BEAUTY DEBRIEF

PERFECTING PERSONALIZATION TO BUILD BRAND ENGAGEMENT

Insight:

Beauty Industry is focusing on helping customers find or create their ‘perfect match’ of products and/or services. By adopting a personalization-first approach to product creation, recommendation, and coaching, companies can forge brand relationships that satisfy consumers on functional, emotional and social levels. The findings below are based on the trends-focused research which analyzes qualitative and quantitive data points across beauty, health and wellness industries.

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

The beauty industry sits at the forefront of innovation when it comes to brand experience. Driven by a demanding and more informed customer base, companies have responded by experimenting with customized retail, product and experience models. PSFK’s Beauty Debrief spotlights the new ways in which beauty pioneers are using personalization as a relationship-building tool—providing lessons for professionals not only in beauty, but in any sector looking to evolve the brand experience with consumers.

Shifting Consumers' Customization Expectations

Consumers have become their own beauty experts and advocates, armed with the understanding that their unique nutrition, biology and environment all play key roles in their appearance. They look to brands and retailers to provide bespoke tools, resources and expertise to address all facets of a beauty regimen. Trends-led research has identified four shifts in how consumers are prioritizing custom treatment of their personal care.

The Beauty Landscape

Today’s beauty marketplace consists of product creators, service providers and retail outlets that are experimenting with customer personalization in different capacities. These include offering custom-made products, tailoring the shopper experience or coaching users through ownership and a routine.

By blending different channels of personalization, brands can paint a more robust picture of their shoppers and help them find the perfect match of products, retail experiences and ownership.

6 Key Trends Driving The Beauty Industry

Retail, product and brand experience personalization help consumers satisfy the desire to purchase products that are relevant to their lifestyles. The following trends manifested in the beauty industry, actively invite consumers into the creation process and to build fan loyalty through customization and adaptability.

Instead of offering generic products, brands are introducing services that ask the consumer to mix and match product components according to preferences.

Examples in the marketplace:

Finding FerdinandCustom-Colored Makeup Palettes Created Onlinefindingferdinand.com — **Finding Ferdinand**
Custom-Colored Makeup Palettes Created Online
**findingferdinand.com**

Function of BeautyShoppers Design Hair Care Products To Match Styling Goalsfunctionofbeauty.com — **Function of Beauty**
Shoppers Design Hair Care Products To Match Styling Goals
**functionofbeauty.com**

Companies are more intimately connecting and serving fans by surveying details about their lifestyle and tailoring subsequent recommendations and treatments.

Examples in the marketplace:

Hum NutritionSupplements Target Specific Beauty Needshumnutrition.com — **Hum Nutrition**
Supplements Target Specific Beauty Needs
**humnutrition.com**

CurologyOnline Personal Assessments Replace Dermatologist Visitscurology.com — **Curology**
Online Personal Assessments Replace Dermatologist Visits
**curology.com**

Retailers are inviting their fans into a transparency-first manufacturing process by supplying them with the ingredients to craft beauty products at home.

Examples in the marketplace:

Oleum VeraProducts Mixed From Assortment Of Essential Ingredientsoleumvera.com — **Oleum Vera**
Products Mixed From Assortment Of Essential Ingredients
**oleumvera.com**

Ktchn ApothecaryAt-Home Preparation Increases Skin Care Line’s Potencyktchnapothecary.com — **Ktchn Apothecary**
At-Home Preparation Increases Skin Care Line’s Potency
**ktchnapothecary.com**

Consumers are participating in the development of brand platforms and product lines through feedback or crowdsourced ideation.

Examples in the marketplace:

VolitionConsumers Paired With Chemists To Realize Product Ideasvolitionbeauty.com — **Volition**
Consumers Paired With Chemists To Realize Product Ideas
**volitionbeauty.com**

GlossierUsers Communicate With Headquarters Via Slackread.bi/1UgiNm4 — **Glossier**
Users Communicate With Headquarters Via Slack
**read.bi/1UgiNm4**

Brands are tailoring their products and expert services according to individuals’ unique biologies, which include components such as DNA and cellular makeup.

