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Sunscreen Consumer Preferences, Formulation and Marketing Advice
First off, this forum is awesome! Thanks for everyone in the community here for your input and expertise.
I’ve found several formulators on this site and have narrowed the list down but am still grappling with the age old question of consumer preferences and how that affects ingredient choices in working with said formulator.
I’ve polled about 10 people at the beach (6 on camera for a kickstarter crowdfunding video) about their preferences in sunscreen. I’m going to a farmer’s market saturday to poll more people. In the meanwhile I wanted to get your opinions. Forgive me for the lengthy post..
What I figure people are looking for is:
- SPF of 30+ (I’m thinking of going with 50 despite the diminishing returns on efficacy)
- Water Resistance (I’m thinking 80 min to keep up with the Jones’s)
- Sweat Resistance seems to be important to some people,
These seem to be the main criteria. From whom I’ve polled PRICE is a big factor. Also, of all the people I’ve polled nobody’s ever purchased sunscreen online. Any ideas on how to reach this online audience to survey them? They’re a tricky group to track down and poll.
I want to gravitate toward mass market appeal with my brand concept but part of me feels I need to go after a niche of some kind to position it as a premium product as brick and mortar is so price driven. The brand is called Ginger Guard, essentially “the poo-puri of sunscreen” if you will. https://gingerguard.com/ It’s a funny angle playing up the red head card.
Any thoughts on the brand concept? I figure online purchases account for less than 5% of total sunscreen purchases. Do you think that’s a reasonable estimate? That’s my initial distribution game plan. My website and Amazon.
Do you have a sense of what inactive ingredients I should use? Which to avoid?
Any ideas of ingredients that have a “high perceived value?” (Jojoba Oil, shea butter, aloe, vitamin E, vitamin c) Other ideas?
Any advice on scents/fragrances? What are popular scents besides coconut? Should essential oils be avoided in this category?
Sorry for the 20 questions! If you have any thoughts on any of these questions I’d love to hear it! My formulator prospects have been a wealth of knowledge too I must say but I just wanted to tap the community too if it’s not too much trouble.
If I can be of any assistance in a marketing capacity (brand name ideas, copywriting, being a sounding board, etc) please reach out!
Best,
Garett
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2 Replies
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There are Facebook groups for redheads- you may be able to start there. Joining some and researching what and where they shop (not polling them in their group or you will probably get kicked out quickly!). But you can learn a lot about groups of people by stalking, I mean reading discussions, on FB! ? I know there are also redhead conventions in many different countries- maybe you can tap into those somehow to get some market research from the fairest of them all!
And for my 2 cents, I can’t stand the smell of coconut?
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Check out reddit.com/r/skincareaddiction . The people in that forum are a pretty diverse group, and they talk pretty consistently about what they would like to see in sunscreen products.
I know you’re going for redheads, but a lot of “ethnic” groups don’t wear sunscreen because they either think their pigmented skin doesn’t need it, or the don’t like the white cast that many sunscreens leave behind. So if you can work to target that demographic and respond to their requests you might have a pretty interested following
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