Tween Girls Use Lip Balm As Gateway To Cosmetics; Candy, Soda Brands Rank As Their Preferred Flavors

The way to the tween girl’s wallet is through her lips. Lip gloss and balm are the most widely used cosmetics by tween girls — 78% of girls 12-14 use these products, according to Mintel — and the most heavily licensed. Bonne Bell works with Mars and Paul Frank for branded Lip Smackers. Lotta Luv sells balms featuring Disney, Hostess, Hershey’s, Nestle, and Pepsi properties. Cosrich Group offers products with Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, Looney Tunes, and Winx Club. And Boston America has deals with Fox, Classic Media, and Hello Kitty, among others.

“Next” Justin Bieber Is “A Big Red Flag”

The tween cosmetics industry has developed into a fertile opportunity for licensors, particularly for food and beverage manufacturers that have been forced to retreat from marketing directly to young consumers. And many tween girls’ preferred lip balm flavors come from candy and soda brands.

Lotta Luv’s top performers include Jolly Ranchers, Bubble Yum, and Laffy Taffy. “Fruit [flavors] tend to sell really well, [especially] bubble gum, watermelon, and blue raspberry. There are [20] flavor varieties in Jolly Ranchers, so that makes it a power house for us,” says Lotta Luv’s Marie Todd. She adds that although traditional Hershey’s and chocolate-infused flavors sell briskly, caramel flavors do not.

Coca-Cola flavors — including Fanta and Coke —  Vitamin Water, and Dr Pepper rank as Bonne Bell’s top sellers, says the company’s Meaghan Stark. 

Boston America’s “best sellers are General Mills, Pillsbury, and Betty Crocker. We find our demographic [tween girls] skews to flavors from recognizable brands. We stay away from anything that has a short shelf life, [such as] bands or movies. Family Guy wasn’t very successful for us. It’s a big red flag if I get a sales pitch telling me who is going to be the next Justin Bieber,” says the company’s Matt Kavet.

With branded lip balms serving as the entry point for tween girl’s cosmetic usage, licensors and licensees are eager to leverage their brands to entice girls to move to other categories. Lotta Luv, for instance, recently introduced scented nail polish featuring Sweethearts, Jolly Rancher and Hershey’s smells.

Bonne Bell is graduating girls from balm to more noticeable lip color by introducing tinted and lip gloss versions of its Coca-Cola brands in 2011.

The tween beauty segment generates retail sales of $500 million a year, according to the NPD Group. Girls typically start to use beauty products at age 10 and by the time they are 12, they use around 30 different products, including body sprays, mascara, body wash, and even cellulite cream.

Although tweens may be a viable consumer segment, they also possess some unique traits that make their purchase habits slightly more difficult to tap into. Parents are most likely to buy their tweens’ beauty products for them, reports NPD Group, though four in 10 tweens use their own allowances for cosmetics.

Tween cosmetic purchases are extremely impulsive, so the products need to be as front-and-center as possible. Tween girls (or their parents) primarily purchase their cosmetics at grocery and drug stores, dollar chains, and tween retailers. “Whenever we take on a license, [our guideline] is whether Claire’s or Hot Topic will support it,” says Kavet.

Recognizable Brands And Low Prices

Both parents and tweens say the primary purchase drivers for cosmetics are recognizable brands and low prices, with a price ceiling of $10 per item, according to Mintel. But they also are willing to pay slightly more for a favored brand, giving licensors an advantage over their non-licensed counterparts.

Justin Bieber’s OPI “Give Me The First Dance” nail polish, for instance, may be the same shade as other silver polishes, yet tween girls rabidly purchased the $9 bottles at Walmart, selling out the entire inventory across the U.S. in less than one week. Likewise, cherry Chapstick may taste the same as Lotta Luv’s Cherry Jolly Rancher, yet with a negligible price difference ($.50), girls purchase the licensed option. Nevertheless, cosmetic licensing, particularly aimed at tween girls, generates low royalty rates at around 6%, compared to the 8.8% average across all licensed merchandise, according to The Licensing Letter.

