Personal Products

Real World Context of Personal Products

A relatively small number of companies and conglomerates dominate the global market in manufacturing personal products, including Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble. Johnson & Johnson is a New Jersey–based multinational whose brands include Neutrogena, Listerine, Acuvue, Band-Aid, Tylenol, and Mylanta. Johnson & Johnson also manufactures medical devices such as gastric bands, orthopedic implants, and insulin delivery devices. Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch multinational company in the food, beverage, cleaning agent, and personal care markets. It was originally formed as a result of a merger between an English soap company and a Dutch margarine producer, as palm oil is a key input to both products. Unilever's [Page 664]brands include Vaseline, Cutex, Dove, and Rexona, as well as Ben & Jerry's, Slimfast, Lipton, and Flora. Procter & Gamble is a multinational U.S.-based company, owning brands such as Gillette, Pampers, Clairol, Duracell, and Oral-B. During the 1950s and 1960s, the company produced and sponsored television serials (called “soap operas”), including As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and The Young and the Restless. Procter & Gamble also sponsors Spanish-language telenovelas on networks such as Univision and Telemundo.

Both large and small manufacturers have broadly and narrowly targeted brands, aimed at mass, local, or niche markets. L'Oreal is the largest cosmetics group in the world, with hundreds of hair color and styling, body and skin care, and fragrance brands. Its Garnier and Maybelline brands are internationally retailed in mass-market outlets, while “luxury” brands are sold at high-end locations and specialty stores. Other L'Oreal-owned brands such as Kiehls and The Body Shop have distinct market-niche images. This apparent diversity masks significant centralization of ownership: L'Oreal is 30-percent owned by Nestlé and also owns part of Sanofi-Aventis.

Personal products are retailed in drugstores, pharmacies, department stores, supermarkets, specialty shops, and increasingly online. Major chains include companies such as Watsons (Hong Kong–based, with retail outlets in Asia, Western Europe, and Turkey, Estonia, and Slovenia), Walgreens (U.S.-based, with over 7,500 stores and upward of $60 billion in annual revenue), and Boots (over 3,000 retail outlets in the United Kingdom, Western Europe, Russia, North Africa, and Thailand, as well as interests in pharmaceutical wholesalers in Germany and China). This is a contrast with arrangements in, for example, France and Germany, where a pharmacist can legally only own up to three or four stores.

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