Overview of the market

Deodorants are part of many people’s lives. They are part of the segment “hygiene & beauty”, and we can find them in hyper and supermarkets, but also in pharmacies, drugstores, or also beauty shop, depending of the brand.

 

Whereas today hygiene and beauty products seem to be negatively affected by the economic crisis (- 2 % of gross sales in P4 2009), deodorants are not. Indeed, deodorant is seen as staple, and even in economic crisis period, we do not go out without deo!  So, on the same period, deodorants have represented a turnover of 415 million Euros, which represents 7,5% of the segment hygiene-beauty (total turnover of 5,5 billion Euros)

The deodorant market is quite competitive, and we can find three main players that are sharing two third of it:

-       Laboratoires LaScad, from L’Oreal (Mennen, Narta, Ushuaia)

-       Unilever France (Axe, Brut, Dove, Men+Care, Rexona)

-       Coty (Adidas, Play Boy…)

In France, the deodorant market can be segmented like this:

-FMCG brands

- Pharmaceutical brands

-Perfumes brands

- Organic brands

And in each of them, deodorants can be presented in different forms: creams, pumps, roll-ons, sprays, sticks, or wipes.

Each segment offers differences in term of price, ingredients, scents, but also in term of purpose of the use or even of the user’s personality. Indeed, FMCG brands are considered as the cheapest ones, but offer a wide range of brands. We will analyze some of them later. They offer deodorants with different purposes (anti-white trace, long lasting effect, special odors, deodorants for sport efforts…). Many brands also play on the environmental vibe and offer organic deodorants without aluminum for example. We can also find deodorants in pharmacies, where their purposes of action are more specific: they are dedicated for people with sensitive skin, or for people who suffer from excessive sweating. Beauty shops like Sephora offer deodorants that are variations of famous fragrances. Finally, some more organic oriented brands like Lush Cosmetics or L’Occitane en Provence offer solid deodorants that are 100% natural.