Released in August 2013, ‘Teen and Tween Beauty and Personal Care Consumer’ shows that three quarters of teenagers who reported purchasing cosmetics learned about them from friends.
Other significant sources of information for teen/tweenagers were parents, TV, magazines and siblings, with new media sources such as YouTube, celebrities and blogs falling much further down the list.
Another interesting titbit from the study was that teenagers with phones were more likely to use virtually all beauty products.
Shannon Romanowski, beauty and personal care analyst for Mintel, commented: “Teens and tweens are an ethnically diverse and highly connected group of consumers.”
“They are influenced by a variety of factors in the beauty and personal care market including peers, parents, hormonal changes and access to technology.”
New media
The survey, which covered 1,395 children from 9-17, seems to put the lie on the assumption that new media is the only way to reach the jaded teens of the 21st century.
On the other hand, with 76 percent of those surveyed owning a phone, and with numbers increasing significantly based on age and gender - girls were more likely to own one than boys- mobile platforms are certainly something that advertisers cannot afford to ignore, as well.
Mintel report that mobile owners were significantly more likely to use beauty and personal care products than their less well-connected counterparts, and that cell phones were well-entrenched in the social lives of teens and tweens.
They commented: “brands that hope to reach these young shoppers will need to incorporate mobile marketing as part of their overall strategy.”
Confidence booster
The most common motive for teens and tweens to purchase cosmetics was to build confidence, with 46 percent of respondents using beauty products for this reason.
Other common reasons were practical ones, including preventing acne and covering noticeable body odours.
Facial cleansers and body spray were the most common products for boys, with around half reporting using them. Mintel concluded that male customers in this demographic were motivated more by functionality.