In 2002 the Census Bureau classified the deodorant and antiperspirant industry as a category of the larger toilet preparation manufacturing industry. It described toilet preparation manufacturers as those establishments that are engaged in the preparation, blending, compounding and packaging of personal care products such as perfumes, hair and shaving preparations, and creams and lotions. Statistics for the antiperspirant and deodorant product shipments within the toilet preparation manufacturing industry are classified as underarm deodorants, aerosol and spray, and underarm deodorants, roll-ons and solids.
Product shipment statistics published in the Census Bureau's 2002 Economic Census, showed that shipments for aerosol and spray products were $1.4 million in 2002, down by approximately 30 percent from $2 million in 1997. Meanwhile, roll-ons and solids saw an increase in shipments of approximately 44 percent for the same period, rising from $1.2 billion in 1997 to $2.1 billion in 2002. The change reflected a trend that began in the 1990s with the introduction of new variations on the traditional stick antiperspirant/deodorant. The new products were considered invisible solids because they were smooth and dry upon application and did not leave a white residue. They were called, variously, clear gels, soft solids, sheer solids, and clear sticks, and developed in accordance with consumer preferences as revealed in market research conducted by antiperspirant and deodorant manufacturers.
The U.S. cosmetics and toiletries market is one of the largest in the world. It is a also a mature market, which means that it has already reached a very wide base of consumers and cannot count on tapping large sections of the population in order to achieve growth as an industry. Likewise, with most Americans already using an antiperspirant or deodorant daily, the manufacturers of these products must rely on technological innovation, product enhancement, and market research to find news ways of appealing to consumers.
Leading manufacturers of antiperspirants and deodorants in the United States such as Procter & Gamble, Mennen Co., and Helene Curtis are either multinational corporations themselves or are subsidiaries of multinational corporations such as Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, and Henkel KGaA. Like the larger cosmetics and toiletries industry of which it is a part, the antiperspirant and deodorant industry constitutes a global market. The North American and Western European markets were the two most highly developed markets worldwide in 2005, with North America accounting for 21 percent of global sales and Western Europe accounting for 30 percent. At the turn of the twenty-first century, however, the growth in the industry globally was increasingly being generated by activity in emerging markets such as those of Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa, and the Middle East. With a market size of $28.8 billion in 2005, Latin America saw a jump of 11.3 percent in its share of the global market over 2004 figures. Equally impressive was Eastern Europe's increase of 9.6 percent over 2004, and an increase of 7.1 percent for Africa and the Middle East.
The Asia-Pacific region placed second globally in 2005 with a market valued at $63.1 billion, approximately $10 billion more than that of North America's for the same year. At an increase of 5 percent over 2004 earnings, the region's growth was largely due to the dynamism of the industry in China, where rising disposable incomes and growing product awareness contributed to the country's potential for market penetration.
One of the challenges for the makers of antiperspirants and deodorants seeking to expand into foreign markets is that consumer preferences vary from country to country. Since the early 1990s, for instance, Americans showed a consistent preference for antiperspirants over deodorants. French consumers, however, have been wary of the concept of stopping the body from sweating and showed a preference for deodorants over antiperspirants well into the early 2000s. Similarly, although aerosol products fell out of favor with U.S. consumers in the late 1970s, aerosol products were still a mainstay in the British market in the early 2000s.
Among emerging markets, Latin America posed a significant potential for continued growth in the first decade of the twenty-first century both as a global supplier of new cosmetic ingredients such as plant and fruit extracts and as an only partially tapped consumer base.
