Traditionally the anti-aging market has been awash with products to combat or ‘cure’ aging and this has meant the exclusion of a lot of younger people. The new trend of preventative products means that manufacturers can now look to target consumers at an earlier age.
Market Researcher Canadean says its data shows that Older Young Adults (those aged 25 to 34) and Pre-Mid-Lifers (those aged 35 to 44 years old) are increasingly looking to good skin care early in life in order to avoid premature aging, with $3.1 billion worth of Body Care and Facial Care products driven by this motivation for these age groups.
Prevention or cure
This is just short of the almost $4.2 billion driven by the desire for ‘curative’ anti-aging Body Care and Facial Care products among those aged 45 and over; these are consumers who still want to look good for their age and reduce the signs of aging.
This means that targeting the ‘preventative’ anti-aging market presents marketers with two benefits: firstly they extend their audience reach towards younger consumers, and secondly it offers the opportunity to attract lifetime consumers of brands and anti-aging products.
Canadean’s consumer data suggests that marketers need to target each age group according to which age-related need is the most important, be it delaying the onset of the effects of aging or consumers’ need to look good for their age.
Anti-aging
According to Canadean Research, consumers in the 10 key emerging and mature economies studied, nearly $44 billion was spent on skin care products in 2012; almost $39 billion of this was on Body Care and Facial Care products.
Anti-aging is a big feature of these categories - categories where consumer data shows that those aged 25 and over accounted for almost two-thirds of total consumption.
This consumption encompasses two behaviours: younger adults looking to good skin care in early life in order to ‘prevent’ pre-mature aging, and older adults looking for moisturisers and anti-wrinkle creams to ‘cure’ the effects of aging on the skin.