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BY Donna Douglas |
At least 20,000 Canadians own their jobs to the cosmetic industry in one form or another. Those are big numbers for an industry that generally sells small containers of this and that.
Every single person in Canada uses products generated by this industry. Babies have their bottoms smeared with petroleum jelly and dusted with talcum powder. Kids brush their teeth and splash in bubble bath. Teens introduce themselves to skin care products, deodorants, fragrances and makeup, to say nothing of shampoo, toothpaste and hand lotions.
And on it goes.
In the direct manufacture and sale of cosmetics there are scores of different jobs. The laboratory employs technicians and technologists to work on formulae, carry out tests, experiment and maintain quality control. Depending on education and job function, lab people can earn from $13,0000 to more than $35,0000 a year.
The assembly lines are operated with job-trained people, usually working at an hourly rate. Rising from their ranks are foremen who direct and maintain those lines, often working shifts and weekends if the factory is in full production.
Machine operators are needed for many manufacturing jobs...pressing powder, moulding lipstick, mixing raw materials. Mixing materials together is the work of the compounder, a specially trained person who's graduated from grade 12 and taken some lab training. Good colour differentiation is important in this job, and most assembly line jobs demand people with good hand and finger dexterity.
Analytical technologist is a community college grad who analyses raw materials to make sure they meet specific standards. Microbiologists are university grads working with microbiology technicians from community colleges to maintain germ-free product in a manufacturing plant.
Licensed tradespeople set up and maintain equipment; tool and die workers maintain mould machines. Electricians and plumbers keep cosmetics and toiletries factories running smoothly. Industrial engineers (university) and engineering technologists (college) work on the layout of equipment and building development.
Salespeople sell the product to stores. Marketing backgrounds, business degrees, science degrees with marketing majors all help the marketing people sell a cosmetic group.
There are three disciplines in this industry...cosmetics, fragrances and toiletries. While each has its specifics, they generally require the same kinds of talents, and employees often work in all three disciplines.
Advertising agencies (see September '85) design campaigns to sell cosmetics, and anyone watching Cheryl Tiegs strut her stuff for Cover Girl knows the magic works.
Secretaries, accounting personnel, public relations staff, and industrial relations people all make the office of any large business function well, and there are jobs in the cosmetics field for people with these skills.
The cosmetician or aesthetician who works in a local drug or department store may have a variety of skills. He or she may have received training through correspondence courses with the Canadian Cosmetic Careers Association (see box below), to through one of the country's many community colleges. She may have studied to become an aesthetician with one of the private schools operated in Canada.
She may have received special training by one of the manufacturers and be employed by that company even though she's working in a department store setting. Many cosmetic companies, like Estee Lauder, Revlon, Clinique or Lancome have their own product counters and hire their own cosmeticians to sell only their products in a retail setting.
Promoted from sales positions, training and support staff from these same companies travel the contrite, educating their cosmetics representatives about new products, teaching sales 'rep' is presenting the image the company wants to project.
Supporting the training staff are secretarial and office people. More and more, audio visual presentations are used as training aids and people with a/v abilities (having studied at the college or Ryerson level) are able to find themselves gainfully employed by a large cosmetics firm.
And that's just in the direct cosmetics field.
Many companies offer door-to-door or part sales jobs. For those wanting to make their own hours, selling products like Beauty Counselors, Mary Kay or Avon forgives flexibility to ravel door-to-door or set up sales parties at the homes of friends or acquaintances as you wish.
Supporting the manufacture of powder, jelly, lipstick or nail enamel are the companies which distribute raw materials, which manufacture specialty jars, bottles, boxes, tubes, wands, pumps, puffs, lids, and shrink wrap. These companies boast the same levels of expertise and hire experts in machine maintenance and set up, in quality control, in sales, accounting and design.
There are many happy things about the cosmetic industry, according to Ken Baker, president of the Canadian Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association. Baker works for 110 active member companies and 155 associate members. Active members, as their name implies, are directly involved in producing marketing cosmetic products in Canada while associate members are in the supply and services side of the business-advertising agencies, publishing companies, packaging, design houses, raw materials distributors etc.
Ken Baker explains: "our products are consumer goods. People need and use them whether times are god or poor.
"Our products are viewed as necessities and while people might postpone the new car, frig or house, they continue to use the products or our industry."
That's good news for tomorrow's graduates who won't find themselves facing a 'down' cycle in the industry and therefore, unemployment.
Many Canadian cosmetic manufacturers are subsidiary plants of large American or European corporations. These plants have been built ad staffed because of the country's tariff laws. They make it cheaper to build a plant and produce a product here than ship it in and pay duty and exchange from another country. That's good for Canadians because it means factories, jobs and industrial taxes to support city services.
Baker says current free trade talks between Canada and the U.S. are making cosmetic companies (and many others) nervous. Without tariffs, many companies cannot compete with their larger sister plants which are bigger, amore automated and quite capable of producing the extra numbers to cover Canada's population of consumers.
So, people like Ken Baker are employed in association and public relations jobs which represent the interests of thousands of employees and lobby government to take care of its citizens.
Legislation forms a big part of the lives of cosmetic companies, as they must answer to many government departments. The Health Protection Branch of Health and Welfare Canada oversees packaging and makes sure it meets government standards. Transport Canada, Environment Canada, Revenue Canada al have their fingers in the cosmetic jar.
With annual retail sales excess of $2 billion, cosmetics in Canada is a big business, a big employer and offers jobs at many levels of interest.
©1999 TG Magazine/Le Magazine TG
tgmag@tgmag.ca