Cosmetic Claims

A cosmetic claim is a statement used with the purpose of marketing for a cosmetic product that describes its benefits & attributes and is often regulatory controlled. There are three important aspects when creating a cosmetic claim; understanding the consumer, understanding the regulatory requirements, and understanding the research tools to be utilized in providing evidence to the claim. Once all aspects are well covered, the creation of a strong claim requires coverage of four main criteria. First criteria is a claim that stems from a consumer insight; a consumer-focused rather than a product-focused claim is a strong and effective way to create a memorable claim. Second, is a claim that can be measured, for example: “ full grey coverage after the first use”. Third, the claim needs to be supported by the right evidence; depending on the claim objective this evidence can either be scientific based (lab tests) or consumer based (testimonial). The fourth criteria for a strong claim is being legally compliant. A currently trending topic on cosmetic claims is the use of “Fairness” for some multinational companies, one which lead some of the industry’s leaders to remove fairness related claims from their products. This is a subject of debate as a “fairness” claim has different connotations in different markets & cultures.