Examples in the marketplace:

GeneuDNA Influences Compounds In Skin Caregeneu.com — **Geneu**
DNA Influences Compounds In Skin Care
**geneu.com**

SK-IIHandheld Scanner Diagnoses Microscopic Skin Health In-Storesk-ii.com.sg/en/magic-ring.aspx — **SK-II**
Handheld Scanner Diagnoses Microscopic Skin Health In-Store
**sk-ii.com.sg/en/magic-ring.aspx**

Contextually-aware platforms monitor customers’ external environments and provide them with the essential tools and education to adapt their rituals to daily situations.

Examples in the marketplace:

La Roche -PosayScannable Skin Patch Provides Feedback On UV Exposurebit.ly/UV-Patch — **La Roche -Posay**
Scannable Skin Patch Provides Feedback On UV Exposure
**bit.ly/UV-Patch**

REN Skin CarePollution-Level Map Encourages Skin Care Reapplicationbit.ly/RENPollution — **REN Skin Care**
Pollution-Level Map Encourages Skin Care Reapplication
**bit.ly/RENPollution**

Based on the trend-led research and shifting consumer mindsets, I identified five strategies that can apply to a broader audience of brands and retailers. By taking the best practices from the beauty industry to lead experimental campaigns and design engagements that make product discovery and selection more pertinent to customers’ lifestyles.

CREATE VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL PLAYGROUNDS

Create a seamless engagement experience between digital and physical retail by allowing consumers to test and experiment with products in both physical and virtual spaces. Companies that highlight different product features in each environment build a portfolio of experiences that connect with customers in complementary contexts.

EVOLVE TOOLS INTO ASSISTANTS

Transform everyday beauty products and tools into connected devices that are able to track and improve routines. Assistive tools give brands a welcome presence in daily life, while collecting actionable data about users’ situations and behaviors.

TRANSFORM PRODUCTS INTO FOUNDATIONS

Rather than promoting products as complete solutions, empower customers to personalize their experience by mixing-and-matching items or creating custom recipes. By offering an array of modular components, brands are more likely to meet each shopper’s unique needs and preferences while communicating transparency and expertise.

ENGAGE BY OCCASION

Organize retail spaces, product displays or kits by lifestyle and occasion, instead of by brand or product type. By making the product discovery and selection process more relevant to the consumer, brands can help customers build confidence in their choices, simplify their consideration process and solve for an immediate desire or need.

TREAT ENTHUSIASTS AS EXPERTS

Engage your community of loyal fans to participate in brand development by tapping into social media for unfettered product feedback. Letting consumers know their input has been heard and adopted helps brands build stronger authenticity and offers a head start to engage in emerging trends.

Future of Health

Precision Care Through Living Data

INsight:

As healthcare shifts towards bespoke care, data is playing a larger role in the process. A new generation of medical practitioners are using machine learning, heightened sensor sensitivity and networked data systems to grow the industry’s ability to not only gather, but also to interpret data in real time and at scale. Digital health tools are gaining consumer, organizational and regulatory trust as their outputs become more accurate and actionable for medical practices. Today’s living, continuous data streams can inform a more refined and holistic view of each individual along his or her ongoing health journey.

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

PSFK's Future of Health 2018 report features 12 trends that are defining the healthcare today and will be driving changes in the next five years. Using quantitative and qualitative research to identify trends that are evolving healthcare industry in order to provide strategic recommendations and implications for any industry.

DIgital transformations in the healthcare industry

Data has become a valuable tool and a foundation for healthcare
to build its services and products. PSFK’s trends-led research has identified six shifts in how data is personalizing the patient experience and transforming healthcare.

A Model For Living Health

The role of data in healthcare is evolving from a static and raw tool in the doctor’s office into a living profile that grows with a patient. The profile is accessible to multiple care teams and learns from the networked knowledge of larger health databases. By aggregating, learning from and iterating upon a patient’s genetic, biometric and self-reported data, healthcare systems can unite a cycle of care that supports and informs the individual far before, and beyond, a hospital visit. To provide truly personalized healthcare, brands, organizations and technology providers have to incorporate the lifecycle of living data into their products and services to drive insights for more accurate and impactful results.

3 themes and 12 Key Trends Driving Precision Care

THEME 1: Living Database

Accessible DNA sequencing tools are being used alongside a physical web of sensors and IoT-enabled devices to create a more dynamic and comprehensive health record for each individual that is constantly being refreshed over time.

Mapping an individual’s unique genome to leverage as the foundation for creating a data-driven understanding of their health.

