By Jean-Yves Legendre

The worldwide cosmetic market is estimated around 180 billion € (sell-in price) and is dominated by historical, large international corporations (L’Oréal, Unilever, Coty, Procter & Gamble, Shiseido, Johnson & Johnson, Estee Lauder). However, despite a global, steady growth of about three percent per year, this market covers many diverse regional and local situations. Indeed, the rising of the middle-class category in the developing countries is leading to new consumer expectations and demands, as well as to the emergence of new players. Among the latter, many have gained sizeable market positions for certain categories of products or in specific channels of distribution. Furthermore, new consumer behaviors such as e-business, web-blog publishing, product personalization and digitalization or sustainable consumption have led to a fast changing market for which the cosmetic brands need to quickly adapt, yet keeping their genuine and historical roots.