P&G pushes premium with new Dolce & Gabbana skin care range

06-Jul-2014 - Last updated on 07-Jul-2014 at 13:54 GMT

Related tags Premium skin care Cosmetics

P&G’s upcoming launch of a full Dolce & Gabbana skin care range indicates brands are confident that premium beauty will continue to buck sluggish growth in developed markets.

The move comes as an attempt to plug the gap which currently exists in P&G’s premium skin care offering, which at the moment centers around lower-end Olay, and very high-end SK-II.

The line has just hit the shelves of Harrods in the UK, and will be launched in the US in September.

It will offer a full collection of products, ranging from eye make-up remover to UV creams; with products such as the Aurealux line’s face masks reaching retail prices of $169.

Premium worth pushing

Despite the rest of the beauty sector slowing down in developed markets in recent years, premium line products have remained big business in the US.

According to HSBC luxury-goods analyst Antoine Belge, this trend dominated in the US during 2013: "Trends in luxury consumption in the US have continued to outperform overall consumer trends.”

The luxury goods trade enjoyed a particularly healthy growth in the US for 2013, with a 4% increase on 2012, outstripping that even of China (2.5%), according to a recent Bain study.

According to Euromonitor figures, premium beauty sustained its growth levels globally last year, aided by the strong performance of premium skin care, which outshone all other categories.

For example, China’s premium beauty is seeing strong growth, and is set to add a further $4.5 billion by 2017, resulting in sales of premium cosmetics in Asia Pacific (estimated $6 billion) to exceed any other region.

Following suit

Unilever is another key example of a major company looking to strengthen their premium beauty offerings.

At this year’s WWD Beauty CEO Summit, Dave Lewis, Unilever president of personal care, confirmed this new focus, which the company is set to implement alongside a retained emphasis on their current more masstige ranges.

“We built our success by making our products accessible to billions of people around the world. But the opportunity to think up through the pyramid is clear, the case to build a more premium portfolio compelling,” the industry key player said.