Upscale Cosmetics Firms Seeks to Pamper Babies
Prestige cosmetic companies, looking for growth in a saturated market, are hoping to create a new customer base among the well-heeled diapered crowd.
Their bet is that women who use upscale skin-care products themselves will come to believe that their babies deserve the same luxe treatment.
The companies are following the lead of tony clothing designers and fancy furniture makers who have made that same concept work for them, selling parents mini-versions of their grown-up haute designs.
“With more women working, they indulge that way and feel that by buying a quality product, they’re making up for the time they’re not spending at home,” said Eileen Gormley, an analyst with the Pershing division of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp. in New York.
“It’s a new area of opportunity for [the companies], especially since their traditional sales of cosmetics and beauty is a relatively mature market in this county, so you have to look for newer ones,” Gormley said.
And while they may be no more effective than the traditional drugstore brands of baby products, analysts say the high-end items are likely to sell because they offer the comfort of brand names that women have come to value.
In 1998, parents poured more than $386 million into drugstore-variety baby skin-care products--almost $52 million on Johnson’s Baby Powder alone, according to Information Resources, a Chicago-based market research firm.
Stealing away even a fraction of that market would be good business for the cosmetics companies, who are hoping that they can attract a whole new group of customers by moving down the age range.
The companies also hope that by using ingredients favored by the mothers, they get a crossover with mothers who will use the gentle baby products on themselves. And for brands that plan to offer the products in children’s departments as well as at the makeup counters, the baby business offers a way to lure new adult customers to their lines.
Each of the companies is touting products that eschew artificial fragrances and colors, which can cause allergies; ban talcum powder which can be carcinogenic; avoid bubbly soaps which can irritate; and boast content lists that read as much like recipes as formulas.
Some of the new baby products include such ingredients as oat flour, safflower and sweet almond oils as well as carrot, coconut and shea butter--all of which begs the question of whether or not these products are necessary.
Dr. James Korb, director of the newborn nursery at UCLA Medical Center and an associate clinical professor of pediatrics who teaches pediatric dermatology, says the traditional skin-care advice given to parents is to avoid using lotions and the like on their infants.
And in the event that something beyond gentle soap really is needed, Korb said, he recommends the more traditional products available at drug and grocery stores. Korb said he knows of no problems associated with them.
As for the new, high-end items?
“They may work; they may moisturize as they say they will, but I’m not sure they do it any better than anything else,” Korb said. “My guess is Johnson & Johnson is much less expensive and very similar in efficacy.”
Necessary or not, however, analysts predict these products and others like them for the pampered infant set will sell.
After all, one makeup-industry consultant said, with celebrities such as Madonna becoming mothers, “babies are the newest accessory.”
Starting this spring, two Estee Lauder Cos. divisions--Bobbi Brown Essentials and Origins--are launching baby lines, complete with special diaper balms, lotions, body wash and massage oils. The two will join Italian luxury-goods retailer Bulgari Corp., which last year introduced a line that included an alcohol-free fragrance for mothers and babies.
Until recently, elite baby-care products were available only at select stores and from small or foreign companies. The newest foray into baby care, however, aims to appeal to a much wider audience: anyone who visits a department store children’s section or makeup counter.
“There are a lot more women having babies later in life. There is more planning involved and incomes are higher,” said Rachel Low of Bobbi Brown Essentials, which Lauder bought in 1995. “They’re looking for luxury products.”
And if women who shop at the department store cosmetic counters are not looking for luxury baby products, one analyst said, these companies hope to convince the mothers that they should be. Women who wouldn’t shop at a drugstore for their own skin care products might be receptive to the notion that they ought not to do so for their baby, the analyst said.
Bobbi Brown, in its Baby Essentials line to be introduced in time for Mother’s Day for a test run at select department stores, offers products including baby body balm, “silkening powder,” gentle body wash and shampoo, and diaper balm at prices ranging from $14.50 for 2.5 ounces of diaper balm to $22.50 for 8.5 ounces of body balm.
And should a buyer wish to spend $90 on baby products, the line includes a boxed set featuring one of each of the products.
Origins, starting this month, is introducing a line that includes products with names such as “Love Me Tender” baby lotion and “Short Cake” baby soap. Origins (which earlier introduced products for pets and household cleaning) sells its baby line at prices slightly under those of Bobbi Brown. Smaller, more specialized companies have been making high-end baby products for some time for a more select customer base.
Kiehl’s, one of the country’s oldest skin-care companies, has offered baby products since 1991, when its owner had a baby and created products for her own use.
The company, with a cult-like following devoted to its plain-as-possible white containers and pared-down products made of only the finest ingredients, is almost apologetic about its high-priced offerings.
“I did it backwards. I made the products first, way before I had any idea to market it,” said Jami Morse von Heidegger, who owns the family business, based in New York City’s Greenwich Village and carried in L.A.’s Barney’s and Neiman Marcus stores. “It is a little bit unrealistic to think most moms are going to want to pay $20 for a little 4-ounce jar of ointment.”
But in Kiehl’s niche market, Heidegger said, the line has been extremely popular.
Kiehl’s, however, has little interest in moving beyond its small market of devotees.
“Estee Lauder is the one with the broadest vision who would consider doing something like this. They’re the ones who could put enough muscle behind it to make it worthwhile,” said Sally Dessloch, a cosmetics analyst with J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.
But if Lauder’s array of pint-size, big-ticket products fails to satisfy, there’s always Bulgari.
In keeping with its premier parfumier status, the Italian company offers a select few products, including a $38 bottle of baby fragrance.
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Oh, Baby
High-end cosmetic companies are hoping to chip away at the mass-market brands’ booming baby-care business with their own infant products. Drugstore, grocery and discounter sales of “baby needs” items, in millions of dollars:
1998: $386.5 million
Source: Information Resources
