In this week’s cosmetics and skin care industry post, the Newlogic portfolio team write about six factors to consider when developing your R&D cosmetics strategy. To research the post we reviewed our cosmetics posts over the last few months, and conducted ancillary research.
1. The Combination of Groundbreaking Formula and User-friendly Packaging
In the cosmetics and personal care industry, breakthrough innovations on formulas and packaging are still keys to success as they directly relate to product performance. Cosmetic and skin care chemists search for the ingredients and technology to advance product efficacy, while they also contribute to design innovative package that improve product applications. This is obvious, but it’s the formula, delivery systems and packaging that make all the difference when it comes to developing innovative cosmetics projects. Your R&D cosmetics strategy has to consider what these fundamentals.
2. Concentrated Product Development
A successful cosmetics R&D strategy is efficient in solving two problems: shorten product development times and improve innovation initiatives. In the cosmetics and personal care industry, the diversity of product lines (face, body, lips, and eyes) creates a barrier that prevents the easy innovation across all categories. Experienced leaders use R&D project portfolio optimization to pinpoint innovation projects that align with current resources and leverage the development of existing expertise in a technology. The Maybeline “Great Lash” Mascara collection has a history of 40 years, during which period its product profile has continued to expand. Maybelline has focused on enhancing the “Great Lash” product line through conducting consumer insight research, selecting pilot productions and adjusting the R&D process.
3. Consumer-oriented Strategy
Any R&D innovations begin with the goal to improve consumer experience. R&D leaders conduct market research to discover problems and collect consumer insights, which if executed correctly can turn into new treatment solutions and product upgrades. As increasing numbers of cosmetics companies expand worldwide, consumer-oriented strategy also includes outsourcing or moving R&D centers overseas to enhance local R&D capability. For example, L’Oreal China has improved its shampoo formula in order to cater to Asian hair care needs. Overseas R&D centers help facilitate regional research and local talent recruitment. It may also benefit the R&D process in the host country as such outsourcing enables the exploitation of local technology and resources for company-wide projects.
4. The Challenge of Product Diversification
While expanding a brand’s product profile is more of a business strategy, cosmetics and skin care R&D departments need a comprehensive technology development strategy to help anticipate risks and structure conceptualization. For example, when a successful skin care company is trying to launch cosmetics lines, the company needs to decide which products to start developing pilot engineering programs. A product development plan that’s been optimized for project selection can allow a company to lay a solid foundation and avoid failures at different stages by understanding what’s possible from the projects to select and implement.
5. Mergers and Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions allow merged companies to realize the optimal allocation of R&D resources, such as facilities and capital investments. In this way, R&D departments have the chance to share information and develop better products. In the cosmetics and personal care industry, company mergers and acquisitions may not necessarily lead to the merger of R&D departments. However, a well-established parent company can provide its brands with R&D guidelines that improve innovation capabilities and optimize the product development process.
6. Cross-Industry Development
Another future R&D trend are cross-industry solutions, where tighter partnerships with other industries as well as the knowledge of other sciences, such as food and biochemistry enhance R&D knowledge. For example, nutricosmetics was first developed by the Swedish biochemist and scientist Ake Dahlgren, who later founded the first nutricosmetic company Imedeen in the late 1980s. In recent years, L’Oreal and Shiseido have started R&D projects in nutricosmetics, applying what was originally developed from pure science to personal care products.
Photo courtesy of NPA
Compiled by Sandra Huang
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