From The August/Sepember 2003 Issue of Natural Grocery Buyer

Clean and Green

Natural Personal Care Products Bring Glow to Retail Sales

Vicky Uhland

When it comes to stocking a display, ice cream is more popular than eye cream. Salsa is sexier than soap. Grocers know this, which is why there is often more space devoted to organic chips than to organic conditioner.

But natural body care items are an attractive exception to this conventional wisdom. They're the interesting new suitor that catches the eye of jaded food shoppers. "While the mainstream cosmetic and personal care product market is growing at a sluggish, low-single-digit pace, the [natural personal care] market—along with organic foods—have become beacons of light in a foggy nutrition industry," reports Nutrition Business Journal in its January issue.

NBJ says the U.S. natural personal care product market was worth $4.1 billion in 2002, a 10 percent increase from 2001, and attributes the leap in sales to "growing consumer interest, gains in mass-market distribution, successful new products, revamped packaging and savvier marketing." NBJ concludes that natural personal care products could account for 13 percent to 14 percent of the total U.S. market for health and beauty care items by the end of this year.

But some natural body care products are hotter than others. To lure shoppers to a natural personal care section, capitalize on this trio of trends:

• Organics. Even though there are no national standards for organic personal care products, any soap, shampoo or other body item with the word organic in its name is a popular choice.
  
  The Natural Marketing Institute in Harleysville, Pa., estimates the U.S. target market for organic personal care products at 57 million people, or 20 percent of the population. In addition, in its 2002 Health and Wellness Trends Database, NMI reported that 12 percent of people who already buy organic body care products said they increased their usage last year. Indeed, organic body care product sales increased 60 percent from 1999 to 2000, and were up 38 percent from 2000 to 2001, according to the Organic Trade Association's Manufacturer Market Survey. In comparison, sales of organic foods have increased about 20 percent a year, the OTA says.
  
  "The organic personal care thing is mainstreaming so much," says Fred Arnal, managing partner of Tyler Creek Associates, a Chicago-based grocery consultant. "The mainstream buyers in supermarkets are not as interested in organics as those who shop in natural food stores, but they're being forced into it because there's so much information about organics out there."
  
  Large naturals manufacturers popular in grocery stores that have introduced organic lines recently include Kiss My Face (Obsessively Organic skin care and Sudz soaps), Avalon Natural Products (Avalon Organics) and Jason Natural Cosmetics (Shaman Earthly Organics). Supermarket perennial Levlad Inc. has a 30-product organic line under the Nature's Gate label that accounts for 20 percent of the company's sales, reports NBJ.
  
  "People are looking for anything hypoallergenic, anything with therapeutic qualities. They want soaps free from all kinds of harmful chemicals and [lathering agents]," Arnal says.
  
  

• Anti-aging products. Baby boomers are searching for a new wrinkle in skin care products. Norwalk, Conn.-based market researcher Business Communications Co. says sales of anti-aging products reached $6.7 billion in 2001 and could soar to $8.7 billion by 2006.
  
  Women ages 30 to 50 believe "people should do whatever they wish to slow down the signs of aging," according to the 1999 Wrinkle Report prepared by the Harris Interactive polling firm. Sixteen percent of the 1,200 women surveyed believe moisturizers can prevent wrinkles; another 6 percent opt for wrinkle cream.
  
  Naturals manufacturers have been quick to capitalize on this desire to look young. Burt's Bees' Healthy Treatment skin care line, which is targeted to women in their 40s and 50s, will likely be introduced into grocery stores within the next year or two, says company President Roxanne Quimby. "We've just been selling it for a year, and we want to see if it has a strong proven history—determine if it has the legs to get into the grocery store environment." However, she notes, "some Healthy Treatment products are in our top 10 best sellers overall. We think we have a real winner on our hands."
  
  Quimby believes the eight-piece line will sell well in grocery because "my generation of women—ages 40 to 55—are much more open to alternatives. They're not just interested in department store brands like our mothers were."
  
  Healthy Treatment items have fancy names, such as Shea Butter Décolleté Crème and Evening Primrose Overnight Crème. The line also features glossier packaging that makes it 20 percent more expensive than other Burt's Bees products, Quimby says. "It's more about pampering yourself, that indulgent psychology. We felt that since there are so many baby boomers in the world, there was just an opportunity. They have the disposable income to buy the products that might be a luxury. We set it up to be an alternative to Clinique, but five or six times less expensive."
  
  
• Marketing to teens. Quimby admits that the other buyers with wallets full of disposable income—18-to-24-year-olds—frequently aren't Burt's Bees customers. But she wants them to be. Like a growing number of natural personal care product manufacturers, she feels that "if we don't target that age group, they're not going to grow up with any loyalty to our products."
  
  So Burt's Bees sells a tomato-based soap and toner and is developing a tomato moisturizing cream. Tomato-based products are high in acid and target oily and acne-prone skin, Quimby says. Burt's Bees also makes a blemish stick containing tea tree oil and willow bark disinfectants.
  
  Other naturals companies are focusing on Generation Y's product knowledge. "The fact is that this MTV- and Teen Vogue-driven generation that we're living with is the most informed, and hence beauty-savviest ever," says Aubrey Organics' spokeswoman Andrea Bermudez. The Tampa, Fla.-based personal care manufacturer introduced Ultimate Moist earlier this year. The teen-oriented hand and body lotions contain what Bermudez calls "youthful essential oil fragrances"—green tea, rosemary, mint and passionflower.

Sidebars:
Breakdown of the $4.1 Billion U.S. Natural Personal Care Market in 2002
Use of Organic and Natural Personal Care Products in the General Population

Vicky Uhland is a Denver-based writer and editor. She may be reached at vuhland@mindspring.com.