In times of crisis We tend to save money: so many sectors have seen a natural decline in the sales of their products, which has lasted for a few years, first due to the pandemic that has left us all locked at home and now due to inflation and expensive living . Precisely for this reason, the sales data of the lipstick in Germany, who experienced a jump in the last period. And it’s no coincidence: the “lipstick effect” is a phenomenon that’s been around for a while and has been studied and researched feared by economists. Let’s see why.
What’s happening
The news came from the Tagesspiegel with the headline “A little luxury against the crisis”: Among the companies that reported the increase is one of the most popular cosmetics by women Kosnova which both sold more lipsticks than usual in 2022, but also grew sales of its top-selling brand Essence by a third year-over-year.
What is the “lipstick effect”?
Economists who deal with the phenomenon have no doubt: behind this lipstick effect (in German “lipstick effect”) is above all the desire to symbolically get out of the crisis through enjoyment little luxury in daily life. Unable to afford more expensive expenses (cars, houses, travel), women try satisfy yourself buy something non-essential but cheap, e.g. B. Cosmetics. Men react to this by buying perfumes. In 2022, lipstick sales in Germany increased by 16%, with eight million lipsticks sold in the last 365 days.
history repeats itself
History and Appeals: It’s no coincidence that psychological defenses are activated when you can’t live out what you want to the fullest. The same phenomenon occurred in 2009, the year in which the German economy lost many percentage points due to the crisis. As Repubblica recalls, the same situation happened that year and in 2001 after the shock of the attack on the twin towers. Going back even further, in the 90’s, the same situation also when there was the Great Depression in the United States (30’s). Yvonne Wutzler, Cosnova’s head of marketing, told Deutsche Zeitung that “the record figures of 2022 are partly due to the end of the pandemic restrictions”. Pandemics and lockdowns have seen sales plummet by about a point and a half every year. So there is a competition between the causes, but the effect is always the same: many lipsticks are expected to start energetically in 2023 and seal an ongoing crisis too much time.