Our team attended CEW’s May Speaker Series event yesterday evening where panelists discussed how brands can connect with the new breed of beauty consumer, whom trend forecasters call The Institutionless Consumer. See more of our past CEW coverage here.

Lisa Feierstein, Trend Strategist, TrendWatching offered insights on the trend, defining the term (The Institutionless Consumer) and its importance for brands’ business models.

The values-first consumer has high expectations about brand transparency on everything from price to ingredients to environmental impact, and the panel discussed strategies that brands of all sizes can employ to reach this values-first beauty consumer.

Feierstein pointed to innovation – from new manufacturing and distribution techniques to curated products offerings to changes in product ingredients and packaging – as the way brands can succeed.

She was joined on the panel by Molly Landman, Global Brand Director, Love Beauty & Planet and ApotheCARE Essentials, Uniliver; Marcia Kilgore, Founder of Beauty Pie; and Shane Wolf, Global Manager for Redken, Pureology and Mizani, L’Oreal, and Founder of Seed Phytonutrients.

Moderated by Jenny B. Fine, WWD, the panel discussed how much this emerging consumer values trust and authenticity from brands and how marketers can respond to this growing demographic.

Landman discussed how Unilever’s Love Beauty & Planet was launched in response to the new consumers’ growing interest in ingredients. Products are formulated with sustainability sourced ingredients and packaged in bottles made from recycled plastic. The brand has also pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2020. Another Uniliver brand, ApotheCARE Essentials, utilizes natural ingredients with technology to appeal to a consumer who wants the transparency of ingredients with the efficacy of science.

Kilgore shared Beauty Pie’s strategy of offering “premium-quality cosmetics at factory prices.” Each product includes a cost transparency outline so the amount of money spent on formulation, ingredients, and packaging is crystal clear. In doing so, Beauty Pie is hoping to demystify beauty industry pricing and educate consumers. “I think the focus will be much more on ingredients and results, and much less on brand name,” said Kilgore. She went on to describe her brand as “the Costco of luxury beauty.”

Wolf described how, with the support of L’Oreal, he incubated a new brand concept called Seed Phytonutrients. Launched on Earth Day 2018, it aims to combine beauty, agriculture and sustainable business. The brand partners with independent American organic farmers to harness the power of local seed varieties, using their extracts to create the line of elevated natural products. The brand is also committed to an agenda of environmental sustainability, bringing to market the first shower-friendly paper bottles made from 100% recycled packaging.

The Institutionless Consumer program was hosted by Meredith and was sponsored by: Shape, Givaudan, 24/Seven, Beauty Inc., Englewood Lab, WWD, Moblty, Fabler, and Kaplow Communications.

About CEW:

CEW is a global, nonprofit professional organization with 9,000 executives, both women and men, in the beauty, cosmetics, fragrance and related industries. For information about CEW membership, visit https://www.cew.org.

-Ron Robinson, BeautyStat Founder & Cosmetic Chemist