Marketing Research: A Vital Step in the Beauty Industry

Beauty moves just as fast as fashion. Trends are coming in and out continuously. With a competitive market, it is important to take an extra step to truly understand the target market to be able to provide them with new products they’ll love, suitable content, and even communities. 

This “extra” step is conducting marketing research. I say “extra” because it may seem as though you need to take a step back to gather data before moving forward with a new launch or campaign. In a fast-paced industry, you may want to move quickly to keep up and stay relevant; however, skipping this step could be costly.

Marketing research isn’t an “extra” step, but a vital step.

Why is it vital?

Spotting Trends Early On: As I mentioned before, beauty is fast paced. It is important to get with trends as early as possible to establish yourself among the competition. If you join a trend too late, you won’t compete as well since word of mouth has already spread about the competition.

Understanding the Market: Beauty is personal and differs not only between regions, but through culture as well. What may work for one consumer, may not work for the next. Conducting surveys and observing social media activity will help you better understand what the market is looking for. This is key in ensuring you are focusing on the right type of product or campaign.

Innovation: While you are following trends to stay relevant, being an innovator is just as important. The beauty industry is impacted with so many “dupes” of similar products. Distinguishing yourself with a “never been done before” product or service is essential. Market research can help in discovering untapped needs to be the next innovator.

Risk Management: I mentioned before that skipping market research could be costly. You may be getting ready to launch a new product which of course has costs in development, packaging, distribution, advertising, etc. Skipping research could mean you are launching a product to a market that may not want it. Marketing research helps in predicting how well a product will perform, minimizing risk.

Marketing research is key to ensuring you keep pace with the dynamic beauty world while leading with confidence and data-driven insight.