Claims development and consumer understanding

Admittedly marketers acknowledge that they are the ones that create consumers’ needs, but today’s consumers are not easily influenced by promises of eternal youth or the like, and even if they are not academically ‘in the know’, more often than not most of them have generated knowledge in which social media has certainly played a large role in recent years. As judged in the press and social media, today’s consumers are not easily influenced by cosmetic product claims. The international legal requirement that active ingredients and final formulae require claims substantiation means that neither R&D nor marketing can drop this responsibility solely onto one another. Moreover, an inability to both ‘understand’ and to ‘translate’ new research findings into language the consumer understands without losing scientific integrity, is an opportunity being missed by many brands, and the same can be said for the raw material supplier communicating with the brands. The age old issue of the battle of wills between marketing departments and R&D makes you wonder that since both functions are integral to the development of business success, why can they not work in harmony together? R&D always complain that marketing are only useful for developing (late) launch plans rather than coming up with new products, and that they are obsessive about certain features and benefits of the products, and one more thing, they do not listen. On the other hand, marketing complain that R&D fails to include them up-front in the development process, does not understand them and takes all the credit for a product succeeding, while denying any culpability if a product fails. Is it any wonder then that the development and execution of product claims either seem ‘lost in space’ or ‘lost in translation’? Failure to capture market opportunities is often driven by cost and an unwillingness to spend, choice of clinical studies and lack of understanding, concern over the return on investment, and concerns over regulatory and advertising standards authorities. Whether the industry likes it or not, ingredients or a finished formula require claims substantiation and neither supplier nor customer can pass the responsibility over to one another, and it is disappointing to regularly hear some industry individuals actually encouraging this. The common practice not solely within the supply base of running ‘cheap and cheerful’ studies to avoid costs, and then pass-the-buck, means that is all you will get back – cheap data and often not so cheerful results. The supplier who is convinced the consumer is solely the responsibility of their customer needs to know and understand the consumer as real, not just that face in the crowd. Reviewing the claims and clinical projects executed for clients highlights a clear common underlying theme – namely a disconnect between what marketing desire based on their understanding of the ‘need’, the scientific data generated, claims promoted by raw material suppliers and R&D’s interpretation of that data, legislation, the formulation chemist, the clinical testing company or department, and both knowledge and common sense. Substantiation testing is legally required when the claim refers to the effectiveness of a product or a benefit or improvement in a skin attribute as a result of using that product. Making a claim does not mean that a product is effective. Efficacy indicates product performance (not necessarily related to the desired claim, nor necessarily correlating with any other data), while communicating efficacy is making a claim which needs to be proved. Claims themselves can be divided into three main categories:

•  Cautious, for example: ‘Contains vitamin E known for its antioxidant properties’ (even if you only put in a few molecules).
•  Extreme: any unsubstantiated claim (uncorrelated data, incorrect substantiation, incorrect conclusions, animal efficacy data – including in vitro studies, etc.).
•  ‘Woolly’/vague, for example: ‘Neurocosmeceutical Soother’ (legally means nothing).

These categories can be further subdivided: