Claim Validation and the Real Consumer Voice by Ayton Global Research

29 June 2021

Brand Trust and Authenticity: the ascending star of the cosmetics world, and theming across the majority of new generation brands, calls us to question ‘How can we communicate authenticity to our customers?’

For commercial success the message that marketers put out, must match with real customer needs, values, and dreams.

What then do consumers really want? According to an international market research survey conducted by Ayton Global Research, 94% of consumers personally agree and resonate with the movement towards ‘honest beauty’

; and 89% look for ‘proven effects’ when researching new cosmetic products.

So, authenticity is what consumers want, alongside proof that the beauty promises are real. This article summarises the key consumer insights from 533 beauty buyers across UK, USA and India. We champion the real consumer voice; with guidelines on how to better represent consumers and what evidence needs to be displayed for highly purchasable products.

Since Authenticity isn’t going out of fashion any time soon; how can beauty brands gain a competitive advantage in this arena and stand out from the crowd?

Firstly, when we consider marketing communication, we must refer to the relevant legislation to ensure adverts are compliant. Cosmetic claims in the EU and UK must comply with the 6 common criteria provided in Regulation 655/2013, which include honesty, fairness and truthfulness. Advertising authorities such as the ASA also ask that brand communications are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

We asked our panel ‘What does brand authenticity mean to you? ‘Honest results’ were 1st choice followed by ‘Tried and Tested by real consumers’ and ‘Proven results of benefits’.

This is a true reflection of the regulations set in place to protect consumers from misleading evidence and it reinforces the need to validate advertising claims and communicate this evidence to consumers. Our industry is famous for its highly engaged audience of beauty fans; these consumers with enquiring minds, will absorb whatever information they can see about a product they are interested in.

High performance products sell well as they deliver on their promises. We asked if consumers buy products because they know the brand or for the results they will achieve? 78% chose ‘Results’ which includes both instant and longer-term results.

The holy grail of ‘Brand Loyalty’ could be a myth in such a highly competitive market. We encourage new brands with highly effective products to invest in substantiating their performance claims through consumer trials to gain market share.

How other consumers perceive a product is highly valued by inquisitive shoppers; which makes sense since Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are massive for beauty tutorials; influencing what we buy every day. 94% of consumers would like to see the scientific evidence or consumer study results alongside product benefits on social media, which is a green light to get creative with your visuals for posts.

Ayton Global Research is a specialist in consumer research for the cosmetics world with a panel of over 600,000 consumers globally. We continually promote the real consumer voice and collate the data from bespoke surveys and in home product testing. Overall, the results from this ‘Brand Trust and Authenticity’ survey which inspired this article were startlingly in favour of increasing consumer visibility.

Get in touch at enquiries@aytonresearch.com to receive the full report.

Source: Brand Trust and Authenticity Survey, UK, USA, and India. Ayton Global Research. March 2021