Examples in the marketplace:

MyNewbornDisease Risks, Drug Reactions And Physical Traits Revealed To Parents Through Newborn DNA Sequenceveritasgenetics.com — **MyNewborn**
Disease Risks, Drug Reactions And Physical Traits Revealed To Parents Through Newborn DNA Sequence
**veritasgenetics.com**

Color GenomicsAt-Home Hereditary Cancer Risk Test Informs Patient Wellness Plancolor.com — **Color Genomics**
At-Home Hereditary Cancer Risk Test Informs Patient Wellness Plan
**color.com**

Gathering key wellness indicators such as biometrics and contextual and environmental cues in the background to create a more comprehensive picture of individual health.

Examples in the marketplace:

WHOOPLifestyle Data Mapped Against Top Athletes’ Performancewhoop.com — **WHOOP**
Lifestyle Data Mapped Against Top Athletes’ Performance
**whoop.com**

Upstream ResearchAccessible Information About Environmental Toxicity In Relation To Disease Ratesupstreamresearch.com — **Upstream Research**
Accessible Information About Environmental Toxicity In Relation To Disease Rates
**upstreamresearch.com**

Leveraging common consumer technologies that enable people to perform increasingly sophisticated health and wellness tests outside of the doctor’s office.

Examples in the marketplace:

LuminosticsAt-Home STD Test Makes Mobile Diagnosis Easyluminostics.com — **Luminostics**
At-Home STD Test Makes Mobile Diagnosis Easy
**luminostics.com**

Heart for HeartIrregularities In Heartbeat Detected Via A Smartphone Cameraheartrateapp.com — **Heart for Heart**
Irregularities In Heartbeat Detected Via A Smartphone Camera
**heartrateapp.com**

THeme 2: Dynamic Analysis

AI and machine learning tools are able to simultaneously aggregate and interpret patient information from personal devices, conversations and massive health databases to support doctors in providing bespoke diagnoses and developing highly customized treatment plans.

Leveraging always-on monitoring technologies to recognize subtle shifts in a person’s normal behaviors and routines that may indicate vulnerabilities to disease or illness.

Examples in the marketplace:

WiGaitContactless Tracking Of Walking Speeds Catches Early Signs Of Health Issuesbit.ly/WiGaitWalking — **WiGait**
Contactless Tracking Of Walking Speeds Catches Early Signs Of Health Issues
**bit.ly/WiGaitWalking**

xbirdAutomated Personal Diary Pinpoints When Diabetic Attacks Will Occurxbird.io — **xbird**
Automated Personal Diary Pinpoints When Diabetic Attacks Will Occur
**xbird.io**

Integrating natural language processing tools into consumer- friendly interfaces like chatbots to analyze reported symptoms and provide first-level assessment and diagnosis.

Examples in the marketplace:

BaiduChatbot Acts As Local Doctors’ Medical Intake Teambit.ly/BaiduDoctorApp — **Baidu**
Chatbot Acts As Local Doctors’ Medical Intake Team
**bit.ly/BaiduDoctorApp**

BuoySymptom Assessment Tells Patients To See A Doctor Or To Get Treatment At Homebuoyhealth.com — **Buoy**
Symptom Assessment Tells Patients To See A Doctor Or To Get Treatment At Home
**buoyhealth.com**

Utilizing deep learning algorithms to identify patterns in both individual health records and across databases of medical information that can lead to more accurate diagnoses and precise treatments.

Examples in the marketplace:

IBM WatsonAI Learns To Recognize Subtle Deformities In Cardiac Imagingbit.ly/WatsonHeart — **IBM Watson**
AI Learns To Recognize Subtle Deformities In Cardiac Imaging
**bit.ly/WatsonHeart**

GoogleEye Image Database Helps Prevent More Cases Of Blindnessdeepmind.com — **Google**
Eye Image Database Helps Prevent More Cases Of Blindness
**deepmind.com**

THEme 3: Precision Treatment

Armed with greater insights into patients and their conditions, healthcare providers are now able to prescribe 1:1 treatment platforms tailored to each individual’s unique biology and needs, delivering more effective, affordable care.

Creating bespoke medicines and treatment plans based on a patient’s DNA profile.

