In the first partnership of its kind for Kline, the research firm’s pairing up with an e-retailer will present the opportunity for greater industry knowledge of the multicultural consumer.
The research will prove valuable for the wider US beauty industry looking to direct products specifically at the rising ethnic, Hispanic and Asian consumer base.
Multicultural consumers
In the US, ethnic or multicultural consumers will soon become the majority.
While the country’s population has always been a diverse group of ethnicities, it has increasingly seen growth in the population of Hispanics and non-native populace, and their spending power is also on the rise.
According to Kline, African-American, Asian, Indian, Hispanic, and other people of color already account for over one-third of the U.S. population.
“The multicultural consumer will soon be the new normal in the beauty space and it’s a category that definitely needs to have attention paid to it and you can see that by the expansion of growth,” Enchanted Life’s founder and CEO, Phil Williams, told Cosmetics Design.
Data lacking
Despite the approaching dominance of the consumer base, Kline pointed out the present lack of data on the specific multicultural sector.
"By partnering with Enchanted Life, Kline will be in a stronger position to fill a gap within the market research space by providing comprehensive analysis concerning personal care products targeted specifically to ethnic, Hispanic, and Asian consumers,” said Carrie Mellage, Kline's vice president of consumer products.
Enchanted Life suggests the lack of data springs in part from an unclear definition of the segment, which the partnership hopes to address.
“Enchanted Life partnered with Kline Company because we wanted to clearly define the consumer segment within the beauty space for the multicultural community,” Williams said.
Kline states that data and analysis gathered as a result of the partnership will be available in upcoming reports, stating they will offer “a better understanding of the varied cultural norms and beauty needs and habits, which will be reported and compared by gender, age, and ethnicity.”