Skincare & Beauty Market Research

Focus groups are a great way of gaining detailed feedback from potential customers on almost any topic. This is ideal for exploratory research where we want to find out about consumer views in the skincare and beauty market, and ultimately get an idea of how we can address any consumer frustrations or product gaps. We can also gain feedback on product concepts or prototypes at the same time, allowing a level of breadth to suit the objectives of the research.

Our focus groups are often held in public venues in major cities including London, Bristol and Manchester, with participants drawn from our HRA Research Panel. Where there is an existing relationship, we are also able to hold focus groups in supermarket training rooms, allowing us to take respondents down to the skincare and beauty aisles and get feedback on their decision-making process in a real-life store environment.

We can also offer online focus groups when face to face isn’t an option or respondents are spread out geographically. This is an ideal technique when insight is needed quickly without compromising on depth. Online groups also allow clients to view the sessions remotely, providing guidance on further areas for exploration.

For skincare and beauty, in-depth interviews can be an ideal way of gaining detailed insight from specific consumer groups. With skincare and beauty often a personal experience, depth interviews allow consumers to open up and share their honest views without being influenced by others. They can also be a great starting point for exploring customer views and pain points for clients using research to help in their Design Thinking process.

Interviews can be held face-to-face, on the telephone, or via Zoom where the ability to gather video clips of key quotes can be particularly valuable.

Beauty and skincare are highly competitive categories where the in-store experience is central to consumer perceptions of brands. Therefore, using in-store intercepts, or ‘accompanied shopping’ is an ideal way to gather in-store feedback on how your brand is being perceived amongst competitors. This method can provide valuable feedback on brand perception that would be difficult to gain through any other method.

Workshops can be an ideal way to stimulate new thoughts and develop ideas. We can either run these with clients, customers or a mixture of both. By introducing people from outside of the business, this often a great way of seeing a problem with fresh eyes. Ideation Groups (or Innovation Sessions) are a particularly great method for starting off the market research process by highlighting areas for further exploration.

Within the beauty and skincare categories, in-home placement is a vital component of the research process. With products in these categories used primarily in consumers’ own homes, it is important to understand how these products are actually being used in a ‘real world’ environment. This gives a much more reliable measure of genuine behaviour than simply asking consumers about their beauty and skincare routines or experience.

At HRA, we never underestimate the value of video. Unlike other research agencies who may bombard you with text and slides, we recognise that ultimately, market research comes down to people. This is why we see video as a valuable tool – sometimes able to convey more in a few seconds than a whole page of text.

With our in-house video production capabilities, we can pick out and distil the key video clips for you in an easily digestible format.

Presentation is key in the skincare and beauty aisles and the last thing you want is for your brand to be merchandised in a way you hadn’t intended. Using our national panel of fieldworkers we can check up on stores and help iron out any issues.

Market Research Online Communities (MROC) are a frequently used technique in the skincare and beauty market. Gaining feedback on products over time is so important to the development and roll out of successful brands. By logging on to an online platform, respondents are encouraged to upload images, videos, journals, and participate in polls and group discussions. This highly interactive method allows us to gain a great deal of insight into consumer views and the impact of factors in their everyday lives.

This method can also provide feedback on taste, branding, packaging and usability by sending out samples to respondents. This allows consumers to try products in their home – something of particular importance in the skincare and beauty categories.

For those situations where robust, large-scale quantitative data is required, we offer online surveys. Whether you are looking for a quick sense check or extensive data, we can design a bespoke survey to suit your needs. Utilising our proprietary panel, we can recruit a sample to mirror your target customer audience.

Our fast-growing proprietary panel of participants is made up of a broad range of consumers spread across the UK. Whether you’re looking for skincare and beauty experts or complete novices, we can recruit whoever you need for the research you’re looking to conduct. Our panel is thoroughly screened to ensure our participants are always engaged and willing to really think through their answers. We believe in paying respondents fairly and in return expect them to take the time to engage properly. This ensures our research is always delivered to a high standard and provides genuine insight.

Understanding the differences in views and behaviours between different types of consumers is one of the key outputs of quantitative research. Using SPSS, we can build statistically robust consumer segments from large-scale survey data. This segmentation modelling adds significant value to quantitative research and ensures you have a detailed image of your different customer segments, their thoughts and opinions.