Neutrogena goes on the offensive as L’Oréal steals market share

The news: Neutrogena launched Collagen Bank, a product line aimed squarely at winning over Gen Z consumers, which it hopes will help it reclaim market share after ceding ground to brands like L’Oréal-owned La Roche Posay and CeraVe.

• The launch is the Kenvue-owned brand’s biggest in 10 years, and it's “top priority,” vice president Marguerite Longo told The Business of Fashion.
• The line currently includes two products: a moisturizer, and a moisturizer with SPF, both of which “defend and support skin’s natural collagen.”

Neutrogena’s struggles: Once the dominant drugstore brand by a significant margin—and “the #1 brand recommended by dermatologists”—Neutrogena’s share of the skincare market has fallen steadily since 2019 thanks to pandemic-related supply chain issues, lack of investment in marketing and innovation, and delayed embrace of TikTok.

• Kenvue currently accounts for 14% of skincare sales, per Circana data cited by Bloomberg, down from 23% in 2019; Neutrogena lost its crown as the top dermatologist-recommended brand to CeraVe in late 2021.
• Despite attempts to ramp up its product pipeline, the company continues to lose ground: Organic growth for Kenvue’s skin health and beauty business declined by 2.4% year over year (YoY) in Q2, with volumes falling by 3.9%.

Neutrogena hopes that Collagen Bank will help reverse the trend.

• It chose to debut the line on TikTok Shop—a first for the company—to capitalize on the platform’s outsize importance in minting beauty trends and driving sales.
• The choice of products is also deliberate: Neutrogena is hoping to tap into Gen Z and millennial demand for anti-aging products.

The big takeaway: Neutrogena picked a difficult time to go on its offensive, given that demand for mass beauty is stagnating as more customers trade up to premium brands. The company faces additional challenges in winning over dermatologists, many of whom have spent the last few years being courted aggressively by CeraVe and other skincare labels.

That said, if it can get its TikTok strategy right, it could reach younger generations of skincare obsessives and regain its competitive edge.