For Brazil, beauty is serious business... for rich... and poor people

Brazilians get richer, so do their tastes.

“From a cultural standpoint, women in Brazil really take their looks seriously,” says Nik Modi, analyst at UBS. “Then you think about the Olympics, the income story, wage inflation and people getting more wealthy. It all bodes well.”

Brazilian consumers spend an average of $240 a year on beauty products, matching the consumption of more mature markets such as the U.S. and U.K., according to Hana Ben-Shabat, a partner at A.T. Kearney, a consulting firm that advises retailers on overseas expansion.

Over the next five years, Brazil's consumption of personal care and beauty products will outpace that of developed markets including the U.S., says Ben-Shabat, who co-authored a report that ranked Brazil as the most attractive market for retail expansion.

With a growth rate of 7 percent to 8 percent a year, Brazilian sales are growing four times faster than the U.S. with its 2 percent annual growth rate, she says.The consumer is very open to new brands and testing new products," says Ben-Shabat. "It's the ideal consumer because it's willing to invest."

The U.S. remains the largest market for cosmetics. However, Brazil, a country known for its bronzed bods and good looks, is set to overtake Japan as the world’s No. 2 beauty market by next year.

Read more.

SOURCE: CNBC.com, 3/28/2012


Brazil's poor get free cosmetic surgery under philosophy that poor deserve beauty, too (I like it!)


"But Penha isn’t a socialite, nor did she fork out the $450 that a single radio-frequency session typically runs in Rio de Janeiro. The struggling housewife got the treatment free of charge at a clinic that provides the poor access to the kinds of pricey cosmetic treatments that have become almost de rigueur among Brazil’s moneyed elite."


Read more.

SOURCE: The Washington Post, 3/22/2012

Comments