Upscale Scrub-a-Dub : Parents Sparing No Expense for Kids’ Personal-Care Products
Raquel Deriane is only 7 years old, but she has the bad hair days of someone at least three times her age.
Impossibly snarled from swim practice, Raquel’s hair gets washed with a gentle baby shampoo from the upscale Kiehl’s cosmetics company. The cost: $14.50 for 8 ounces.
Her mother, Muna, coaxes out the tangles with a $32 Mason Pearson brush that has specially designed plastic bristles.
And her tresses get a daily dab of hair gel made just for kids by designer jeans maker Guess.
“I was ready to spend anything,” said the Hancock Park mother of two.
Gone are the days when a few basic baby-care products were all that was on store shelves for children. From sunscreen to shampoo, more than 200 personal-care products for kids have been introduced in the last three years, making it one of the fastest-growing categories in cosmetics.
The potential for growth in this market is vast. The number of children under 14 increased 7% from 1990 to 1995, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and they now make up about a fifth of the total population. Children’s toothpastes, by contrast, account for just 2.8% of the toothpaste market.
In 1995, sales of children’s personal-care products rose to $183 million, and they’re expected to grow 8% a year over the next five years, according to a Salomon Bros. report.
Demographic trends, tie-ins to movie releases and the willingness of parents to spend more on their children are all fueling the increase.
For starters, couples are having children later in life, and it’s more likely than ever that both partners are wage earners. That means parents “tend to have more disposable incomes and they are more likely to buy their kids their own toothpaste . . . “ said Carol Warner, a Salomon Bros. researcher.
Catering to the demand, drugstores and supermarkets are stocking children’s aisles with “squish-grip” toothbrushes and “101 Dalmatians” bubble bath. Upscale retail chains are doing the same with specially formulated baby creams and lotions.
No matter what price range they are catering to, retailers use the same strategy: Attract kids’ attention with cute and flashy packaging and attract parents by advertising the product’s benefits.
New products include Dial’s colorful liquid soaps with watermelon, raspberry-banana and bubble gum scents.
Other companies are introducing licensed toiletry products featuring favorite movie and TV characters. Cosmetics companies such as Shakopee, Minn.-based Minnetonka Products and Tsumura International in Secaucus, N.J., are selling products based on the recent “101 Dalmatians” and “Space Jam” movies. Minnetonka also has a “Sesame Street” line of toiletries and sells Snoopy Naturals skin-care products.
Licensing is one way companies try to keep up with the fickle tastes of youngsters. And licensed products don’t necessarily have to be specially formulated for children to sell. Sometimes a picture of Big Bird will do.
“Licensing is big,” Warner said. “It depends on the products, but a lot of it is just packaging.”
Parents find that products bearing the likenesses of their children’s favorite characters can get kids to brush their teeth or wash their hands.
To get her 5-year-old to brush, “it has to be a special toothbrush,” said Heidi Crow of Encino. “If it has Barbie on it, then it works better. Anything with Barbie’s face on it works better.”
To be sure, many parents still buy the same brand they buy for themselves. “If parents are out shopping, then they’ll probably just pick up a two-pack of shampoo,” said William Steele, an analyst with Dean Witter in San Francisco.
The one market that companies can rely on is infants, Steele said.
“Couples will buy the top-of-the-line products for their babies,” he said. “They’ll buy the best diapers, baby wipes and skin care. When you have babies, you’re going to spend more.”
Baby products used to be limited to talcum powder and oil, but companies have developed entire lines of creams and cleansers for ultra-sensitive skin. Johnson & Johnson recently came out with a line of such products, including shampoo, cleansing bar, lotion and cream to help baby’s dry skin and eczema.
Parents can fork over even more if they shop at fancier retail chains such as Origins, Body Shop, Bath & Body Works, and Crabtree & Evelyn, whose line of children’s products is named after Beatrix Potter characters. Tom Kitten lotion costs $10 for 4.2 ounces, and a rice bran powder (instead of talcum) is $8.50. A jar of Tom Kitten moisturizing cream costs $15. There are also $5 Peter Rabbit soaps.
“We understand there is a demand for quality children’s products,” said Crabtree & Evelyn spokeswoman Sue Rogers. “We have a lot of products, and it wouldn’t be complete without a children’s range.”
Body Shop, known for products with natural ingredients, recently relaunched its line of Mama Toto products for moms and babies. The company had taken them off the shelves, but mothers wanting them back stuffed store suggestion boxes, said company spokeswoman Paulette Cleghorn.
Kiehl’s, an upscale cosmetics company based in New York, recently came out with a children’s line, with prices ranging from $5.95 for lip balm to $24.95 for a jar of diaper rash cream.
Guess Kids now offers baby-care and children’s hair-care products in addition to designer jeans. The shampoos (pink bottles for girls, blue for boys) and baby products are priced between $7.95 and $10.50. The products were reformulated just for youngsters and prominently display the Guess logo.
Showering children with such products might seem a little indulgent to some parents, but Crow, for one, said she surprised herself with what she was willing to buy once she had children.
“With your kids, you just keep on giving,” she said.
