The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The beauty and personal care conglomerate announced it would eliminate the descriptor — which can read as exclusionary — from all of its beauty and personal care brands’ packaging and advertising. The company also said it will no longer “digitally alter a person’s body shape, size, proportion or skin colour in brand advertising, and will increase the number of advertisements portraying people from diverse groups who are under-represented.”
The announcement follows a 10,000-person study Unilever commissioned across nine countries, asking consumers their feelings about inclusivity in the global beauty market. More than half of respondents said the beauty and personal care industry makes them feel excluded.
Unilever’s announcement is yet another marker of change in corporate beauty. Over the last few years, emergent direct-to-consumer beauty brands have taken a more inclusive approach to marketing and advertising. Along the way, larger beauty behemoths took notice and began to shift away from certain language. Anti-ageing became “pro-ageing,” for example. Riding the same wave towards more inclusive beauty marketing, Ulta Beauty pledged $20 million in February towards media investments that target Black and LatinX consumers, part of the retailer’s larger diversity initiative.
The battle for exclusive international beauty launches is intensifying as Nykaa, Tira and more set their eyes on expansion.
As in-person retail continues to recover, store owners and marketers are working hard to press the main advantage analogue shopping has over digital: its appeal to all the senses.
What had once been a nimble, innovative company, Neutrogena became slow-moving and cautious. It retreated precisely when rivals went all in – and missed out on a big chunk of the market.
According to an email viewed by The Business of Beauty, the company will be on hiatus while it establishes a sustainable path to return as a new company.