Anti-ageing cream goes young

NEW DELHI: When consumer products major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) recently relaunched its Pond’s anti-aging skin cream range, it was not only launching a ‘new-improved’ version of the product but also responding to a larger change in the core target consumers of anti-aging products — from the middle-aged 35-40-years-old women to 20-something girls, yes, but even men too!

Says Oriflame India national sales manager Shilpa Ajwani: “Today, we have customers in the 20-years-plus age group who start preventive skin care through anti-aging creams and while women are still the larger consumer base, there is faster growth in demand for anti-aging products by men too. This is unlike the scenario sometime back when classically 40-years-plus women were our target customers.”

The company launches about six anti-aging products a month, which now account for over a quarter of its sales in India.

Cosmetics are conventionally bundled into three categories — skin lightning, moisturising and anti-aging. Market research firm ACNielsen puts the anti-aging cosmetic market in India at over Rs 60 crore. Though just over 2% of the country’s Rs 3,000-crore skin care market, the anti-aging segment is the fastest growing at 93% year-on-year.

Anti-aging cosmetics include products as diverse as anti-aging lipsticks and eye balms, facial creams, hair lotions and foot creams. Consumers pay Rs 500-6,000 for such products from brands like Mary Kay, Revlon, Schwarzkopf, Procter & Gamble, HUL, et al.