Izzy Thierry-Saajedi, Beauty and Cosmetics Consumer Insights Expert at Vypr, explores why beauty brands may be listening to consumers more than ever, but not always to the voices that matter most, and what this means for growth, innovation and long-term relevance.
Beauty brands are listening. But are they listening to the right people?
Working with beauty brands, we often hear the same issue: “We’re constantly speaking to our customers, tracking feedback, analysing reviews… so why aren’t we seeing that translate into growth?”
The assumption is that more data leads to better decisions, though in reality most brands aren’t short on insight, but rather they’re hearing it from the wrong sources. Indeed, while the industry takes pride in being consumer-led, much of what passes for insight comes from existing, loyal customers; active purchasers who already love and understand the brand.
Why brands are stuck in an echo chamber
Loyalty is the beauty industry’s most valuable currency, but where loyal consumers drive repeat purchase, advocacy and lifetime value, they are not a proxy for the wider market.
When brands rely heavily on loyalty schemes, CRM lists or existing communities for feedback, they create a closed loop wherein the data becomes overly positive, increasingly familiar, and ultimately limited.
In this sense, it tells you what’s working for the people you’ve already won, not why others aren’t converting, or what might bring lapsed customers back. For an industry obsessed with the consumer, we’ve become surprisingly selective about which consumers we listen to.
The acquisition gap brands can’t explain
Across the market, new customer acquisition is becoming considerably harder. Many brands can see it happening, but struggle to pinpoint why.
Without access to broader, external consumer perspectives, the diagnosis often falls back on instinct or surface-level signals. Social listening highlights what people are saying, but not always what they mean, in which case internal teams are asked to fill the gaps with experience and assumption.
The result is action based on symptoms as opposed to causes, and when acquisition slows as a result, that lack of clarity becomes a commercial risk.
Why innovation is becoming a bigger gamble
This gap is especially visible in product development. Brands are extending into new categories, launching new formats, and stretching their positioning, often without testing whether consumers will follow.
Will a haircare brand be accepted in fragrance?
Will a skincare line translate into adjacent formats?
Does a brand known for one audience resonate with another?
These are core consumer questions, but too often they go unasked.
When launches are built on internal confidence rather than external validation, the risk can remain invisible throughout development and only later be revealed on shelf, at the worst possible moment, when a discerning consumer is making their choice.
Claims built for compliance, not conviction
The same pattern plays out in product claims, which may be rigorously developed, checked for accuracy, and aligned internally, but what feels solid inside the business doesn’t always translate.
Consumers respond to clarity, relevance and believability rather than evaluating claims based on technical correctness alone. As such, a claim can be true and still fail to convince.
Without external testing, brands risk going to market with messaging that meets regulatory standards but fails to resonate with the people it’s meant to influence.
The shift towards evidence-led retail
At the same time, expectations from retailers are also changing. Buyers are increasingly looking for proof beyond sales history or brand narrative, seeking out clear, consumer-backed evidence that a product will perform with their shoppers.
The brands winning shelf space are those who demonstrate demand before launch. They can show not just what they believe will work, but what they know consumers want. For brands still relying on instinct or internal data alone, this creates a growing disadvantage.
The emotional dimension we’re still missing
In beauty and personal care, there’s another layer that often gets overlooked: emotion.
How does a product make someone feel when they use it?
What role does scent, texture or routine play in their experience?
Why do some products become habits, while others are abandoned?
These questions are central to how consumers connect with products, yet they rarely make it into traditional research approaches. Not because they aren’t important, but rather they’re harder to capture quickly and at scale.
When they’re missed, brands are left with an incomplete picture of what really drives choice.
Visibility isn’t the same as credibility
Nowhere is this more apparent than on platforms like TikTok. Brands are investing heavily in visibility, but visibility doesn’t always translate into trust or purchase, just like high engagement can mask low conversion, and trending content doesn’t guarantee long-term relevance.
Without understanding which audiences are genuinely buying, versus simply watching, brands risk optimising for attention rather than impact.
What needs to change
The beauty landscape has become more complex than many brands are equipped to navigate.
Consumers are more informed, selective, and fluid in their behaviours, and where loyalty is hard to win, it remains much easier to lose and increasingly influenced by factors that don’t always show up in traditional research.
At the same time, the pace of innovation has accelerated, putting pressure on teams to make faster decisions with less certainty. In this environment, relying on familiar inputs, whether that’s loyal customers, internal experience or surface-level signals, is no longer enough.
What’s needed is a broader, more grounded understanding of the consumer. One that reflects not just existing buyers, but the wider audience brands are trying to reach. One that captures both rational and emotional drivers, and can be accessed early enough to shape decisions, not just validate them after the fact.
That doesn’t happen without the right kind of data. Fast, external, and genuinely representative of the people brands are trying to win over.
This is where insight plays a critical role: not as a retrospective exercise, but as a live input into agile decision-making, bringing real consumer perspectives into development, testing and refinement.
In a category as competitive and fast-moving as beauty, the brands set to win are those who deeply and continuously understand their consumers.
