FAN MAIL FRIDAYS: Why Can't Filipino Foundation Products be inclusive?

Happy Friday, y'all! Second of week of January is now down. Man, time really goes by so fast nowadays. What are your plans for the beginning of the new year? As for me, sign up as many clients as I can for my businesses, learn a new skill, especially one that's related to Digital Marketing, and lose all the Christmas weight and some more!

Our Fan Mail Fridays for today isn't exactly from one person; it's a general question and concern I've been seeing on THE BEAUTY JUNKEE'S UNITE and everywhere on social media.

In a post- Fenty world, WHY THE HECK CAN'T FILIPINO FOUNDATION PRODUCTS BE INCLUSIVE?

So I've talked to some friends who are working in the industry, mostly concerned with product development, marketing, and operations, and here are some of the reasons and challenges why Filipino foundation products are not that inclusive (yet).

1. IT'S AN APPLES AND ORANGES KIND OF THING

- In marketing, there's a term called AUDIENCE; this refers to the demographic market of a brand that covers nationality, gender, age, and location. And with audience, there are two major categories: GLOBAL AND LOCAL.

Let's use Fenty as an example since Fenty is one of the key brands that furthered the idea of better inclusivity in cosmetics. For one, you have a worldwide superstar endorser in the persona of Rihanna, hence the brand immediately attracted and targeted a global demographic; this meant reaching out to bigger nationalities, ages, genders, and locations. Fenty indeed had to come up with a foundation selection that huge to cover the size of demand the brand and her persona as a celebrity has generated.

Meanwhile, local brands have a smaller demographic and this means smaller audience, ergo smaller shade selection, which is usually based on the profiles of their frequent buyers and the most common skin tone profiles of their demographic; it's also another challenge if the brand does not have big names to back them up through endorsement. 

So aside from audience, sales has something to do with it as well; one right way to expand or maintain your business is to build on your strengths and one of which is continuing to engage and sell to your current consumer base and common consumer profiles-in cosmetics, it means creating products that continually cater to them.

Expanding a foundation line is easy; the hardest part for local cosmetics is generating demand. That said, we cannot compare global brands with local brands if in the beginning, there is a huge discrepancy in demand. Bigger demand=Bigger sales. Smaller demand=Smaller sales.

2. IT'S AN ISSUE OF SPACE AND SHELF RENT

- In sales, there's a term called DISTRIBUTION; it refers to the avenues the brands will be placed to generate sales and close the gap between marketing and sales.

Watsons, SM Beauty Section, Beauty Bar; these are examples of distribution channels aka retailers. Inside, you see shelves that house the beauty products.

You have to know that brands don't just shove their products in the shelves; brands have to pay for these shelves.

One brand manager called product shelf rental as REAL ESTATE cost; because according to her, the cost of the shelf they are occupying can be compared to an office rental. FYI, shelf rent is much more expensive if it is on the eye level.

That said, displaying 40 bottles of foundation could mean millions in shelf space rent, plus they have to showcase other products too such as lipsticks, eyeliners, eyeshadows, etc., all of which have corresponding shelf rental too.

Aside from shelf rent, brands have to pay commissions to retailers too.

3. WE STILL HAVE A RELATIVELY SMALL BUYING POWER

- Now let's discuss buying power; this refers to an audience's capacity to spend on products and the level of their disposable income. If your foundation is priced at nearly P2,000 per bottle and you have a global demand, distribution, and huge market penetration, given the actual manufacturing cost of the product, it is easy to cover up that shelf rent and product R&D (research and development) cost. If you are a brand with a foundation that is priced at P399 or less and have to slash prices every so often to entice consumers, then you can't really afford to use up all your money to rent spaces for 40 shades of foundation, more so invest in 40 shades of foundation.

Developing countries like the Philippines still have relatively small buying power. It is important to note that Fenty, one of the leading inclusive makeup brands, started out in a first world country with high buying power; this means that the consumer has more capacity to try out different products because of high disposable income, thus giving the brands further reason and option to play up their  product portfolios.

With so many brands both local and international fighting for that small buying capacity every Filipino has, local brands have no choice but to play their cards safe.

4. NOT ENOUGH DEMAND FOR MORE SHADES

- It is heartwarming and inspiring to see if a brand has 40 shades of foundation. It's not 40, but there are some international brands available locally that have tried and are trying to cater to more skin tones. I went around and checked some of these brands and guess what?

The darkest shades are always on sale. The ones that are not on sale are the fair to medium dark shades, which some local brands are also producing.

We go back to point number 1: AUDIENCE and DEMAND. There's simply not enough audience and demand for a 40- shade foundation locally. Aside from that, the advent of e-commerce in the Philippines is also making the opportunity smaller and smaller for local brands; the competition has just gotten tougher as the doors to bigger markets have gotten wider in the last few months: There's Sephora Philippines and Althea Korea if you want access to more global brands; Amazon now ships to the Philippines.

These problems and challenges are what local brands are facing every single day; and it is true for both big and small companies. 

And you know what another problem is? POST-MODERNISM. Many of us are still looking up to international brands as aspirational, which in turn makes us support them more than our own; we're more eager to support international brands than local ones; we're more enthusiastic to fork P3,000 on a global superstar- endorsed foundation and easy to dismiss a P399 local foundation as "mahal" and "un-Filipino because it is ~~expensive~~ for a local product" without considerations for business costs. Hey, it's your decision and I should be minding my own business, but you have to know that your decision as a consumer, even if it's as simple as going for an international foundation brand or a local one, impacts the local brand and industry as a whole.

At least there is a glimmer of hope in all of these; online, we see more and more Filipinas trying to support local brands more. We're seeing more and more Filipino beauty brands trying to be inclusive by becoming a bit more adventurous with foundation shades such as Ever Bilena, Pink Sugar, and BLK. A lot of Filipino beauty brands are unveiling.

We are still a long way to go from 5 to 40 shades of foundation; to get there, we have to keep the conversation going and support local brands as often as you can.

**Got a burning question on beauty, makeup, skin care, perfume, blogging, career, business, marriage, relationships, or anything under the sun? Email me at martha.stabarbara@gmail.com, send me a message via Contact Form here on my blog, or shoot me a message at THE BEAUTY JUNKEE OFFICIAL FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.