Personal care giants are increasingly recogniszing the spending power of the teens and tweens and the role children may play in bringing the rest of the family back to the cosmetics aisle.
Market suffered but set to rebound Licensed products, those affiliated with a well known image or cartoon character, make up a large part of this sector and market research company Packaged Facts say the future promises great things if marketers are willing to take risks.
The market for licensed kid's personal care products has dropped from $477m in 2006 to $293m in 2007, but far from it being all doom and gloom the company highlight a number of factors that should lead to a comeback.
Primarily, the increased spending power of children and the fact that kids are maturing ever younger bode well for the sector.
"Additional factors to growth include a larger customer base due to an increasing kid's population, kid's who are controlling more their own purchases and kids who are maturing faster than previous generations and are open to a wider range of personal care categories," said Packaged Facts publisher Tatjana Meerman.
Good clean fun
In addition, the company notes that increasingly strict regulation concerning the marketing of beverages and snacks at young children may benefit the licensed personal care sector.
Shower gels and toothpastes can be seen as good, clean, healthy fun for children, which can be capitalized on by licensors.
A plethora of iconic characters to choose from also adds to the potential of the category, according to the company.
Nostalgia dictates the resurrection of a number of old faithfuls and an influx of new 21 st century heroes adds to the number of figures that can be employed.
Companies must be innovative However, the market research company does warn that companies will have to be quirky and innovative at a time when an unstable economy is driving most companies to be cautious.
The number of battery operated products is predicted to rise, such as musical toothbrushes that play tunes when its time to stop brushing, and shower head attachments that combine color, fragrance and flashing lights.