The TikTok viral brand, CeraVe, has grown rapidly in the past few years, dominating the skincare market. As it becomes a ‘Cult Brand’, the evolution of CeraVe and what drives consumers to love this brand is a prime example of how an affordable brand can change the industry.
With half of the world’s population active Google search users, search data provides a close indication to population and market data. We leveraged Kantar’s BrandDigital monthly tracker, which is powered by Google search data, to analyse nearly 10M searches linked to 20 skincare brands in the UK over the last four years. The tracker allows us to see the growth and decline of the following main categories: Area of Application, Concerns and Needs, Functions and Benefits, Generic, Ingredients, Occasions, Packaging, Path to Purchase, Prices and Discounts, and Products and Formats. Combined with the brands’ share of search, we are able to understand consumers interests, and the aspects of CeraVe that resonate with them.
Growth of a ‘Cult Brand’
During the pandemic and UK lockdown, consumer attitudes and behaviours towards skincare massively shifted. The interest and demand for cosmetics (enhancing) was rechannelled with the need for skincare (protecting), alongside gained interest in derma products, as consumers were wearing less make-up and focusing on their skincare routines.
Since 2020, CeraVe products have become firm favourites of ‘skinfluencers’, driven initially by Hyram Yarbro (@skincarebyhyram), who currently boasts more than 5M TikTok followers. The sudden +359% peak in CeraVe related search data in June 2020, from the beginning of the pandemic (compared to +38% for all other brands), was driven by generic branded search, becoming the turning point for brand awareness. In the discovery stage, consumers had genuine curiosity over the ‘hype’ and brand offerings.
CeraVe vs. all other skincare brands growth in search volume over time
Source: Kantar Brand Digital Tracker | CeraVe vs. all other skincare brands Google searches only from approx. 10 million searches from 20 brands in the UK, 2020 to 2023
Becoming a staple in skincare routines
Despite the end of the pandemic, CeraVe continues to spark consumer interest, with the highest increase in search volume over the past 12 months (+27%) of the top 20 skincare products.
Ranking third in share of branded search (last three months) after The Body Shop and Estee Lauder, CeraVe is now a staple brand, dominating search in some of the fastest growing categories: Product and Formats, and Packaging (respectively gaining +17% and +18% search volume over the past three months).
- Product and Formats is the topic driving the most search interest for consumers, gathering a quarter of search volume. CeraVe over indexes in share of search in this topic, dominating in several categories including creams, moisturisers, sunscreens, and face washes.
- CeraVe fulfils consumer interests in bundles and set offerings. Primarily common in more premium brands, there has been a growing search interest in bundles and sets. Luckily, CeraVe offers several bundles through brick and mortars and pure players, and can fulfil consumer's needs, strengthening the brand-consumer relationship.
Top five brands share of search
Source: Kantar Brand Digital Tracker | Google searches from Top 5 brands in last three months
For CeraVe, the key drivers of search include ‘ingredients’ (+48%), ‘product and formats’ (+31%) and ‘concerns and needs’ (+24%) in the last 12 months:
- Searches for the ingredient ‘Retinol’ have doubled in the past year for CeraVe. Within the whole skincare category, ‘Retinol’ searches have grown by +42%, suggesting that CeraVe is on the right track for one of the most popular and current ingredients.
- CeraVe currently has a good grasp of the Product and Format category as cream, facewashes and moisturiser searches continue to grow rapidly.
There is growing interest in concerns relating to ‘Wrinkles’ (+167%), ‘Mature Skin’ (+92%) ‘Aging’ (+24%). This is an increasing concern for the whole skincare category, especially for ‘Wrinkles’ (+139%), as consumers are starting to worry about the appearance of aging skin. CeraVe was the only brand that had this concern growing, suggesting that they are tapping into this leading consumer need.
Conclusion
CeraVe has made a staple name in the skincare industry, continuing to grow in some of the largest search categories.
However, there are still important search categories where CeraVe would benefit, from gaining more consumers' interests to continue its growing trajectory: Ingredients and generic brand name searches.
The Ordinary holds the Ingredients category, a category for which search grew +22% over the past year. CeraVe continues to step into that category by offering products related to leading ingredients such as ‘Retinol’ (a top ingredient in search). However, ‘Niacinamide’ and ‘Hyaluronic Acid’ seem to be the main drivers for The Ordinary, and CeraVe will need to capture consumers’ interest for both fastest-growing and cult ingredients.
Premium brands La Roche-Posay and Estee Lauder are holding most generic searches, which is the search category that CeraVe under indexes the most. CeraVe will need to reverse this trend search decline, to recover the dynamic fuelled by TikTok influencers during the pandemic, with creative campaigns to captivate consumers’ interest.
Although CeraVe dominates search in the Products and Formats category, if the brand were to track and tap into the top-growing Ingredients and increase genuine Generic interest through relevant and differentiated marketing strategies, it would reach its full growth potential.
Want your brand to benefit from understanding consumer needs to help with brand growth? Please get in touch with Winnie Cheng, Senior Commercial Strategy Director