Asia Pacific leads the way in skin care packaging trends
Punchard who is responsible for delivering high quality research on the packaging industry says that growth in the developed markets of North America and Western Europe “is expected to stagnate, struggling to achieve a CAGR of 2% between 2010 and 2014.”
“It is Asia Pacific that will lead the way with China, India and Indonesia. With low per capita consumption in these markets there are opportunities for growth with both low cost packaging solutions, as well as the expensive and highly decorated packaging that typifies the premium end of skin care in this region”, Punchard told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com.
“The most popular pack type in all three countries is the squeezable plastic tube, covering both practicality and affordability areas. Olay’s squeezable plastic tube is most popular in China while Ponds HDPE bottle is more favourable in Indonesia”, he added.
With so many cosmetic brands sold in mass, prestige and online, today's cosmetic consumer is sophisticated and demanding. Manufacturers and marketers are challenged to deliver new innovative packaging that meets their needs at more affordable price points.
“As consumers trade up to these added value products they expect the packaging to reflect this, through better quality, better print or through functional closures, providing new opportunities for packaging”, Punchardpoints out.
Consumers in Western Europe, says Punchard, expect almost pharmaceutical results from anti-aging skin care products, “The packaging, while being attractive, mainly focuses on clean lines, unfussy text and simple colouring that suggest a clinical source.”
“While in the Asia Pacific region, it is more about aesthetics. Attractive and feminine packaging is more of a priority with brighter colours, surface textures and more apparent shaping,” he adds.
Meanwhile, overall packaging unit volumes are declining in some of the developing markets; “In the US packaging units in skin care dropped from 1.3 billion units in 2005 to 1.2 billion in 2010”, says Punchard
Growth
“There has been a move to added functionality skin care products”, he says, referring to products featuring tanning functions, anti-aging or sun protection.
“Another area that has seen very strong growth is the use of pump closures which offer convenient dispensing and dosing for those very high value products for which the consumer does not want to over-use and waste product”, he concludes.
