56 SOFTWARE
Ingredient data digitisation for product innovation
n Chiara Zaffino PhD – Selerant, US
The lifecycle of beauty products is shorter than ever. New technologies and rapidly evolving consumer expectations have left many beauty brands unable to deliver products on the condensed timeline that the modern market demands. Product lifecycle management (PLM)
software reduces time-to-market by centralising all product-related information in a single place, eliminating inefficiencies and accelerating collaboration between departments, and between manufacturers and suppliers. According to McKinsey & Company, a
confluence of modern trends: “have led to faster cycle times and ever-smaller shipments, and the explosion of small, nimble players across industries is forcing legacy manufacturers to expand their supply chains to be more responsive.” To keep pace, marketing departments
often request that new products be delivered in mere weeks—a timeline that legacy beauty companies were not built for.
What is driving shortened product lifecycle timelines? The reasons for condensed development cycles are myriad. Some are driven by
changing consumer preferences—for example, multi-shade, multi-use, and unisex product lines. This type of trend is simply part of the landscape: changing consumer preferences have existed for as long as the beauty industry has existed. The industry has historically adapted to such changes rather well. Today, though, those changes are
developing faster than ever thanks to modern technology.
Social media as an innovation driver Social media teams are often the backbone of cosmetic brand innovation teams. The real-time nature of Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook translates to real-time notification of product launches, and often include direct purchase options. Those platforms also create a wealth of
user data that manufacturers can analyse to assess product performance and track consumer trends. The result of these instantly accessible selling and analytics platforms is a shrinking feedback loop between market research and product innovation. This dynamic constantly produces new insights, but the sheer volume means
brands often struggle to track them effectively. Consumer insights and product innovation ideas abound, but they are buried beneath mountains of noise, and it takes a small army to sift through that noise.
Creating highly digital, personalised experiences Modern technology has also created new expectations as to what constitutes a satisfactory buying experience. Smartphone apps and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices can collect data about consumers’ skin and hair conditions, using the collected data to recommend personalised care products and routines instantly. Brands can now supplement the
purchase of a product with apps and subscriptions, creating a more holistic buying experience. Customers can 3D-print facemasks contoured to their own face or apply smart sunscreens that have been tailored to the needs of the customers’ particular skin conditions. All of this, too, creates a more direct
consumer feedback loop. Facial data provided for masks can be analysed, and brands can learn more about their customer base by inspecting the data provided through their apps. This puts more pressure on Innovation and R&D groups, who now have access to unprecedented insights. Marketing departments, eager to turn those insights into new products, expect product launch timelines measured in weeks. R&D processes, however, can take months—sometimes three months for stability testing alone. Staying competitive in today’s landscape
means launching or updating products as quickly as those insights can be pulled from social media, from apps, and from countless other sources. Suddenly reformulation and stability testing timelines are being reduced to a fraction of what they have been in recent years. In other words, teams across
departments not only have more data to manage and analyse, but they also have far less time to take action on that data to create an effective product launch.
PERSONAL CARE GLOBAL August 2020
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