Specialist
Former Demand Retail Planning Manager at L'Oréal USA Inc
Agenda
- Key trends and developments impacting the beauty industry, focusing on the masstige category
- Category overview – merchandising strategy, channel exposure and market share opportunities
- Competitive landscape
- Near-to-long-term outlook
Questions
1.
Could you share 2-3 key trends you’ve been following in the masstige segment of the beauty industry?
2.
Could you comment on the state of the overall industry and the pace of recovery? You brought up colour as a major area of concern over the pandemic and coming out of it.
3.
What’s your medium-term outlook for the industry? What is the next makeup trend that could drive a resurgence in sales? Could the pandemic structurally reduce makeup use in the longer term, meaning an aesthetic shift towards natural? Is there more expectation around a revenge use of makeup, or heavier face, given last year?
4.
How has coronavirus potentially changed the competitive landscape? Do you expect more or less launches, or more or less consolidation?
5.
How would you define the masstige segment? What are the most prevalent characteristics of a masstige brand or product? What does it take to become one?
6.
Have you noticed brands successfully moving upstream to masstige from mass?
7.
Could you estimate the size of the masstige segment, perhaps as a percentage of the overall beauty market?
8.
Where could masstige evolve to in five years, assuming that prestige will decline and masstige will grow? Do you expect mass to remain at 50% of the market in five years, with masstige taking share from prestige and perhaps overtaking it?
9.
What consumer demographics are buying masstige? What are the most- and least-penetrated demographics for the segment?
10.
How could the masstige segment’s consumer demographics shift over the next five years?
11.
Could you discuss competitive dynamics across the players with high exposure to the masstige segment?
12.
Is there reason to believe that Coty’s performance has improved with the restructuring? Is it at least heading in the right direction?
13.
How are the digital native brands faring against Revlon, Coty and L’Oréal?
14.
Have any up-and-coming digital brands done particularly well in the masstige segment? Do you consider any of them to be potential competitive threats to the bigger players?
15.
What’s your outlook on Elf’s positioning in makeup and skincare?
16.
Could you elaborate on the Alicia Keys Soulcare launch? What is attractive about the product line and having celebrity backing as part of the launch?
17.
What is your 12-18-month outlook for the Alicia Keys brand?
18.
How would you frame the average revenue size and path to peak growth for celebrity launches, given you mentioned the J Lo launch, among others?
19.
Would you say the Alicia Keys Soulcare launch differed at all from other celebrity launches at the same price point?
20.
Have any launches felt particularly differentiated or exciting to you in the prior few months or over the pandemic, given the backdrop?
21.
Do you think dermatologist-recommended masstige brands have had more success than those that aren’t necessarily endorsed by medical professionals? Could you share any anecdotes here on winners and losers?
22.
Are you excited about any beauty or device launches in the masstige segment besides Droplette?
23.
Would you say there’s mixed messaging around some players’ pricing strategies? We’ve spent time on the celebrity launches, which have a lot of marketing investment behind them. Where is the fine line between justifying the price point as falling within masstige and the costs to launch the product given the celebrity backing?
24.
How would players justify a price point or any sort of shelf productivity to channel partners during resets?
25.
Who do you think has potentially lost or gained market share in the US during the spring planogram reset across the brands and retailers?
26.
How would you assess margin differentials in masstige vs mass and prestige? Is there any cost pressure in the ingredients or formulas, given that the increasing prominence of natural or clean beauty is a major cost driver for some brands?
27.
What role do subscription services play within masstige growth? How are upstarts such as Birchbox playing into growth here? How could the brands be assessing the subscription services?
28.
Could brands launch their own subscription services, specifically for skincare routine products?
29.
How might major brands think about CACs [customer acquisition costs] coming out of the pandemic? Do you expect CACs to increase or decrease over the next year or so?
30.
Do you have any closing remarks?
