Friends twice as likely to influence clients as therapists

Clients are twice as likely to try a new treatment on the suggestion of a friend than if it has been recommended by their therapist, according to new research from Babtac.

A recent survey commissioned by the association spoke to 2,566 UK consumers to find out what inspired them to try a new beauty treatment. When asked what group had the biggest influence on their decision to try a new treatment, a quarter (24%) said it was their friends, while 12% said it was recommendations from beauty professionals.

Family members had the greatest influence for 15% of the respondents, while celebrities were the second most influential group, with 19% of respondents saying famous faces were their main source of inspiration when it came to beauty treatments.

When asked specifically if they would be more likely to try a treatment is a celebrity they admired as tried it, just over half (52%) said they would. Of those, 59% were male respondents, suggesting that men are more likely to be inspired by a famous face.

Babtac’s Emma Roberts said, “Celebrities often pioneer new trends and demonstrate the crème de la crème in new cutting edge treatments, so it’s understandable that when we see the results on our TVs and in glossy magazines, we want to recreate them ourselves.”