Subjects
- The ideal subjects would be people who are active, engaged and knowledgeable consumers and the data collected would be used to understand how they are affected.
- Posts were made in online make-up communities asking for anybody interested in participating to fill out a preliminary questionnaire.
- The objective of the questionnaire was to screen participants and move forward with those who were active consumers and possessed at least minimal knowledge about the beauty industry, and eliminate any outside of those parameters.
Methodology
- Selected participants were asked to fill out an anonymous survey to gather data.
- The first half of the survey involved closed ended questions to collect quantitative data.
- The second half of the survey featured open ended questions to collect qualitative data; the bulk of the analysis comes from this portion as the responses are the effects on consumers.
From the data collected and analysed, these are the main conclusions that have been drawn.
While only 34.1% of respondents keep up to date with new launches or product releases, 56.1% of people keep up to date with specific brands.
80.5% of consumers agreed that there are significant changes in the beauty industry because of these products being released. Additional to knowing there is an oversaturation, consumers are also aware that things are changing within the industry because of it.
This effectively answering the first research question that yes, consumers are aware of the oversaturation within the beauty industry.
From all the responses collected, there was a majority of 72% of respondents who said they have been effected negatively because of the changes within the beauty industry.
When participants were asked about their purchasing habits, 67.4% responded that they were effected negatively, the most common response being that they have stopped purchasing as they would have previously.
Other popular responses included participants only buying what they deem absolutely necessary and taking their time researching products before they purchase.
The final parts of the analysis look at what consumers feel are the factors behind the saturation.
There were 6 repeating themes that consumers felt were the main factors to the saturation.
Looking at these, we can see that the majority of consumers believe the main factors behind the saturation is because of influencers, social media and competition between brands.
It should be noted that a lot of the participants mentioned influencers and social media both playing big roles with each other as they naturally work together.
With the research questions answered, these are the main conclusions drawn
Consumers are aware of saturation of the market and yes, their habits have changed and yes, they are effected. Mostly they are buying less and taking more time to think about the purchases they do make. Consumers feel like this is because of the rise of social media, influencers, as well as brands competing against each other.
The specific brands they feel like are contributing the most in a negative manner are Anastasia Beverly Hills, Colourpop, Too Faced and Morphe. Despite this, there are some outliers, and some consumers find these changes to be positive and make moves to change, not in terms of buying less, but more so adapting.
What does this information mean and what is the bigger picture?
To the heads of the brands mentioned, the people within the beauty industry and those who will work to market products, and understand consumers, all of the data collected and analysed could be considered valuable. This research could be the very thing that helps maneuver through all the negative reactions and unhappy customers, to turn them into positively engaged consumers. If the people behind the beauty industry are aware of how consumers, who they depend on, are feeling, they can market to them more productively.
Researcher Bio
Bethlehem Mekonnen
I am a 24 year old student studying Professional Communications at Ryerson University.
One of my favorite past times is watching YouTube videos, which is where I was inspired to start researching for this project.
A lot of the beauty related YouTubers I watch highlight an over saturation within the market and I wanted to research whether consumers were aware of this and how they were effected by it.
Thank you for your time!
Credits:
Created with images by The Honest Company - "untitled image" • The Honest Company - "untitled image" • Annie Spratt - "powder, highlighter, compact,mirror, mascara,glitter,lipstick,tarte," • Sincerely Media - "Coffee and my laptop. Happiness. Minus the coffee." • Glow Repose - "untitled image" • Jazmin Quaynor - "untitled image" • Jazmin Quaynor - "untitled image" • Trent Szmolnik - "untitled image" • Element5 Digital - "untitled image"