Chains do well in skin care, but have room for improvement, opportunity

Drug Store News, June 24, 1991

Chains do well in skin care, but have room for improvement, opportunity

Facial moisturizers are one of the strongest growth categories of the '90s, but where are women buying them, which brands do they prefer and how often are they using them.

Since the category offers drug stores so many opportunities to grow sales and attract consumers, Drug Store News asked the Gallup Organization head-quartered in Princeton, N.J., to include it in this year's fourth Annual Drug Store News Beauty Care Consumer Survey.

We wanted to find out exactly how women today relate to this category and what they think of drug stores as the place to buy skin care products.

The good news for drug store operators is that women 25 to 49 are particularly heavy users of facial moisturizers, with more than seven out of every ten in these age groups current users, reports Gallup.

Overall, 69 percent of women over 18 say they've used a facial moisturizer during the past four weeks.

Since drug stores target the 25-plus age group, an attractive presentation of moisturizing products, combined with aggressive image and price/ value advertising could be perfect vehicles for courting this shopper.

According to Gallup, there is plenty of opportunity for drug store operators to build a skin care franchise. Just a third of all women now buying facial moisturizing products are making their purchases "most often" in a drug store. Of that group, 19 percent shop conventional drug stores such as Walgreens and Eckerd "most often" for moisturizers, and 14 percent shop deep discounters such as Drug Emporium and F&M.

The strongest competition for this customer: direct marketers Avon and Mary Kay, and department stores such as Macy's and A&S. Indeed, 24 percent said they buy their favorite facial moisturizers "most often" from door-to-door reps, and 21 percent said they shop department stores most often.

The facial moisturizer customer at a conventional drug store is more likely than any other trade class to be an older woman. A study of moisturizer purchases across four age groups shows that women 50 and older account for 44 percent of the "most often" group.

In comparison, department stores make 34 percent of their facial moisturizer sales to women in that age group.

Among women who say they "always shop" drug stores, 45 percent are 50 and older, and just 20 percent are 35 to 49. Rare shoppers are more likely to be 35 to 49 (37 percent) and less likely to be 50 and older (29 percent).

Although drug stores certainly want to attract older shoppers, it isn't to their advantage to have such a large base of their sales made to women 50 and older. For one thing, in mass market stores, older shoppers tend to buy lower ticket facial moisturizers.

They aren't as inclined as younger users to use a regimen of skin care products, so traditional drug stores, who cater disproportionately to older shoppers, often miss the opportunity to create multiple sales of skin care products, generating a cleanser sale with a moisturizer sale, for example, or toner sale with a companion cleanser.

This could be one reason why Gallup discovered that traditional drug stores only get a $5.37 mean facial moisturizer purchase compared to the $19.80 mean and the $10.06 mean that department stores and door-to-door sales reps average.

Many opportunities

With so much of their sales coming from older customers, drug stores are also missing opportunities to build a strong skin care franchise with younger consumers. They are especially missing a chance to court the 25 to 34 and the 35 to 49 year old consumer who, by age segment classification, is the heaviest user of skin moisturizing products.

This is also the customer who often shops department stores for skin treatment products, the kind of customer that drug stores would love to be able to convert into "class for mass shoppers."

Nevertheless, only 17 percent of the consumers who bought a skin treatment item in a traditional drug store were between the ages of 35 and 49. These coveted customers were taking their skin care business elsewhere - such as department stores, where 30 percent of face moisturizing sales are to customers in this age group, and direct marketers, with 29 percent.

Indeed, two out of three women aged 35 to 49 who use

PHOTO : Because of their success at motivating skin care sales among younger women, the customer demographics at deep discounters in the survey resemble those of department stores and direct marketers.

Table : Most women use

          facial moisturizers
% of users   69%
Non-users    31%

Source: Drug Store News/Gallup 1991 Consumer Survey

Table : Most frequently used

          skin care products
Daytime moisturizers     37%
Cleansers                35
Nighttime moisturizers   14
Toners                    4

Base: Women who have used a moisturizer in the past four weeks as part of a skin care regimen. Source: Drug Store News/Gallup 1991 Consumer Survey.

Table : How often women shop in drug stores for moisturizers

          (By age segment)
                        Always   Sometimes   Rarely   Never