Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based baby powder: discontinued in North America, can it survive elsewhere?

Johnson & Johnsons talc-based baby powder is being discontinued in North America. Credit: rblfmr / Shutterstock.

Johnson & Johnson is discontinuing the sale of its talc-based baby powder in the US and Canada due to declining sales, highlighting a question around its possibility for survival elsewhere.

Demand for the product has suffered in recent years amid several consumer lawsuits which claim the talc-based product has caused cancer, although Johnson & Johnson has maintained its confidence in the safety of its product throughout.

Its discontinuation highlights the risk-averse nature of North American consumers, especially parents with young children*, 71% of whom are influenced by how familiar, trustworthy, or risk-free a product feels when making a purchase, compared with 62% of North American non-parents, according to GlobalData’s Covid-19 tracker consumer survey in May.

The majority of parents in Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East & Africa share this same sentiment, and are similarly hyper-conscious of product ingredients and brand reputation when shopping for products for their children.

The likelihood for negative sentiment to spread to these regions, particularly following press covering the talc-based product’s discontinuation in North America, and for parents to subsequently alter their shopping behaviour, as a result, cannot be overlooked. This likelihood may be amplified during Covid-19, wherein consumers are seeking trustworthy, safe products amid global uncertainty.

The baby care category has seen somewhat of a revolution in recent years, with companies such as ‘The Honest Company’ and ‘Earth Mama’ recognising the value in positioning products as ‘free-from’ negatively perceived ingredients, and transparently and clearly disclosing the ingredients its products do contain.

The availability of similar ‘free-from’ baby powder alternatives, whether branded or private label, may prevail over Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based product in the future and bring forward questions around the longevity of this product outside of the US and Canada.

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