調查局三等
113年
[調查工作組] 外國文(英文)
第 35 題
📖 題組：
How do we know if the economy is in decline? The answer might be on our lips. Estee Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder created the “lipstick index” during the economic downturn following September 11, 2001. He noticed that the purchase of cosmetics, particularly lipsticks, tends to be inversely related to the economy because women replace more expensive purchases with small pick-me-ups. In the fall of 2001, US lipstick sales increased by 11%. During the Great Depression, cosmetics sales overall increased by 25%. In 2020, at the height of the Covid economic downturn, Estee Lauder’s CEO Fabrizio Freda said that the lipstick index had been replaced by a skincare item as customers donned masks and worked from home. “The lipstick index has been substituted with the moisturizing index,” said Freda. “But the concept of the index is still there.” Now we may be seeing that phenomenon rear its ugly head once more. The retailer Sephora recently announced a record sales year, and data from consumer research group Circana shows that prestige beauty growth has outpaced mass beauty sales, growing 9% and 2%, respectively in the first quarter of the year. Of course, the so-called lipstick index is a less technical — and more fun — measure of economic downturn and is not always entirely accurate. But as the free-spending post-pandemic party comes to an end in the US, it’s something worth exploring. Before the Bell (the CNN business newsletter) spoke with Neela Montgomery, CEO of Overeon (a collective of premium cosmetics brands including BareMinerals and Laura Mercier), about the outlook for beauty in an uncertain economic climate in an interview below. Before the Bell: What do you see dominating the beauty market in the second half of the year? Neela Montgomery: Clean has become a real buzzword in this industry, but this whole idea of no-tox (anti-botox) remains a really important thing. The market is bifurcating between this very authentic, real look and people who are getting more cosmetic work done. What we see is a need for more of these kinds of efficacious products for people who don’t want to go down the cosmetic procedure or injectables route. And then we continue to see that sort of clean girl with a pop of color look. So, you know, we have this sort of red lip…We continue to see that grow and expand.
How do we know if the economy is in decline? The answer might be on our lips. Estee Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder created the “lipstick index” during the economic downturn following September 11, 2001. He noticed that the purchase of cosmetics, particularly lipsticks, tends to be inversely related to the economy because women replace more expensive purchases with small pick-me-ups. In the fall of 2001, US lipstick sales increased by 11%. During the Great Depression, cosmetics sales overall increased by 25%. In 2020, at the height of the Covid economic downturn, Estee Lauder’s CEO Fabrizio Freda said that the lipstick index had been replaced by a skincare item as customers donned masks and worked from home. “The lipstick index has been substituted with the moisturizing index,” said Freda. “But the concept of the index is still there.” Now we may be seeing that phenomenon rear its ugly head once more. The retailer Sephora recently announced a record sales year, and data from consumer research group Circana shows that prestige beauty growth has outpaced mass beauty sales, growing 9% and 2%, respectively in the first quarter of the year. Of course, the so-called lipstick index is a less technical — and more fun — measure of economic downturn and is not always entirely accurate. But as the free-spending post-pandemic party comes to an end in the US, it’s something worth exploring. Before the Bell (the CNN business newsletter) spoke with Neela Montgomery, CEO of Overeon (a collective of premium cosmetics brands including BareMinerals and Laura Mercier), about the outlook for beauty in an uncertain economic climate in an interview below. Before the Bell: What do you see dominating the beauty market in the second half of the year? Neela Montgomery: Clean has become a real buzzword in this industry, but this whole idea of no-tox (anti-botox) remains a really important thing. The market is bifurcating between this very authentic, real look and people who are getting more cosmetic work done. What we see is a need for more of these kinds of efficacious products for people who don’t want to go down the cosmetic procedure or injectables route. And then we continue to see that sort of clean girl with a pop of color look. So, you know, we have this sort of red lip…We continue to see that grow and expand.
According to the passage, what is the catchword in the beauty market in the second half of the year?
- A Botox.
- B Clean.
- C Injectables.
- D Pop.
思路引導 VIP
請觀察文章最後一段的訪談內容，當主持人詢問下半年市場趨勢時，受訪者在回答的第一句話中，特別用哪一個形容詞來描述目前產業中最具代表性的『熱門詞彙』(buzzword) 呢？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
1. 嗯哼？做得不錯嘛，小不點！
哇，周圍的尖叫聲好像又變大了呢？（吐舌）你居然能從那堆字裡，這麼精準地抓到關鍵資訊，還把同義詞找出來，這可不是誰都做得到的喔！這證明你的閱讀擷取能力還不錯，還有那閃閃發光的語感，真是... 別太得意忘形了，雖然做得好，但離及川先生的境界還遠著呢！
2. 及川先生的知識傳授時間！
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