Here Comes the Sun

Opportunity abounds in sun care via embracing the sun and pleasurable holidays, rather than creating fear of skin disease and aging.

By Jonathan Ford, Pearlfisher

After another very cold and dark winter, the first hint of spring has arrived and we’re all looking forward to the sun. Or, are we? As retailers once again construct their “holiday shop” concessions, we ask whether the sun protection aisle is becoming somewhat overlooked and maligned as we all heed the dangers of too much sun and opt instead for year–round protection or self-tan options. Is there actually a chance for sun care to reinvent itself and develop a new retail positioning and experience?

The ‘X’ Factor

In an overall personal care sector that has—until recently—been rather averse to color, the sun protection sector has never wavered in its “brights” offer. We subliminally understand that we are looking at sun care from the predominantly bright blue, orange, red, yellow and white blocks that make up this aisle. But is it the colors or the brand names that attract us? To be honest, they have pretty much become interchangeable among the brand leaders: Blue and yellow says Nivea, white and orange, Ambre Solaire… Reassuring and comfortable maybe, but many brands look little different from their competitors, and the colors and symbology have not really changed for years.

RioBlush City Girl by Kyra Panchenko successfully breaks all the rules when it comes to the look of a sun product.

And what about the written language? It is here that we have probably seen the most significant change. We have all become experts in the language of SPF, UVA and UVB, but have learned this new language as a necessity. While the reds and oranges were originally intended to welcome us and conjure up positive associations of bright sunny days and the holiday experience, the increasingly scientific language, the layers of language and the time to decode it is sending us running from the sun rather than embracing it. The “safe sun” message is, of course, eminently important, but we are now being driven to purchase through fear of skin disease and aging rather than by pleasure of purchase and the anticipation of our summer holidays.

The prohibitive price is another factor. We know that beauty consumers will pay the price for the brand they want, but is there really any loyalty when it comes to sun care? Or, is it actually about just waiting for the buy-one-get-one-free offer, and opting for that? Sun protection is now seen as a necessary (and increasingly) expensive purchase. The point being, we make what we consider to be necessary—and expensive—purchases as part of our beauty regimes week-to-week and month-to-month. But, in the main, these products are not only offering us a feel-good factor, but a beautiful looking and desirable product. We don’t mind investing if we feel that we are getting something more—and this is the problem as we see it. The anticipation of the holiday and the “X”–for experiential—factor is sadly lacking and we are losing out to the new mini sun care categories.

Tan-tastic

A knock-on effect of this shift in perception is the growth of the self-tan and bronzing market, which is not necessarily bad news for the sun care brands as some brands straddle—and have products—in both. This sector has always been present in some shape or form but, again, has always pretty much looked just as “same-y” with standard brown or bronze-colored packaging favored by most of the brands within it. However, the advent of a host of new brands—with a new product composition and a new look—has radically widened the offer. Saint Tropez and Fake Bake, to name but two, blazed a trail for a new generation and definition of sun product and presented a much more attractive—and rival—shelf.

Advances have continued. One very new product really standing out on shelf is RioBlush City Girl by Kyra Panchenko. Developed by leading makeup artist Kyra Panchenko while working on “Sex and the City,” City Girl Firming Leg Shimmer—is admittedly—only for legs, but breaks all the rules when it comes to the look of a sun product. The product comes in a matte black tube with a monochrome image of a girl flipping her bright red dress to show a sexy turn of shapely leg. Benefit’esque and just gorgeous, it begs the question, why don’t we use characters? Playfulness? Humor? Fun? This ties into the more colorful, chatty and playful style that we have seen overall in the beauty category in the past few years.

Bargain Bucket Versus Long-haul Luxury

And, there is also a discrepancy between the bargain bucket and the long-haul luxury brands, between the mass and the premium sun care brands. While the price point is actually not so very different, in general, the mass brands are too staid and symbolic, while the premium end is under-designed and maybe not forceful enough with its message.

Rodial’s Skinny Beach range does at least use naming to inject a bit of fun, but the color is similar to the Nivea blue, and the name could be viewed as misleading about what the product actually does. And brand newcomers—such as Elemental Herbology—are exquisitely beautiful in their simplicity, but there is nothing visually to distinguish their sun care products from their daily skin care products. This brings us neatly to what is seemingly a sticking point for brand owners (and the sun category) as sun care morphs into skin care.

While Elemental Herbology’s products are exquisitely beautiful in their simplicity, there is nothing visually to distinguish its sun care products from its daily skin care products.

Skin Care or Sun Care?

Because we are now heeding the messages (peddled mostly by the brand owners) that we need to protect ourselves 365 days a year with an SPF, many skin care brands now include this as a matter of course in their daily skin care creams. And, while not negating the need for sun protection cream for all-over use, this has again distracted and drawn us away from the actual bona fide sun care category.

Many of the skin care brands that now also provide sun protection tend to rely on the equities of the parent brand and just inject a flash of color—à la Dermalogica—or simply add an SPF flash to their existing skin care packaging, but are, by and large, as staid and static in design as the actual sun protection sector.

There is, of course, a very real opportunity for creating a year-round sun care market, which perhaps leads with protection for the face in the winter months. But this brings us back to where we started and the fact that sun protection per se desperately needs a new and more desirable look and language that focuses on the benefits of the sun—and the role of the products in helping us enjoy those benefits.

Simply Sunshine

We are increasingly anti-chemicals and additives with the whole personal care sector moving towards a more natural focus. And what could be more natural than the sun? Similarly, protection has been such a big theme in beauty and the one sector where this message should be as positive as possible is the one with probably the most negative connotations.

However, one product that is swimming against the tide and which has caught my eye is from Tess (Teen Everyday Skincare System). Their new sun offering is A Day in The Sun Skincare Kit, which includes Sun In Your Face: Orange-Mint Oil-Free Sunscreen, SPF 15 Wipe Out: Orange-Mint Blemish Reducing Wipes and Sun Kissed: Sweet-Mint Lip Balm with SPF 15. The naming of the kit and the products is light and fun, and provides the joy, warmth and pleasure experienced with sun-kissed skin. The design ties in with the rest of the range, and while the colors used are still category colors, they are not favoring the block color used by the traditional brands, but rather the red, yellow and blue stripes are subtle ribbons of color that could evoke the sea, the sky, a beach towel, but which, above all, signify a sense of boundless freedom and enjoyment. It is fresh, modern and direct, but also open to interpretation—and conveys movement and texture.

There is a real opportunity to start hero’ing the sun by developing a new visual and written rhetoric that brings back the warmth of the sun and which makes the retail experience once again more experiential and enjoyable.

Let the sunshine in.