MEN’S GROOMING 25
Up close and personal with self-diagnostic tools
Dr Andrew Warmington, Editor - Personal Care Global
The trend towards personalised skincare, hitherto mostly confined to women’s products, took a significant step towards the end of 2021 when Bulldog Skincare for Men launched Digital Skincare Advisor on its US website. This is an AI-powered self-diagnostic tool that was developed in partnership with Revieve, a “personalised digital brand experience company” that is co-headquartered in Chicago and Helsinki. An Edgewell Personal Care business,
Bulldog first launched in the UK in 2007 and is now available in over 30 countries and over 50,000 stores around the world. It makes a wide range of skincare products for men, including moisturisers, face washes and face scrubs. These are all suitable for vegetarians and vegans, and do not contain microbeads, synthetic fragrances or artificial colours. Bulldog is the first male-only skincare brand
to work with Revieve. Indeed, Bulldog was something of a pioneer in developing skincare products specifically for men. When the partnership was announced, brand manager Lisa Gustafson said that it would enable the company “to give men who are either new to skincare or are interested in building a personalised routine a chance to explore Bulldog’s diverse product portfolio”. Revieve describes Digital Skincare Advisor
as an AI-powered self-diagnostic tool in which visitors to Bulldog’s website can take or upload a selfie and answer a few questions about their skin type. Revieve’s proprietary computer vision technology then analyses more than 120 skin metrics to provide them with an in-depth analysis of their skin and offer Bulldog product recommendations and skincare advice tailored to their needs.
Hyper-personalising the experience CEO Sampo Parkkinen, who founded Revieve six years ago, says that the company’s aim was to leverage technology, mainly computer vision, AI and augmented reality to enable brands and retailers to provide a hyper-personalised experience to their audience. This might be across any number of digital channels where brands and consumers interact. “What that means in practice is that we
provide the technologies necessary for you as a brand to really have a customer experience that feels and looks personal to the consumer and provides value to them beyond just recommending some products from the brand
www.personalcaremagazine.com Bulldog has become the first male-only skincare brand to work with Revieve
inventory,” Parkkinen says. “It is meant to be something that really engages the consumer on the journey towards better skin.” Skincare was the starting point, he adds,
but increasingly the focus is on skin health, wellness and beauty because those markets are very much interlinked in the mind of the consumer. In addition to the AI Skincare Advisor, Revieve also offers the AI Makeup Advisor, AI Suncare Advisor and AI Nutrition
Advisor. It is already partnering with brands and retailers on five continents, including giants like A.S. Watson, Shiseido and No. 7, while itself remaining invisible to the consumer. The retailers and brands that Revieve has
worked with cater mainly to a female audience. There are obvious reasons for this. Women undoubtedly think far more about skincare products and routines than men, which is also reflected in the fact that the users of Digital Skincare Advisor on retailer websites and mobile apps are typically 65-70% female. Moreover, the traditional way of providing
a customer experience has been for a woman to go into a shop and talk to an in-store beauty consultant, almost invariably another woman, who will look at her skin, ask questions about her skin type and recommend some products. That is, in a way, the low-tech analogy to Revieve’s digital offer. Women are generally very comfortable with this, but most men are not. Very few men currently think in terms of a daily skincare routine, let alone a personalised skincare experience.
Sampo Parkkinen
How men approach it “That’s something both we at Revieve and Bulldog recognise,” Parkkinen says. “There is a big opportunity here, because when you look at what we do and how we operate
February 2022 PERSONAL CARE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
