Household and Personal Products Industry

LANCÔME’S MINERAL BUZZ: A MICRO-VIBRATING SPONGE
•TheBrandAudit

DON’ T YOU find it astonishing that he traditional prestige marketers were so embarrassed at the
thought of “copying,” that they let
Bare Escentuals and the mass mar-
ket run
away with
the entire
mineral
makeup
market?
Perhaps
even more
important
than the vol-
ume miss,
consider the
3-4 years of
lost counter
traffic! Okay,
so (grudg-
ingly), the
majors all
have it now,
but without
a lot of fan-
fare. Again,
what’s new
about miner-
al makeup,
now?
Having
found some
traction
with Ageless

SUZANNE GRAYSON GRAYSON ASSOCIATES

THEBRANDAUDIT IS A
GRAYSON ASSOCIATES PRO-
PRIETARY NEW MARKETING
TECHNIQUE TO DETERMINE
THE SUCCESS POTENTIAL OF
A NEW PRODUCT CONCEPT OR
EXECUTION, PRIOR TO
LAUNCH. OR, FOR AN EXIST-
ING SLUGGISH PRODUCT OR
LINE, IT WILL ANALYZE ITS
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS-
ES, AGAINST KEY COMPETI-
TION. THE AUDIT SCORE IS
BASED UPON GRAYSON
ASSOCIATES’ 29 “KEYS-TO-
SUCCESS” CRITERIA FOR THE
KEY MARKETING CATEGORIES
OF PRODUCT, POSITIONING,
CONSUMER APPEAL,
COMPETITION AND
MARKETING POTENTIAL. A
SCORE LESS THAN 80 (OUT
OF 100) MEANS TROUBLE IN
THE MARKETPLACE.
THEBRANDAUDIT WILL
APPEAR BI-MONTHLY.
CONTACT: SUZANNE
GRAYSONASSOCIATES.COM

Will Lancôme strike gold with a novel applicator for its mineral makeup collection?

Mineral Skin-Transforming Mineral Powder Foundation (loose powder jar, $40, with a separate brush at $36), Lancôme has introduced a vibrating sponge-handle applicator as an integral part of the package to provide the news for its Ôscillation PowerFoundation ( 12 shades, 0.28oz., $48). Whether or not there is real sig-nificance/benefit in the vibration, the news value and advertising of same, as noted in the two audit scores, will

bring in the business for the launch.

Prior to minerals and the star role of the big powder brush, consumers applied most loose and pressed makeups with puffs/sponges for five main reasons: ease of covering large areas of the face; lay down and cling of the powder to the skin, especially important for foundation powders; lack of mess; portability; and tradition, powder has always been applied with a puff.