Hand sanitizer is getting fancy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 16, 2009 -- NEW YORK – It had to come down to his eventually: designer hand sanitizers.
It didn’t take long for marketers to figure out that if swine-flu phobia made sanitizers a hot product, fancy versions could be even more profitable.
Retailers are latching on to the notion of hand sanitizers as fashion accessories, such as on cute key chains designed to dangle from student back packs. Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret have gone designer.

The number of hand sanitizer products rolled out through mid-October this year is five times the number introduced in all of 2005, reports researcher Datamonitor.
Yet, under normal circumstances, “People probably don’t need them,” says Michael McCann, biology professor at Saint Joseph’s University, who says washing your hands is best. “It’s always bad when we drive people behaviorally out of fear.”
But Valerie Folkes, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California, says it’s a good thing that hand sanitizers have become fashionable. “Concern about germs has grown from a small segment of people to culturally accepted practice.”
- Among the “fashion players”:

*Bath & Body Works. : Sales of hand sanitizers are up more than 50% at the chain, which sells more scented hand sanitizers than anyone else in the category, says Camile McDonald, president of brand development.
*Victoria’s Secret. : The chain sells an $8 sanitizer dangling from a key chain with a peace sign. Its Victoria’s Secret Pink Anti-Bac Hand Sanitizer is organic and comes in a pump bottle.
+Justice. : At many of its stores, the tweentargeting fashion retailer is selling mini hand sanitizers as impulse items next to the register.
*Ed Hardy. : Several years ago, Courtney Copeland was a backup singer for Britney Spears. Now, she’s a license who makes and distributes a hand sanitizer with famous tattoo artist Ed Hardy’s name on the tattoo-like label.
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