Natural Cosmetics Conference – questions to Elfriede Dambacher

The International Congress Center, NürnbergMesse, invites you for the second time to the conference of the natural cosmetics industry. Elfriede Dambacher, an expert in natural cosmetics (picture), is once again the programme director, and she has brought a number of interesting and internationally renowned experts to Nuremberg for the conference that will be held on 22-23 September 2009. The programme encompasses markets and brands, concepts at POS and questions of labelling and packaging. Above all, the international contributions promise an exciting view of the worldwide development of natural cosmetics. We spoke to Elfriede Dambacher about her assessment of the market and the conference highlights.
Frau Dambacher, how is the natural cosmetics industry developing in the context of the international economic crisis this year?

The natural cosmetics industry seems to be following its own economic trajectory, and even this year the industry is still growing appreciably. However, it won’t be posting the double digit growth that has become common over recent years in Germany. But the natural cosmetics firms, and the German manufacturers in particular, can certainly continue to grow at the international level.

In the course of two days, the natural cosmetics industry conference shines a light on the most diverse issues. What are for you the most exciting topics?

What I find exciting is how consumers perceive natural cosmetics – how green cosmetics have to be for customers to regard them as natural cosmetics. What does that mean for manufacturers? What does that mean for positioning brands and for getting the message across? Today, a brand has to focus more clearly on its core value to ensure that its unique qualities can be communicated. Something else that is extremely interesting and exciting is investigating and discussing the consequences of the change from a demand-led market to a supply-led market. How will players achieve the transition? And what are the conclusions industry and trade should draw from this situation? One of the functions of a conference is to provide impetus and to think outside the box – something that is reflected in the international contributions.

The structure of the conference programme is certainly international. With speakers like Ted Ning, the managing director of the Lohas Conference, Professor Ruut Veenhoven from the Netherlands and other contributors, the participants will really see the wider perspective. Is the natural cosmetics business at the international level gaining in importance?

Because of the rapid transition the market is undergoing, there is a tension between growth and competition, and this is what the conference should demonstrate. Players in the industry have direct experience of this rapid change. In creating the conference programme, we felt it was important that discussions should go beyond the issues of product quality and that the conference should stimulate new thinking because it can examine issues from completely new angles and perspectives.
We are anxiously awaiting the results on the second day from Kline Management Consulting under the headline “Think global – act local in international markets”. It will be interesting to see in what international context markets will move in future. Ted Ning will examine the power of the consumer and reveal new possibilities regarding communication. We have cast our net so wide that we have invited the happiness researcher Professor Veenhoven, who will show what constitutes our living environment today in a completely new light. The world in which we all live is in the process of change, and that affects the behaviour of consumers. These are all topics with international implications and global interest, because the natural cosmetics industry has been an international industry for a long time. We are also looking forward to seeing how international insiders assess the markets – in short, how green is the cosmetics market becoming? Over and above all this, there will be plenty of opportunities at the conference to talk to people in the natural cosmetics business, swap ideas and network.

Where do you think the natural cosmetics market is going? What are its future prospects?

We certainly need to have a more complex view of the natural cosmetics market than just a few years ago. Trade names have become the driving force in the market in Germany, whilst the pioneer brands are having to face stiff competition.
We will get answers at the conference to the question of whether there are identifiable limits to growth and what form the market will take in the future. People attending the conference on 22 and 23 September in Nuremberg will be presented with current trends and ideas from many different angles. Anyone wanting to be involved in shaping the rapidly changing market should not miss this event.

Info: Registration: Natural Cosmetics Conference Download Form