McDonald's dominated the Fast, cheap and tasty food market until their business declined. The reason to McDonald's business decline was that fast, cheap and tasty became obvious (a standard expectation) and they sort of lost their competitive advantage. So, In order to re-brand themselves and in order to meet the NEW CUSTOMER’S EXPECTATIONS, they added the NEW HEALTHY menus and could claim that they are fast, cheap, tasty AND healthy! The focus was on the “AND”, meaning: what else can McDonald's do in order to meet the NEW CUSTOMERS EXPECTATION’S.
The skincare industry looks pretty much the same. ANTI AGING, ANTI WRINKLES, ANTI CELLULITE etc…are claims that sound the same as the old McDonald's promise of Fast, cheap and tasty… Those promises are overused, boring, and obvious. Those old promises are today’s standard customer’s expectation…in simple words: its passé!!! In order to STAND OUT you need to add the AND promise of: ANTI AGING AND HEALTHY skincare.
McDonald's was forced to change and add the “AND HEALTHY” promise as more and more customers became aware that HEALTHY must be included in the diet.
Thinking about it should open your mind to the huge potential of retailing real HEALTHY skincare as HEALTHY will soon become the main purchasing criteria for nutritious anti aging skincare.
Understanding the above should make you ADD the word HEALTHY SKINCARE to each of your communication materials.
Use the HEALTHY SKINCARE as a differentiation filter in order to clearly differentiate yourself from any possible competition that are stuck with their old, classical and boring anti aging promises while forgetting the HEALTHY perspective.
I heard lately that some skincare companies are leading seminars that concentrate on explaining that PARABENS (chemical preservatives commonly used in skincare) aren’t as bad as they are suspected to be.
When you are sharp and focused than you quickly ask the right question: Are PARABENS HEALTHY? Seeing that the answer is “NO they aren’t healthy at all”, than it is clear that serious and professional beauty salons/SPA shouldn’t even consider retailing such products as they will loose the competitive advantage that retailing HEALTHY skincare offers!!!
Stay focused and concentrate on educating your customer to differentiate between HEALTHY skincare to any other skincare as the main difference and the main criterion for buying skincare.
