Investment dollars are finding their way back into the natural personal care category, according to this recent story via CGI Magazine; recent acquisition deals show how companies and brand are recovering the interest of investors after an 18-month lull brought on by the financial crisis.

Names such as Aveda managed to maintain growth and solid results throughout the downturn, in part because of their independence and because consumers identified them as ‘ethical’ brands which offered the authenticity that’s important to more and more shoppers as time goes on.

This news also points up how investment follows innovation, as pathfinders in this category are now reaping the rewards of offering consumers alternatives that, in many cases, instigated new lifestyle behaviors and buying patterns, helping to create mass momentum behind a fresh new extension to the personal care category.

Our valued supplier AkzoNobel is investing heavily in innovation,  pointed up by this article about their significant outlay to enhance their research establishment at Felling, in the UK.  The benefits of this will undoubtedly be felt by customers, like ours, who depend on exactly this sort of heads-up investment to assure them of ingredients and formulations that will advance their own competitive edge.

We’re fortunate to have suppliers, such as AkzoNobel, that haven’t relented in their R&D spending during the recession because they recognize how critical it is to future success.  And their products will be foremost among those that prime the pump for a strong recovery.

Here’s a very good post from Business Week about why those in business who complain and feel victimized don’t invent — they find reasons not to succeed, so they don’t bother to try, and accept failure as inevitable consequence, not as an opportunity to learn and move forward.  So they don’t innovate.  Often, even the best of us place our faith (or cynicism) in larger forces, whether in the marketplace, in our business or in our life, and default to those forces; we don’t attempt change or invention because we think the deck is already stacked against us.  There’s no greater untruth!

Some years ago, a book called Luck Factor scientifically examined the psychology of “luck” and how it’s not a predetermined external factor (the “gambler’s fallacy” of belief in lucky streaks that helps casinos keep raking it in, in Vegas) but a function of attitude — people who saw life as offering opportunity would invariably have good things happen to them, because they’d see situations differently from those who saw the glass half-empty, and who would manufacture negative attitudes, hold back in potentially beneficial situations, and otherwise lose out on the “luck” circumstances offered them. 

So if you audit your attitude, believe in the time-tested values of elbow grease and imagination, then you’ve got every chance of succeeding.  Maybe even more, considering there are others who may get hung up on their own doubts!

This SpecialChem post spotlights one of the notable growth areas in personal care specialties, men’s grooming products, growing at a strong rate despite the struggles of other sectors, due to four basic factors:

…the ongoing rise of middle-class sectors in fast growing nations such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China; the Internet and similar technology providing enhanced access to new consumer bases outside wealthy industrialized regions; marketers’ increasingly sophisticated appeals to men, including creating or repositioning brands that flatter the male sense of national and/or ethnic identity; and the universal appeal of naturally or organically formulated toiletries that satisfy growing consumer consciousness regarding environmentalism and potential health problems originating from chemical-laden products.

 

The projected total market?

Within five years, the global market for all male-consumed grooming products is forecast to mushroom to $85 billion, compared to $28 billion for male-specific products.

What makes it an innovation story?  Simply the fact that this segment was a scarce fraction of itself just a decade ago. 

Thanks to the wherewithal and vision of manufacturers and marketers alike, it’s now an engine for growth worldwide, thanks to plentiful new products and inventive appeals that have revolutionized men’s attitudes toward personal grooming.

Since nearly everybody in the chemical industry is touched by enironmental and sustainability issues and concerns, we’ve made a habit of checking in on ICIS’s Green Chemicals blog,  one site that provides consistently-updated reportage on these topics, aggregating news on government and industry activity and the “development of green within the chemical industry.”    There are many good links to stories about companies, consortiums and researchers who are making daily progress in paving the way for a greener, yet still very profitable future.

The second quotation is especially timely, since the consumer electronics and media industries are waiting with bated breath right now for Apple’s latest innovation, its rumored tablet computer.

Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship… the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

Steve Jobs

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

Thomas Edison