The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has affected many businesses, some of which had to shut down either temporarily or permanently, and consumers are unable to restore their normal lifestyle. ‘New Normal’ lifestyle has been raised frequently for discussions among business sectors, especially “beauty clinics”, because consumers have been forced to change their behaviors and businesses need to adjust their models from what they used to be in the pre-COVID-19 era.
As the COVID-19 crisis is the critical factor that prompts consumers to change their behaviors in accordance with New Normal lifestyle, Merz Aesthetics, an aesthetics innovation leader from Germany, has started the ‘Merz Always with You’ communication campaign to reach target groups during the crisis. This is to enhance confidence level among business partners and continuously meet consumers’ demand because lockdowns cannot cause all businesses to slow down.
- Handling the COVID-19 crisis with digital transformation
Under the present circumstance, people spend more time in the online world. Digital marketing become a vital role. A recently finding from www.realself.com, a website of cosmetic surgery information, show that a doctor who offered virtual consultation received three times as many inquiries as a doctor without such service. Therefore, Merz Aesthetics Thailand in collaboration with 3 medical aesthetics experts established video content sharing beauty tips on facial skin care during the period of work from home. It brought about customers engagement on social media platforms. This is to keep connecting with target consumer during crisis and It will retain customer to physical clinics when the lockdowns period are released.
Besides, Merz Aesthetics Thailand organized 9 webinars to share knowledge with doctors and relevant personnel as their clinics remained closed. Thai and foreign doctors with expertise in various areas of aesthetics exchanged knowledge and updates with the doctors and clinics that are the trading partners of Merz.
- “Advanced innovations and holistic health” form a new trend in aesthetics business
Today our perceptions of the word, anti-aging, are related to beauty and rejuvenation. In fact, the new medical science of anti-aging concerns not only beauty or skin but also, importantly, holistic medicine. This kind of medicine is the trend of self-care regimen which is gaining more popularity because people want to be healthy, stay young without any illness as long as they can. Moreover, they wish to achieve to look good and feel great from inside-out. This goes along with the 111-year-long mission of Merz to make people “Live Better, Feel Better, Look Better”. Therefore, Aesthetics solutions including slim facelift treatment and facial filling with fillers and anti-wrinkle substances will be more popular because skincare product alone is not sufficed. It could not penetrate into facial skin depth where is the origin for skin laxity and sign of ageing. Besides, the treatment that improves shapes and looks boosts peace of mind and mental health because those who receive the treatment are happy with the benefits on their physical appearances.
“The market should rebound well as returning customers pay more attention to the quality of their skin. Botulinum toxin and filler injections are becoming more popular than ever, and when people pay more attention to health and beauty with self-care, the aesthetics business will begin to become a part of holistic health supporting everyone’s desire to be their confident and authentic selves.” Bob Rhatigan, CEO Merz Aesthetics said.
- New Normal aesthetics business may be slow, but it would grow after the COVID-19 crisis
David Amsellem, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Company in the United States, said, “The COVID-19 crisis does not have any impact on aesthetics business. Investors still see attractiveness in medicine for beauty. It is full of innovations and has great room for growth. Especially the business of biopharmaceuticals and beauty products is expanding well compared with the overall market. This results from the following positive factors.
- The customer base related to aesthetics procedure products is larger than it was in previous crises.
- More people consider aesthetics procedure for beauty as a part of their self-care regimen.
- The rise up for novel aesthetics innovations that could improve treatment effectiveness by attracting more customers.
Kittiwan Rattanachandr, General Manager of Merz Aesthetics Thailand, said, “There is an opportunity in every crisis, but the opportunity is not available for every business. We need to focus on 2 important things, which are to increase access to B2B and B2C customers via online channels and to improve all communications to create good customer experiences. Therefore, Merz Aesthetics, as an aesthetics innovation leader from Germany, has launched the ‘Merz Always with You’ marketing communication campaign to reach target groups during the COVID-19 crisis and to enhance the confidence level among business partners and meeting consumers’ demand. Merz Aesthetics always takes care for Thailand Beauty clinics by offering value privileges, product newness, demand-boosting campaigns through social media. The campaign provides the beauty knowledge among consumers. Besides, we take this time to make the promotional collaterals better. Physician online training by webinar series is focused to continue. Customer feedback makes us confident that after lockdown release, consumers will still remember the video content from the doctors, they will have online conversations and then go to clinics for services.”
“We predict that the customer base which is larger and quite strong and the provision of services with the over-delivery/under-promise concept will make New Normal aesthetics business grow steadily after the COVID-19 crisis and we expect the business will return to normal in late June,” Ms Kittiwan concluded.
