BEAUTY
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UNDERSTANDING PRODUCT MARKETING,
IN AN EXPANDING NAIL MARKET By Lauren Burton
I find it so interesting how so many nail brands seem to be popping up out of the woodwork in the last few years, which is great for our industry to have so much choice and option with products, however my concern particularly lies in the marketing tactics and claims some of these new brands use to obtain customers and users. I think it’s very easy to get confused and sucked in by these claims without fully understanding them. Especially when it comes to the differing standards in cosmetic product terminology to say food for example. Organic meaning in cosmetics is very different to organic meaning food, it is not the same. The term “organic” in reference to food refers to the way agricultural products are grown and processed. While the regulations vary from country to country, in Australia, organic crops must be grown without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and fertilisers, or bioengineered genes (GMO’s) and livestock, 52
Beauty Biz Year 14 Issue 6
organic meat refers to the principles used to produce, process and retail meat products. Organic meat is raised without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, hormones and antibiotics. How the animals are cared for throughout their life (how they live, what they eat), and leading up to their death matters too. Organic animals must have access to pastures/paddocks with plenty of space to move around and exhibit their natural behaviours including scratching around in the dirt and playing in their social groups. This is often referred to as free-range, pasture raised, or paddock raised (although these terms mean slightly different things, they’re often used interchangeably).
Now on the flip side of this the meaning of “organic” in cosmetics, it is on a completely different spectrum, to what most people think of when it comes to organic, particularly nail products. For cosmetics the classification for “organic” is within the chemistry component of the product, they have to have a carbon content to be classed as organic, now everything in the world with the exception of light and electricity has a carbon content. All nail polish is a compound of five main ingredients, Organic nail polish does not exist because there are no known organic alternatives of these ingredients. Gel polish is no exception to this! So do not be sucked in by this claim, as technically all nail products are “organic”.