A key challenge is to keep branded product lines fresh and trendy, without passing the added cost down to the consumer. Even with low profit margins, cosmetic licensing remains an extremely crowded marketplace. Brands may have a slight advantage over unlicensed collections, but they must also stand apart from food and beverage, and character and entertainment brands. If the store is sold out of Bubble Yum lip balm, tween girls will easily switch to Dr Pepper or Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob.

One way beauty companies differentiate themselves from their competitors is in the product’s packaging. For instance, Lotta Luv varies between tube or wand applicators. Cosmetics companies also capitalize on general social trends, such as introducing a clip that attaches the lip balm to a cellphone. 

Age-Appropriate Painted Ladies

Walmart definitely sees potential in courting tween girls. Beginning February 21, the retailer is introducing GeoGirl, a new 69-item cosmetics line from Pacific World Corp. that will be shelved in a “tween section,” with other notable licensed cosmetic collections including Disney Princess and Crayola. GeoGirl is being sold exclusively at Walmart for one year and replaces the Mary-Kate and Ashley line which was discontinued in 2009.

Pacific World Corp. emphasizes its product offerings are not about “painting little girls to look like mini-adults,” but rather to provide an age-appropriate “natural” gl

ow. The colors are designed to be “sheer and see-through,” with packaging that is specifically geared to smaller hands and features.

The GeoGirl collection is reaching out to tweens by appealing to their eco-consciousness rather than through licenses. The products are all chemical-free, come in recyclable packaging, and the company is donating a portion of its total sales to soon-to-be named charities. [Health/Beauty/Licensing]

Contacts and Connections: Boston America, Matt Kavet, President, 325 New Boston St., #17, Woburn, MA 01801; 781-933-3535, x249; mkavet@bostonamerica.com; www.bostonamerica.com.

Bonne Bell, Meaghen Stark, 18519 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, OH 44107; 216-221-0800; mstark@aspire-brands.com; www.bonnebell.com.

Claire’s, Denise Vujovich, EVP/GM North America, 2400 W. Central Rd., Hoffman Estates, IL 60195; 847-765-1100; denise.vujovich@claires.com; www.claires.com.

Coca-Cola, Kate Dwyer, Group Director Worldwide Licensing, 1500 Lanier Pl., NE, Atlanta, GA 30306; 404-676-7478;
katedwyer@na.ko.com; www.coca-cola.com.

Cosrich Group, Laura Hite, President, 12243 Branford St., Sun Valley, CA 91352; 818-686-2500; laurah@cosrich.com; www.cosrich.com.

Hershey’s, Betsy Ziemba, Licensing Specialist, 800 Park Blvd., Hershey, PA 17033; 717-534-8294; bziemba@hersheys.com; www.hersheys.com.

Hot Topic, Betsy McLaughlin, CEO, 18305 E. San Jose Ave., City of Industry, CA 91748; 626-839-4681; bmclaughlin@hottopic.com; www.hottopic.com.

Lotta Luv, Steph Fogelson, President/CEO, 9 E. 37th St., 10th Fl., New York, NY 10016; 212-937-0061, x415; sfogelson@lottaluv.com; www.lottaluv.com. Also, Marie Todd, SVP, mtodd@lottaluv.com.

Mintel, Kay Fay, Senior Beauty and Personal Care Analyst, 351 W. Hubbard St., Chicago, IL 60610; 312-932-0400; kfay@mintel.com; www.mintel.com.

NPD Group, Karen Grant, Industry Analyst, Beauty Trends, 900 W. Shore Rd., Port Washington, NY 11050; 516-625-0700; karen_grant@npd.com; www.npd.com.

Pacific World Corp., Janine Coppola, Senior Marketing Director, 25791 Commercentre Dr., Lake Forest, CA 92630; jcoppola@pwcosmetics.com; www.geogirl.com.

Walmart, Carmen Bauza, VP/Divisional Merchandise Manager, Beauty, Personal Care, 702 SW 8th St., Bentonville, AR 72716; 479-273-4000; carmen.bauza@wal-mart.com; www.walmart.com.

© Copyright 2011, EPM Communications, Inc. May not be reproduced without written consent of publisher.

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