GeneuDNA Influences Antioxidant and Collagen Compounds In Skin Caregeneu.com — **Geneu**
DNA Influences Antioxidant and Collagen Compounds In Skin Care
**geneu.com**

GeneSightDrug Therapy For Mental Health Informed By Genetic Characteristicsgenesight.com — **GeneSight**
Drug Therapy For Mental Health Informed By Genetic Characteristics
**genesight.com**

Delivering 1:1 products and medications to mass audiences through the use of dynamic manufacturing tools and processes.

Multiply LabsCustom Vitamin Regimen Can Be Modified Every Two Weeksmultiplylabs.com — **Multiply Labs**
Custom Vitamin Regimen Can Be Modified Every Two Weeks
**multiplylabs.com**

CurologyOnline Personal Assessments Create A Personal Acne Treatmentcurology.com — **Curology**
Online Personal Assessments Create A Personal Acne Treatment
**curology.com**

Mobilizing a person’s unique biological processes to more effectively deliver medications or treatments.

JustMilkBreast Milk Delivers Medications Directly To The Infantsjustmilk.org — **JustMilk**
Breast Milk Delivers Medications Directly To The Infants
**justmilk.org**

IINSperm Carries Cancer-Fighting Medication To Gynecological Tumor Cellsbit.ly/2qTCEO2 — **IIN**
Sperm Carries Cancer-Fighting Medication To Gynecological Tumor Cells
**bit.ly/2qTCEO2**

Replacing traditional medications and treatment options with less invasive experiences, services and technologies that can respond to patient states in real time.

XealthDoctors Prescribe Customized Digital Healthcare Contentxealth.io — **Xealth**
Doctors Prescribe Customized Digital Healthcare Content
**xealth.io**

Virtual Reality Medical CenterVR Pain Management Reduces Visceral Reactions During Endoscopiesvrphobia.com — **Virtual Reality Medical Center**
VR Pain Management Reduces Visceral Reactions During Endoscopies
**vrphobia.com**

Rebuilding or fortifying a person’s internal microbial composition to help it achieve an optimal state.

Love WellnessFeminine Hygiene Products Build Up Healthy Bacteria To Fight Infectionslovewellness.co — **Love Wellness**
Feminine Hygiene Products Build Up Healthy Bacteria To Fight Infections
**lovewellness.co**

University of California, San DiegoPersonalized Probiotics Treat Skin Conditionshealthsciences.ucsd.edu — **University of California, San Diego**
Personalized Probiotics Treat Skin Conditions
**healthsciences.ucsd.edu**

Offering 1:1 support and coaching via robotics and assistive software, in order to facilitate recovery and encourage adherence at scale.

Common Sensing + WelkinReal-Time Monitoring Of Patient Data And Behaviors Improves Insulin Adherencebit.ly/2k7qsHv — **Common Sensing + Welkin**
Real-Time Monitoring Of Patient Data And Behaviors Improves Insulin Adherence
**bit.ly/2k7qsHv**

PillDrillSystem Reminds Patients To Take Their Medications On Timepilldrill.com — **PillDrill**
System Reminds Patients To Take Their Medications On Time
**pilldrill.com**

**6 Strategies For Data-Driven Personalized Care**

As data is an essential component of precision healthcare, health organizations need to commit to transforming their internal structures to focus on collecting and analyzing patient data. By realigning priorities around these six fundamental principles, healthcare organizations will ensure their preparation for a data-driven future.

Build 360-Degree Data Profiles

Recording patient information has become such a cumbersome aspect of the care process that doctor’s offices can feel more like data intake centers. Offload the work of data collection by integrating existing data streams from consumer products, medical technologies and ambient environmental databases in order to build a holistic patient dashboard that offers a comprehensive starting point.

Leverage AI Nurses To Humanize Healthcare

Patient-provider interaction is a vital tool in reducing anxiety, improving adherence
and ensuring comfort during the treatment journey. Employ voice assistants, AI chat
tools and in-home IoT to offer additional interaction points for patients—answering preliminary questions, offering reminders or encouragement and referring to a professional when necessary—without straining the limited resources of healthcare providers.

Augment Human Expertise With Cognitive Analysis

While physicians remain key decision-makers in diagnosis and treatment, supplement their knowledge with access to machine learning analysis, which can help spot patterns and factor for variables that humans may miss or otherwise offer healthcare providers additional confidence in their assessments.

Extend Care Through A System Of Health IoT

Currently, the moment when a doctor writes a prescription for a medication or treatment is the last interaction point between a patient and provider before a follow-up visit. Transform this handoff moment into the start of a longer-term care relationship by assigning ongoing data collection tools for patients in their home lives. By establishing data-sharing and communication channels for patients and health teams, providers can monitor healing remotely and catch complications before they arise.

