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Nanotechnology and the Market

As of 2006 and internationally, there were well over 200 products advertising that they are nano-based. According to an ongoing Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, about 59% of these products are related to health and fitness, 14% related to electronics, 10% to home and garden, and 9% to food and beverages. Within the top category of health and fitness, the three most common product types advertising the use of nano-related materials are clothing (16% of all nano products), sporting goods (16%), and cosmetics (15%). Sixty percent of the products belong to US companies, although this number may be admittedly skewed given that only products that use English on their product website were counted. The most common nano materials are carbon, silver, and silica.

Nanotechnology, as an emerging technology, has the potential for significant improvements in our quality of life. And as a concept and buzzword, ‘nanotechnology’ has the potential to sell. The hopes associated with this ‘cutting-edge science’ in the popular arena are encouraging many consumers to purchase products that advertise its use. Based on such consumer appeal, many companies have made sure to emphasize their product’s use of nanoscale materials, whether they actually contain such materials or not.

The sudden emergence of products advertising nanotechnology may reflect in part its timeliness as a marketing strategy and not necessarily the innovative application of scientific knowledge for product improvement. Some cosmetic companies are now advertising that their creams use nanoscale particles, despite having had such particles long before ‘nano’ became popular. In fact, while the science of manipulating molecules at the nanoscale has a history of less than fifty years, nanoscale materials have been used for many centuries. In Iraq during the ninth century, for example, ceramic pottery was applied with a metallic film called ‘luster’ containing nanocrystals and a glassy layer on the surface of 10-20 nanometers.

Whether motivated by its technological benefits or its marketing appeal, a growing number of companies are incorporating nanotechnology in their products.

According to one research company, the global value of nanotechnology materials for consumer products is estimated at $6.8 billion in 2005 and is projected to reach $10.5 billion in 2010. The National Science Foundation predicts that the global marketplace for goods and services using nanotechnologies will grow to $1 trillion by 2015.

A healthy dose of skepticism is helpful to distinguish between the ‘hype’ and the ‘reality’ of nanotechnology. In 2006, one cosmetics company claiming to use nanotechnology was questioned about the size of its serum particles; they have since admitted that the particles they use turned out to be “too big” to qualify as nanotech. Likewise, the iPod Nano by Apple Computer has used the ‘buzz-morpheme’ as its product name, but only as a metaphorical reference to its relative thinness—measuring in at .27 inches or 6,858,000 nanometers. But Apple does claim that its iPod Nano uses a memory chip produced with nanoscale manufacturing methods.