The beauty industry continues to be one of the most resilient but also one of the most competitive industries around. This year marks the publication of the fourth 50 Most Valuable Cosmetics Brands league table, calculated by the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy, Brand Finance. We look at whose at the top, those on the up, whose slipped down, the new entrants and the drop outs. As ever, the findings are illuminating.
TOP RISERS (increase US$)
Garnier ↑ $2,178m
Johnson’s ↑ $2,089m
L’Oréal ↑ $2,070m
Dove ↑ $1,643m
Avon ↑ $1,215m
Estée Lauder ↑ $719m
Natura ↑ $616m
Maybelline ↑ $524m
The Body Shop ↑ $451m
Christian Dior ↑ $377m
“As well as calculating brand values, we also allocate a brand rating,” says David Haigh, founder and CEO of Brand Finance plc. “In the list of the top ten cosmetics brands by rating, they all have ‘triple A’ ratings, which is quite unusual. You rarely get so many highly rated brands in one sector. What this shows is that beauty is a very highly contested sector involving a lot of brands.
“If you look at banking, insurance or utilities, there are almost no brands that get a ‘double A’ status, let alone a ‘triple A’ one.”
But although beauty may be faring better than many other categories, the combined brand value of the beauty top 50 has actually decreased since the publication of the first of Brand Finance’s top 50 league tables. “In 2011, the combined brand value of the top 50 brands was US$117.5bn and in 2014 it is only $106.1bn,” says Haigh. This proves that the industry cannot always rely on the oft quoted ‘lipstick effect’ – whereby women who’ve cut their spend on big ticket items compensate by treating themselves to smaller discretionary items, like lipstick, during leaner periods.
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