By Florence Bézy-Benvenuti
A wave of hysteria is washing over our markets. Major technological innovations, the latest advances in (anti-aging) research, new practices coming in from the USA, new patient expectations, new business models with no salespeople or medical check-ups and with two-figure growth… A third of all M&As come from industries outside our field, including the pharmaceutical industry. Have we gone mad? No: Welcome to the era of the Well-being, Health & Lifestyle business. Are you ready?
Reinventing beauty and longevity: a mind-blowing challenge for these new markets
Wellness: It’s all about feeling your best. Beauty: It’s all about looking your best. Performance: It’s all about being your best.
Not just 5, but 100% of the population is concerned with this. The challenge? To exploit the social tidal wave linked with self-image, aging and its prevention, and to capture the majority of the economic margins and draw from them a long-lasting competitive advantage. In the beginning, this trend saw the convergence of three major sectors: aesthetic medicine, ophthalmology and dentistry. These sectors are in full growth thanks to the advent of a younger target audience and, above all, the older target audience created by the “senior boom”, not forgetting the emergence of New Medicine.
The dawn of Integrative Medicine
We are driving full throttle into a Global Approach: combined medical therapies and the reign of made-to-measure, with highly personalised treatments and procedures, reinforced by the new clientele’s sometimes excessive desire for luxury and customisation. The frontier between health and beauty no longer exists. New Medicine was born with the advent of P4 medicine, according to Dr Claude Dalle. The second revolution, digital and robotic, will be at its height when the four complementary fields – biological, digital, mechanical and artificial – converge. Humanity will no longer be One. We are already enhanced human beings. The problem is now ethical and financial. Will I still be a human if everything is working remotely?
Man IS the business of the future
The lightning arrival of new protagonists and a lack of perspective: the industry must now face these new challenges. Meeting with Jean-Yves Coste, Senior Health Care Director at Michel Dyens. With regulations, technological innovations and patient desires, there is no possible solution to fit all. As such, large pharmaceutical companies and personal care have a competitive advantage in terms of shooting power, facilities and resources. In medical aesthetics, the weighted average of a transaction in 2014 was five times higher than in 2013. Combined with the appearance of “mega deals” (Actavis/Allergan, Nestlé/Galderma), this phenomenon leaves very little space for SMEs and start-ups, which are responsible for innovations BUT are in the process of being bought out…by these very same companies. In this regard, French Tech is one of the most advanced in the world, according to Oussama Ammar, founder of TheFamily.
The recipe for success? Position yourself at the forefront of extremely fast markets, those that are flourishing and in the middle of merger proceedings. Be present in new beauty venues. Win patient loyalty via the growing patient-doctor networks. Tackle the cutting edge of new trends: managing emotions, with the advent of happiness, fighting stress and pain, getting back to real life (with disfigured faces), the peak in popularity of natural results, etc.
Selling a made-to-measure beauty and longevity ideal, sometimes at a very high price due to its perception as a luxury service, is an opportunity but also a challenge. Good luck to all the start-ups and other big players in this fast-moving world!
Florence Bézy-Benvenuti
ESCP Europe graduate Florence has managed La Beauté Médicale® for the last 6 years. The practice boasts 200 experts, a wide-ranging anti-aging vision and expert knowledge in integrative medicine. Its challenge? To think ahead with the World Trend and Innovation Observatory, open new markets and growth engines, work using a Global Approach, guide laboratories throughout the year, and transform innovations for the good of the patients and the future of the beauty industry.
More information: contact@beaute-medicale.com
