According to estimates from the Ministry of Economy, despite a year in which many women stopped using makeup as frequently owing to confinement and the use of face masks, the Mexican sector’s ranking is third in the world in terms of cosmetics production, trailing only the United States and Brazil.
“Not only does Mexico have the potential to expand, but it also has the potential to become one of the most significant nations in direct sales.
Tamuna Gabilaia, CEO and CFO of the World Federation Direct Selling Association (WFDS), claimed that wellness and cosmetics are the best-selling and fastest-growing product categories during a virtual event in November. According to Statista, the average annual expenditure on this type of product in Mexico in 2017 was 176.6 pesos, up from 162.5 pesos in 2016. By 2020, the average annual expenditure on this type of product will be 6,373 pesos. In addition, the sector is responding to changing customer patterns to become more inclusive.
According to Griselda Ramos, Director of Sustainability at Natura México, diversity is now one of the business model’s foundations. “On this subject, we were pretty close at Natura.
We’ve seen how the market strives to whiten, erase wrinkles, and homogenize individuals based on aspirational beauty standards over time, which is why we don’t offer goods with that categorization, anti-wrinkles, or anything for lightening,” he added. Ramos has even stopped coloring his grey hair.
“And that’s not why I stopped caring for my hair,” he explains, “since we have a range of products for grey hair care at Natura, and I want to look beautiful, not conceal them.” “We want to be a little more disruptive, thinking about the individuals who buy and sell our products as we build them. They are genuine individuals who, in some ways, are not the market that the business aims to be. That is why we emphasize diversity in our advertising, which includes male models who choose to use cosmetics as well as ladies from various ethnic groups,” he says.
Inclusion is profitable for the cosmetic business, in addition to having noble intentions. “We undertook market research before establishing Natura Faces, a sub-brand that focuses on inclusivity, and the reaction was favorable. “There was no way to refuse to access this place completely,” he explains. The idea and creation of this sort of product, on the other hand, is not immune to the preconceptions of those who create it.
Natura chose to educate the whole staff on what diversity is and allow them to attend courses on unconscious biases. “There is an opportunity in the market. Furthermore, a younger generation is more aware of the origins of the products they consume, and gender discrimination is not a flag we want to fly,” the order states. Aside from huge organizations, some individuals have successfully capitalized on the commercial potential that diversity brings.
Rihanna launched her own cosmetics line, Fenty Beauty, which includes at least 40 foundation hues. “Before Fenty, I could only find three foundations that matched my skin tone and only one that was perfect for my undertone. That’s aggravating. “Rihanna mentioned this when she first began her brand in 2017. Another firm researched the internet dialogue around the cosmetics sector in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.
It is highlighted that inclusion is a purchase consideration for at least 27% of those polled in August 2020. According to the study, new practices have evolved as the configuration of gender roles has been questioned, allowing women, men, and non-binary identities to display diverse behaviors of themselves in which cosmetics and skincare play a significant part. Another Company’s Vice President of Strategy and Experiential Marketing, Luis Ebenezer, claims that the development of women who fight to promote a “more true picture of their gender” has affected the industry’s steady shift. According to the report, 78 percent of the consumers polled felt compelled to adhere to society’s beauty standards, including perpetual youth, whiteness, and the pursuit of Caucasian traits. In comparison, 71 percent of men felt the same way.
“There are also guys who aim to eliminate toxic masculinity’s rules, and there is now a wider receptivity to activities that were formerly only associated with women, such as males who paint their nails and take care of them,” Luis Ebenezer said. Pai Pai, a Mexican brand launched in 2013 by Karen Rodarte and Andrea Ibarguengoitia, is shown on the same channel.
Males are shown utilizing some of the brand’s cosmetic goods on its social media page, which also claims to be cruelty-free; however demographic data reveals that just 5% of its platform followers are men, and the rest are women. Women spend 60% more on cosmetics and personal care items than males, according to a Statista poll done in Mexico in June 2020.
“Globally, diversity has more room in the business, which I credit to the operation of small companies that any conglomerate does not own since they have the potential to generate goods in a short amount of time, whereas giant brands are taken for granted.
“Do market research for at least two years before starting the entire operation,” Rodarte advises. For the co-founder of Pai Pai, the ability to react in terms of manufacturing is critical to respond to customer wants and reasonable expectations on how businesses address the ideas of “beauty” and “well-being.” Taking these measures toward inclusion and diversity, however, is not always easy.
Last October, the Pay Pay brand was chastised for the name it picked for a shadow palette, which consumers claimed had latent racism in the names of the hues. In this regard, the company issued a statement in which, in addition to publicly admitting its mistake, it decided to halt production of the product and take other steps, including training all of its operational and directive areas on equality and discrimination, as well as receiving advice from the Colegio de México’s Violence Seminar.
The whole Pai Pai team got diplomas from the National Council to Prevent Discrimination CONAPRED in February of this year, confirming their training in the course ‘The ABC of equality and non-discrimination.’
