The future of beauty products lies in emotions they generate
It’s not only how you look, but also how you feel. Avon bares interesting study
Even as technology changes virtually everything in the global landscape, human emotions will be the major driver in the beauty industry.
This was the highlight of the study presented by Lisa Gallo, Avon vice president for global product and process development, via telepresence from New York, to select journalists in Manila on Aug. 14.
Avon’s special report, “Beauty, The Future and the Power of Emotions,” was first presented at the Innocos international beauty summit in Florence, Italy, last June.
Gallo said beauty purchases will be influenced by how a product makes customers feel, more than simply how, it makes them look—meaning, choices will be driven not merely by a perceived physical need but also “by a feeling.”
Customized
Avon sees a future where products will be customized right in your own bathroom, every morning, depending on how you feel as you wake up— whether you’re tired and need an energy boost, or are stressed and need something to calm your nerves.
“In the future, we’ll know not just what customer is doing and thinking but also what she’s feeling,” Gallo said, before quoting a study by the trends agency WGSN: “… Businesses increasingly rely on data for insights and decisions, but must not forget our internal processors
—emotions. In the future, qualia—the unique ways that individuals perceive experiences—will be just as quantifiable information when it comes to reaching customers.”
Beauty will also play a major role in addressing the increasing epidemic of loneliness, an irony in the age of digital connectivity.
“Products that deliver a confidence boost or a sense of shared community, could reach consumers on an emotional level much deeper than we’ve gone before,” according to Avon.
This will affect how brands communicate their message to consumers.
“Today’s consumers are not only interested in passively consuming content… they are actively seeking out different kinds of content—from video to live streaming, to social posts—that prompts change, both in themselves and the world around them,” Gallo said.
Peer-to-peer
Gallo cited a study that says, globally, 84 percent of people trust peer-to-peer recommendations versus other forms of advertising. This bodes well for a company like Avon that relies on a vast network of directselling representatives—6 million-strong in 70 countries.
While Avon might have recently forayed into digital commerce with an Avon Brochure app that connects a consumer with a nearby “Avon lady,” the “offline” real-life interactions between customer and sales rep will be “just as important… because what consumers trust the most are the people most like them.”
That means each product must also resonate with the sales rep so she’s better able to communicate what it is to the
customer, “in a sentence or two, and demonstrate in real time,” Gallo said.
“Most brands have to innovate to satisfy a retailer; Avon has always had to innovate to satisfy our representatives.”
Avon’s report also notes of “consumer’s growing desire to shop for products and services in the very place they’re going to use them—in the home.”
Gallo said that even e-commerce behemoth Amazon and Best Buy are “sending people to consumers’ homes to consult and recommend electronics” for the house.
Being a large company, Avon tends to move slower than smaller, popular niche brands, Gallo said. But it’s trying to keep pace, “and changing the way we work, to be on trend, and on time.”
Beauty influencer
“Everyone will become a beauty influencer,” the Avon report claims, citing how “40 percent of millennials want to participate in product cocreation and 70 percent feel the responsibility to share feedback, good or bad.”
In some level, Avon customers are creation collaborators now, Gallo noted, as the
brand listens to feedback and “emotional experiences” on existing products and what women want in a product.
“That mission to create products that make every woman feel it was made just for her is what drives Avon’s innovation,” Gallo said.
She stressed that, while figures relating to millennials are cited, the study is all encompassing. “We’re talking to everybody. We study all consumers… The way you speak to a millennial in an emotional level will be different from a Gen X or Baby Boomer. Emotionality is for everybody.”
Avon is marking its 130th year, and its 40th in the Philippines.
Agniezska Isa, executive director for marketing of Avon Philippines, said the company will launch communication campaigns targeted at the millennial market next year. “We are ensuring products are relevant to this segment of the market and are capturing their needs and desires, and filling the gaps,” Isa said.
Gallo said, “Avon believes that it’s hearing the stories of our consumers, the deeper stories, the ones that go beneath the surface as well as above it, where we will make not only our biggest breakthroughs but also our biggest connections…
“Big data and big thinking is essential to the future of beauty… But what we will never forget is the importance of the individual who opens the tube, applies the cream, and not only looks better, but feels it.”