Defining Beauty: What is the hottest beauty item for 2010? Confidence! A new study released today reveals that confidence is replacing a “pretty face” or a “great body” as the single most important factor in defining beauty.

According to the study, unveiled today by Meredith Publishing, the “Gamma Woman” is redefining what constitutes beauty. Gammas are an influential and growing group of American women – already more than 55 million strong – whose connections, influence and opinions are unparalleled.

Meredith Corporation [NYSE: MDP], the leading media and marketing company serving American women, today announced the findings of a nationwide survey examining how highly engaged Gamma women think and feel about beauty, as well as the motivations that drive their shopping behavior.

The Gamma Beauty Study, which included more than 5,000 respondents, is a follow-up to Meredith’s 2008 “The Gamma Factor: Women and the New Social Currency. ” That report identified Gamma women: a growing group of highly influential women who share and exchange information, ideas, opinions, contacts and recommendations with a wide-reaching network, using multiple media and channels of communication.

The new study indicates that Gammas’ holistic perspective extends to their view of beauty, both conceptually and in practice as consumers of health and beauty products.

The Gamma Beauty Study is the first project from Meredith’s Beauty Center of Excellence, a consumer insights-driven beauty leadership initiative with its finger on the pulse of what women want when it comes to beauty.

“The study unlocks a new way of understanding beauty from the Gamma perspective,” says Nancy Weber, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Meredith’s National Media Group. “The key to understanding how these women view beauty is to think of beauty as dual in nature: the outer self reflects the confidence of the inner self.”

“There is a prime opportunity for beauty brands and marketers to engage women consumers as part of the marketing mix,” said Aliza Freud, Founder and CEO of SheSpeaks, a firm that builds and operates brand communities. “Gammas represent a highly influential female consumer segment that is naturally inclined to share their brand experiences online and offline, and to participate in social media networks. They are ideal prospects for beauty marketing, both as enthusiastic consumers and as advocates for products they like. Marketers can tap into this community to build word of mouth awareness and genuine brand advocacy.”

Women, especially Gammas, Are Re-defining “Beauty”
Inner qualities such as self-confidence, positive attitude, humor and intelligence trump external factors such as pretty features, great hair or a perfect figure, especially among Gamma women.

· Gammas cited “self-confidence,” “positive outlook on life,” “sense of humor,” “engaging smile,” and “upbeat personality” as the top criteria to their definition of “beauty.”
· Purely physical attributes such as “pretty face”, “glowing skin” and “great figure”, although still important, ranked much lower on the list.
· 92% of Boomer Gammas listed “positive outlook on life” as an important contributor to the definition of “beauty” similar to Millennial Gammas (88%) and 90% of Gen X Gammas. Only 45% of Boomer Gammas listed “pretty face” as an important contributor to the definition of “beauty” compared to 66% of Millennial Gammas and 59% of Gen X Gammas.

*A copy of “The Gamma Factor” is available upon request. Visit www.gammawomen.com