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Publishing: 11 April

Advertising deadline: 20 March

Submissions deadline: 13 March

Contact Lisa Riley (lisa.riley@thegrocer.co.uk )

The Story

Talk about a damp squib! The suncare & holiday essentials has suffered a value and volume decline in the past year. How much of this is down to the weather? What else is driving this decline and how are some brands managing to buck the overall decline? What can the rest of the market learn from them?

Key themes

Sub sectors: Every single sub sector in this market is in volume decline at the moment. What factors are driving this?

Own label: Own label is in value growth, although volumes are still down. Which retailer offerings are driving this performance? And is the rise in average price here a reflection of the development of more premium own label offerings?

Retail channels: This feature needs to pay close attention to how different retailers are performing in this market, and why. For example, the discounters, chemists and convenience (independents) are doing relatively well; the big four are struggling. Why? How have their ranges changed?

Fake tan: The Towie effect seems a distant memory. The fake tan market has declined by almost a fifth in the past year according to our data. So what’s driven this and what are players doing to breathe life back into the market? Where are self-tanners getting their glow from instead?

Innovation: This will be key to this feature. We will be investigating how new product development has shaped the category over the past year and what is in store for shoppers in 2014. We will be profiling four of the most interesting launches in a separate innovation panel.

Promotions: This feature will explore how the promotional strategies of retailers and brands have changed over the past year. Attention will be paid to the promotional strategies of retailers and how this has affected average prices over the past year.

Advertising and marketing: This feature will also investigate how the marketing and advertising strategies of the category’s biggest brands have evolved over the past year and how they will develop in the coming year to sustain growth or return brands to growth.

Key questions the feature is likely to address

  • What consumer trends have impacted the category over the past year?
  • How have promotional strategies (both in terms of price and marketing) evolved?
  • How have individual retailers’ strategies impacted the market?
  • How has merchandising changed in the market?
  • What impact has own-label had on branded players?
  • What’s next for the category?

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