Category: Beauty Industry

  • Infomercials

    Infomercials are  television commercials that  sell products using  programming imitative  of noncommercial television shows. They  can run  anywhere from  one minute to one hour, with the standard length being just under 30 minutes. Originally shown between the  hours of 2 A.M. and  6 A.M., as a network’s alternative to signing  off, infomercials can now be…

  • U.S. Trends in Global Markets

    Since the international fanfare of Max Factor and movie makeup in the 1920s and ’30s and the early global growth of beauty  giant Avon  in the 1950s, the American beauty  industry has  become one  of the  pioneering leaders  in  the  international cosmetics market. From the early 1920s, Max Factor  understood the importance of selling an…

  • Focus Groups

    Many  beauty  industry manufacturers and  distributors use  focus  groups to help determine whether their  product is appealing, delivers  its intended material, and elicits  the  desired consumer response. Such  groups help  the  maker  determine whether they have gotten it right. While some may be volunteer groups assembled through advertising, others are paid as test groups of…

  • Display

    In  the  beauty  industry, retailers  use  display  booths and  stands to  demonstrate and  advertise  products and  methods of use.  Display  stands are most  prominent in large  retail  outlets where  trained beauty  product professionals apply  and  illustrate how products can be used  and what immediate effects are available to the consumer. These professionals are also a…

  • Branding

    From  Calvin Klein’s designer jeans to Nike’s infamous swoosh trademark, branding is an integral component of the advertising industry in which  a collection of images and ideas connect consumers with specific attitudes, feelings, and perceptions  about products and companies, invoking a sense  of trust and status. Branding  has  transformed advertising, culture, and  the  economy, changing…

  • Barbers and Barbershops

    Barbers  have had  an influence on the evolution of the American beauty  industry that  is disproportionate to their  numbers. As members of the  oldest  trade  in the beauty  industry, they have, until  the  1970s,  maintained a system  of occupational segmentation that  let them  serve the  most  lucrative customers. They  controlled the  hair  care  market through…

  • Asian American Beauty Industry

    Until very recently, Asian American women have been virtually ignored by the U.S. beauty  industry. Although a few Asian American beauty  icons  were recognized in the cinema of the 1920s  and ’30s, even those  who managed to find some  success in  the  United States  tended to  be  pigeon-holed into  certain stereotypes. Anna May Wong, the …

  • African American Beauty Industry

    The  African  American beauty   industry  comprises cosmetic and  hair  product companies, beauty  salons, and professional organizations engaged in the business of selling commercial beauty  products and services to black women. A specialized African  American beauty  industry emerged in the  late 19th  and  early 20th  centuries  due  to segregation and  because entrepreneurs, black  and  white,  sought…

  • Advertising

    Advertising is a communication method designed and  intended to  promote a product or  service  for consumer purchase and  use.  Although advertising takes many  forms,  in the  beauty  industry its aim  involves  targeting men  and  women with  stereotypical idealized   images  of  physical   appearance and  attractiveness, along  with  an  ideology  that  consumers are  expected to  exhibit  when …