Deliver Custom Treatment Through Dynamic Manufacturing

Clinics are limited in their ability to offer individualized products and treatments due to the rigidity of associated manufacturing and distribution processes. Invest in or partner with providers that leverage emerging digitized manufacturing processes, which offer the flexibility to produce and deliver custom medications, technologies and services at scale.

Implement Responsive R&D Through Data Feedback Loops

Data is being gathered through an entire patient cycle of diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Ensure actionable data results from all parts of the cycle are fed back into the system, enriching the system with more data and insights and making the R&D process agile. Using aggregated data in the R&D process and creating a true cycle of data allows for smarter manufacturing, care and security practices.

Future of Retail

Transformation Strategies For Customer-First Business

INsight:

In today’s retail landscape, customers take a mobile-first approach to retail, seamlessly interacting with brands online and in-store. While most retailers and brands recognize the need to deliver convenience, personalization and seamless access across channels to their shoppers, they struggle with implementing changes that deliver meaningful value to customers and drive business results. Shoppers now expect stores and brands to meet their needs, regardless of their location or timeof day. In order to deliver on the customer’s expectations, organizations need to concentrate on transforming their business to be customer-first focused.

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

In The Future of Retail 2017, PSFK highlights the ten steps retailers and brands must take to create a customer-first organization that can meet and exceed the expectations of shoppers, day-in and day-out. PSFK examines the challenges of information silos, disconnected technology and employee engagement to offers solutions for an operational approach to create lasting transformation that both customers and shareholders can see.

Major Shifts Defining Customer-First Business

In order to align a customer-first organization, companies must shift how their entire team—from management to frontline representatives— approaches day-to-day processes and objectives. Problem solving, procedural implementation, goal setting and performance measurement should be understood by all levels of the organization.

Foundations For The Customer-First Business

To truly meet the needs of today’s customers, companies must take an integrated approach to developing their employees, technology and operations alongside one another. These three key areas establish a focused strategic foundation upon which retailers and brands can elevate shopper relationships and scale exceptional service.

**Strategies For A** Customer-First Transformation

As the shopper experience becomes a larger focus of a successful retail strategy, more and more companies need to commit their organizations to broad customer-first transformations. Realigning priorities around these six key tenets offers guidance on where to invest.

COMPLEMENT THE HUMAN TOUCH WITH TECH

Enable associates to surpass customer expectations by equipping them with on-demand information, tools and resources at their fingertips. Build technologies or partner with providers that solve employee pain points in order to complement— rather than complicate—the shopper experience.

ITERATE TOWARD IMPROVEMENT

Where possible, forgo expensive overhauls in favor of incremental adjustments to key aspects of the retail experience. Leverage data to decide how and where to act, then continue to measure the effectiveness of these changes in order to refine solutions before they are scaled. Take advantage of insights in real-time to see the greatest impact.

DRIVE TOWARDS TRANSPARENCY

Provide stakeholders at all levels of the organization and supply chain with access to data that they can leverage to improve their specialized tasks and departments. By encouraging transparent and widespread information sharing, retailers move toward dynamic internal systems that can adapt to and thrive around customer demands and industry changes.

SOLVE FOR THE CUSTOMER

Place the customer perspective at the center of every business challenge and design solutions that address demonstrated needs. This approach engenders greater loyalty amongst shoppers and demonstrates a clear point of differentiation, ensuring long-term growth in a volatile retail market.

OFFER 360 SUpport

A retail brand is only as strong as its frontline. Empower sales associates and support representatives by establishing open communication and information sharing between staff, stores and HQ, establishing a unified and efficient team.

INVEST IN TIME AND ATTENTION

Customers expect retailers to provide an elevated level of service and experience during every visit and interaction, inevitably putting a strain on staff. In order to balance customer focus with financial viability, turn to solutions that automate, offload or otherwise streamline certain processes. Reinvest these resources into improved customer interactions.

3 themes and 10 Key Trends transforming retail into customer-first business

Retail, product and brand experience personalization help consumers satisfy the desire to purchase products that are relevant to their lifestyles. The following trends manifested in the beauty industry, actively invite consumers into the creation process, to build fan loyalty through customization and adaptability.