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Beauty in the BathToday's consumers want more than just that squeaky clean feeling from their bath an body products. Bathing in the '90s is not just about cleansing. During bath time, consumers are now choosing to relax with a mineral soak, de-stress with aromatherapy salts, or massage muscles with a soothing oil, without even thinking about the added benefit of getting clean. In response to the demand for such bath and body pampering items - which have sales estimated at $1.1 billion for the year - more and more specialty stores and lines are appearing every day. With competition heating up from all directions - mass and department store brands included - specialty manufacturers know they must provide more than a great fragrance to keep customers content. Even though specialty bath customers seem to be loyal to their boutiques or favorite brands, what do they want - and expect - from the manufacturers of these products? "Consumers want to look and feel fresh and have skin that is well-moisturized so that there is no uncomfortable itching, irritation, etc.," believes Linda K. Upton, vice president, Borlind of Germany, Inc., the makers of the Annemarie Borlind range of skin and body products. "Consumers want a feeling of luxury and indulgence - a sort of 'home spa' pampering feeling from body care products." Nancy Burns, manager, public relations, Freeman Cosmetic Corporation, agrees. "Today's consumers are looking for 'at home' beauty regimes that are cost effective," she admits. "In addition, they want bath and boy treatments with 'spa' type capabilities and multi-functional purposes." Freeman markets the Beautiful Bath line of bath items as well as BareFoot, a line of foot pampering products, which both offer spa-type benefits. "The consumer at the specialty end of the segment is looking for different things than at the lower end. When consumers spend more than $5 for an item, they like to make sure they are getting a very strong fragrance treatment, which lower priced items don't offer," explains John Nuechterlein, director of marketing, Yardley, which recently restaged its Yardley Bath Shoppe line. Yardley reformulated the line - which includes lotions, gels, bubble bath and creams - while lowering its prices by 20 percent. "Fragrance is big, but the number one thing a consumer looks for is moisturizing benefits. They want to make sure the product will do something for their skin, but not just skin per se - that they are doing something that is good for themselves, with the fragrance as an added benefits," Nuechterlein adds. "Consumer are looking for a feeling of well-being and comfort," offers Jacquelyn Hadley, chief operating officer, Caswell-Massey Co., Ltd. Caswell-Massey, which has over 200 years of experience, has had great success this past year with its Beauty Nectar, a total body formula lotion that offers comfort to the skin as well as three alpha hydroxy acids. "Customers are looking for a combination of feeling goo, feeling really luxurious and pampered, but they're also looking for results," concurs Marva Kalish, president, Woods of Windsor. The company specializes in English Garden floral scents, based on recipes over 200 years old, but also has a line of bath an skin care products under the Original Recipe label. Tsumura International is the brains behind three bath lines, Vitabath, Vitabath Naturals and VitaSpa. According to John Brennan, marketing director, Tsumura, the company has identified three different types of bath consumers: a premium consumer who is willing to pay a higher price to get the quality she wants; a spa consumer who wants to recreate the spa experience at home; and the natural consumer, who is environmentally aware an trend conscious. |
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