Post Pandemic Skincare Marketing" What might change?

For the past few years, skincare marketing has come to us via influencers, celebrities and social media. According to recent beauty trend reports, since COVID-19, consumers are focusing on product safety and hygiene as well as their own personal health and there will be a greater demand for ‘evidence.’

In addition, some believe that the credibility and status of medical experts has been elevated recently due to the ‘daily diet’ of information we have been receiving during the pandemic from these sorts of people. What does this mean for skincare marketing?

The industry may be moving even more towards partnerships with medical doctors to provide credibility and status to brands, in order to increase consumer trust and promote sales. And this is a problem, though not a new problem. A handful of doctors already capitalise on their ‘doctor’ title to sell skincare products because it connotes trust and knowledge to the consumer. If a doctor ‘makes’ a product or promotes it, then surely it is ‘good’ or ‘effective,’ right? Not necessarily. Relatively speaking it is not difficult to create a skincare line – beyond the branding and the label, there is very little ‘creation’ going on.

Most skincare lines are made by private label companies who already have a number of set formulations for cleansers, moisturisers, ‘brightening’ serums etc that they slightly alter and repackage based on what the brand wants. There is very little real formulation going on and often very little differences between similar products from different brands.

There is nothing new; virtually every skincare line is the same thing just repackaged. Whether or not it has Dr X’s name on it doesn’t change that fact. And it’s an ethical issue for doctors as well. Should doctors be promoting big brand skincare lines and getting paid to do so? My bottom line: just because a skincare line has a doctor’s name on it, doesn’t mean it’s any better or worse than any other skincare line.