The Cosmetics And Toiletries Industry

The Cosmetics and Toiletries Industry

Product Coverage

The Cosmetics and Toiletries Industry has a wide array of products which can be determined as of the following:

Baby care;

Bath and shower products;

Colour cosmetics;

Deodorants;

Depilatories;

Fragrances;

Hair care;

Men's grooming products;

Oral hygiene;

Premium cosmetics;

Skin care;

Sun care

The Cosmetics and Toiletries Industry in the Philippines

The Industry as a Whole

The Philippines is a country wherein its citizens are spending part of their earnings in personal hygiene and in making themselves look-good. With the massive media campaigns (commercials, ads, sponsorships) made by their favorite celebrities whom Filipinos admire/ idolize so much, the cosmetics and toiletries industry in the country has a really good potential.

In the past years, the overall performance of cosmetics and toiletries was hindered by several reasons such as the political wars and the Philippines' weak economic situation. Consumers have nothing to do but to be a little bit tight on their spending in order to survive. The performance of the industry therefore stayed stable at par value growth.

Obviously, the products that consumers buy a lot (popular) are bath and shower products, oral hygiene, skin care, baby care and perfume products. But in the past years, with the wide array of products in the cosmetics and toiletries industry in the Philippines and with the rising consumer awareness and interest, both skin care and depilatories (hair removal/wax) products were asked and sought more by the consumers.

In summary, in order for the consumers to have all the cosmetics and toiletries product that they wanted to, they started to shift and buy their personal care products on much cheaper brands or to smaller packaging sizes which are offered by the manufacturers. The shift to cheaper brands has in fact contributed to the slowdown in value growth of several cosmetics and toiletries products. Volume growth of various products has nonetheless been either maintained or boosted as a result of the heavy media campaigns.

The Filipino's Dream Complexion and Scent

Consumers think that celebrities like Ruffa Gutierrez, Gretchen Barretto, Charlene Gonzales are goddesses' of beauty and have timeless beauty; therefore, they simply wanted to be like them in any way. The Filipino's dream complexion is to have a fair and radiant skin that is why they really take so much time, effort and money in taking care of themselves. Furthermore, they try to smell as aromatic, fragrant and fresh as they can to complete themselves.

Just like in the past years, the whitening trend is still very much in the limelight. Manufacturer's simply keeps on launching new skin care products with new researched ingredients on how they can make one's skin look younger and healthier.

What's new and innovative is that the trend of whitening is not only limited to skin care and colour cosmetics but also to deodorants, bath and shower products, and oral hygiene products.

Once again, amidst the ever-growing trend of such whitening products, skin care products once again bested the performance of all other cosmetics and toiletries products with a confident 14% current value growth (Euromonitor, 2006).

Local VS. International Companies

The local companies have made their presence felt in the fight in gaining market share in the Philippine cosmetics and toiletries industry. Though the industry is still controlled and dominated by multinationals, still, these local manufacturers tried to gave them a real close fight.

Splash Manufacturing Corp/ Hortaleza Beauty Center (HBC)., which is the country's leading company focusing on the cosmetics and toiletries industry, focused their marketing and sales on products which are light on the pocket and which are easily affordable by the masses. They tried to target the class B-C in order to gain market share which really proved effective on their part.

The multinationals on the other hand dominated by being capital intensive and set the tone for massive product campaigns, promotional activities, new product launches, packaging and variances that really caught the attention of the Filipinos.

Cosmetics and Toiletries Industry in the Future, what's in store for them?

The cosmetics and toiletries industry is a very promising commerce and therefore should be taken seriously. With a compounded annual growth rate of 3-5% (Euromonitor, 2006), such products are expected to sell more in the upcoming years if exploited the right and proper way.

With regards to niche products such as deodorant creams, mascara, etc., volume and growth will definitely increase because of consumer awareness. On the other hand, the more established products, such as skin care, har care, and oral hygience, such concumers are expected to shift to the so called "value-added"