Good enough to eat?
What flavours and ingredients do people want in their personal care products — and what’s really important to them when making purchases?
Ever used a shower gel or a soap and thought: “That smells delicious… I wonder what it tastes like?!”
If so, you’re not alone. We found that an astonishing 1 in 3 people are sometimes tempted to taste their beauty products, which we shared with The Grocer for their in-depth report on the subject.
But what specifically are people looking for in their personal care items, and how do these wants change depending on who somebody is — or what their interests are? Here’s what over 1,200 of our users, or bees, in the UK told us.
The proof of the pudding
First things first: what do people care about when buying toiletries and beauty products?
UK consumers have clear preferences: they want a product that provides value for money, and does what it’s supposed to. Drill down beyond those straightforward drivers though, and factors like smell, ingredients and brand also start to play an influential role.
For example, when we asked our bees directly how important the ingredients in their products are to them, a massive 77% said that these were either very or fairly important to them. And once people look at the label, natural ingredients and cruelty-free products are what they want to see:
One 30-year-old female respondent said: “As I suffer from eczema, I have to make sure most products don’t contain a lot of perfume and need natural products. Saying that, cost is important too as I despise over-paying for essentially a product to make you look ‘prettier’.”
So, as consumers become more knowledgeable about what they put into as well as onto their body, sustainability — whatever that might mean to consumers, from packaging to ingredients to carbon footprint — is an increasingly important element of a brand’s value proposition.
However, there’s a problem; even though people claim ingredients are important to them, their actions say otherwise. Only 71% of our bees claim they sometimes or always read the label — or, in other words, 3 in 10 usually don’t. So how can brands make it easy for shoppers to understand what their products are all about if they won’t read the packaging?
The Generation Game
Our bees also revealed some splits in what consumers like — both in terms of generation gaps, as well as different attitudes towards what those with different interests want out of their beauty products.
Looking at age first, we discovered that Generation Z –18–25s — are even more keen on value for money than other age groups — because they have less income — and in an their ideal world, this would be delivered by brands they trust.
Beyond that though, younger women are more likely to care about cruelty-free products than natural ingredients — going against the general trend — while they’re also more likely to want items that cater for sensitive skin.
Conversely, women over-45 care more about smell and brand than other age groups, and are more interested in what’s in their products — 87% care more about the ingredients they buy.
The big differences though come in what flavours appeal to each age group. Young women are comparatively much keener on berries, cocoa and tea, while citrus and coconut appeal to the older lady — possibly the result of decades of ‘lemon fresh’ products claiming to clean areas others cannot reach?
And when it comes to experimental new flavours, the results are starker still. Strong scents like coffee, alcoholic drinks, doughnuts and pancakes are much more likely to appeal to a younger crowd:
Ingredients vs smell
We also found a split that cuts across generations: those who care about natural ingredients, and those that basically want their products to make them smell nice.
Those that care about natural ingredients tend to be highly engaged with a brand’s messaging — in fact, 98% of the bees who said ingredients were very important to them either always or often checked the labels of products.
“I’m vegan, and I prefer to use cruelty-free products. I also like holistic natural products that are safe for the skin,” said one woman, 18.
For this group, ingredients that feel natural — like coconut, oats, tea, greens and herbs — are more appealing, and they’re also more likely to be interested in using food ingredients in their beauty regimes (49% agreed, against 26% across all age groups).
Conversely, for those interested in smell first and foremost, value for money, effectiveness and fragrance are all more important, while only 1 in 4 of this group say they always read the label.
This group enjoys the smell of berries and citrus, and is much less keen on natural flavours like teas, herbs and greens. It’s also keener than most on trying exotic new ideas based on the smells of sweets, desserts and alcohol.
So what does this all mean?
This is a split market, containing clear consumer personas with different wants and needs.
Brands should therefore establish which consumer type they are aiming to target and focus communications on what the product actually does and smells like (for those who don’t care about what’s in it) or contains (for those who do).
Either way, brands that make it easy for consumers to know what they are putting on their bodies, without having to study the small print, could win in the long run as sentiment shifts towards cruelty-free, sustainable products.
Indeed, 77% of our bees said they would like fairtrade standards to be more common in their products — offering opportunities for manufacturers to clearly communicate how their items are made and what’s in them — whether they smell like pancakes, or not.
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A quick word on our methodology: The figures in the article are taken from Streetbees community members in the UK, carried out in Dec 2018. All of the data was collected by mobile and web surveys, and is accurate to within 3 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
