalty programs to reach our customers’ top shoppers, thereby reaching the retailers’ fair share of male shoppers across Eucerin, Aquaphor and Nivea.