The organic cosmetics market is doing well … but the better part of it is a niche. How can it escape from it and reach more consumers? How can it adapt to new expectations and behaviours? Which values should be highlighted? Which marketing strategies should be adopted? Such were the major concerns at the Natural and Organic Cosmetics Conference last October 7-8 in Berlin. And the issues were very close to those raised by organic brands in France and Europe at large.
Every year since 2011, publishing company Naturkosmetik Verlag hosts the two conference days of the Naturkosmetik Branchen-kongress, a conference dedicated to natural and organic cosmetics. The 2014 edition gathered some 200 participants for two days of exchanges on marketing and distribution.
This was an opportunity to make an update on the market and lay down the issues of the sector, in the country that boasts about being the pioneer of natural cosmetics, and which still seems to experience the same developments, the same brakes, and the same questioning as the whole organic sector all around the world.
A growing, but disparate market
Elfriede Dambacher, the Conference organizer, presented an overview of the state of the market in her opening speech.
She underlined that despite the crisis, the cosmetics market remains resilient as a whole in Europe (12.896 billion euros in Germany in 2013, 10.542 in France, 9.936 in the United Kingdom, 9.522 in Italy, 6.433 in Spain…): ‘A European consumer spends €117/year on average in cosmetics, purchases remain constant, and this emphasizes the fact that consumers view these products as an essential component to their lives, and not as a luxury item they indulge in.’
Statistics on the rise
The …
