Health, hygiene concerns drive PH consumption

The consumption of beauty, hygiene and healthy products is rising in the Philippines even among the lower-income groups, with South Luzon and Mindanao contributing more to overall growth, based on the latest consumer research of Kantar Worldpanel.

In a briefing Thursday, Kantar commercial director Luz Barra identified four “big” trends while analyzing data on Filipino consumers’ purchasing habits from June 2009 to 2013.

Overall, fast-moving consumer goods in the country grew by 3.1 percent in terms of absolute value of purchases, with subcomponents like beverages and household care growing by over 5 percent, and personal care by 3.6 percent, outpacing the 1.5 percent growth in food.

The Kantar study also ranked the top 10 brands most frequently purchased for household consumption in the country. The list is topped by Nescafe, followed by Lucky Me, Surf, Milo, Ajinomoto, Bear Brand, Palmolive, Silver Swan, Oishi and Safeguard.

The theme on beauty stood out in the study, which showed that Filipino women cared about their looks. About 72 percent of them specifically liked to improve their hair and complexion.

Barra said Filipino women tended to equate “beauty” with “being fair,” resulting in a 10-percent increase in whitening products against just a 1-percent increase in non-whitening products from 2011 to 2013. During the same period, spending on whitening body lotion rose by 8 percent while non-whitening lotion grew by only 5 percent.

While the trend is apparent across different segments, more notable growths were observed in the Visayas and Mindanao across income segments C and E.

Spending on hygiene is likewise a key trend cited in the study, which noted that Filipinos purchased 19 percent more hand sanitizers and 9 percent more baby wipes or wet tissues from June 2009 to June 2013. The study also noted that Filipinos spent more on razors (+54 percent), pantyliners (+11 percent) and sanitary pads (+10 percent) over the same period.

The growth was driven by Visayas and Mindanao consumers from socioeconomic classes D and E.

The study also showed that Filipinos were choosing healthier lifestyle. As such, their food preference has changed over the past five years, resulting in higher spending on cereals (+17 percent), yogurt/cultured milk (+9 percent), canned vegetables (+6 percent) and biscuits (+6 percent). The increases have been observed more in North Luzon and Mindanao across socioeconomic classes AB, C and E.

The fourth trend cited by the study was a shift to a fast-paced lifestyle, resulting in higher consumption of easy and convenient food, beverage and cooking choices.

Over the past five years, there was higher spending on ready-to-drink (RTD) choco-drinks (+21 percent), RTD coffee (+17 percent) and RTD sports/health drink (+11 percent).

The study covered about 3,000 respondent households.