Dusseldorf Wash, cut, dye – classic hairdressing program. Hair coloring is often done at home thanks to a large selection of products. But: “Up until now, that required patience, was time-consuming, complicated, made a lot of rubbish – and has not always succeeded,” says Guive Balooch, global head of the tech incubator for research and innovation at L’Oréal.
He and his team have now presented their approach to combating the hairline at the CES technology fair in Las Vegas: a device called Colorsonic. The portable device is designed to enable customers to distribute paint evenly and in hard-to-reach places at home.
Using an algorithm, users use their smartphone to select the right one from more than 40 colors. A glance at the screen should show virtually what the coloration looks like on your own hair, the corresponding cartridge will be sent by post. Balooch’s team worked on the product for seven years. “This personalized technology is the first that we want to offer directly to the mass market.” Colorsonic is expected to be available in Germany in the second half of 2023.
Like L’Oréal, more and more consumer goods manufacturers are working on products that customers can adapt to their needs via app and artificial intelligence (AI). Online advice and personal packaging options are already common practice in the industry. Manufacturers are now increasingly relying on the fact that products are also created individually.
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“Personalization is a megatrend in the industry,” says Sandra Deutschländer, consumer goods expert at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). This is particularly useful in cosmetics, since different skin types have different needs when it comes to care and decorative products. In the premium segment, many manufacturers are now relying on personalization so that they remain relevant. “Customers feel better understood through individualized articles,” says Deutschländer.
Many manufacturers are working on personalized products
The cosmetics market has seen only slight growth in recent years. With individualized creams, lipsticks or hair dyes, the companies hope for new sources of income. The Indian consultancy Insight Ace Analytic sees the global market for personalized cosmetics in 2028 at a volume of 72.6 billion US dollars, almost twice as much as in 2019.
The industry is attracted by the potential. Nivea manufacturer Beiersdorf launched the “Own” online brand a year ago. With an algorithm, customers can find the right skin care product from 380,000 combinations. The Hamburg-based company also took part in the start-up Routinely, which uses an app to adapt creams to the skin on a daily basis.
Just like L’Oréal, Henkel is customizing hair care in particular. Since 2019 there has been a joint venture with the US start-up E-Salon, a provider of hair dyes. Another example from Henkel is the “M: ID” brand, with which men can put together personalized hair and scalp care products. The Japanese cosmetics brand Shiseido even integrates geospatial data into its app advice in order to adapt the care products to the weather.
Start-ups have paved the way in this area: Wild Beauty, for example, offers a shampoo that is mixed from up to 50 components. And the start-ups Ave + Edam from Berlin, Asam Beauty from Munich and Skinmade from Stuttgart create personalized skin care products.
The high degree of customization also makes each company unique. “Every brand wants to provide customers with incomparable products,” says Nuremberg brand expert Christopher Spall.
The managing director of the brand identity consultancy Spall.macht.Marke explains that personalization has a positive effect on brand perception. “Today brands also have the task of helping people to realize themselves and to give expression to their own identity.” Individualized products in particular could do that.
Lipstick at your fingertips
This should be worthwhile due to the wealthy clientele, especially in the beauty and luxury segment. Two years ago, L’Oréal presented the Perso lipstick mixer at the CES. From this spring it will also be sold in selected Breuninger department stores in Germany.
Isabel Neudeck, managing director of the L’Oréal luxury division for Germany and Austria, already has such a device – and is demonstrating it. She scans the color of her scarf with her smartphone. The app shows her virtually what this color would look like on her lips. Neudeck nods, and at the push of a button, Perso begins to create the desired color. The small device hums softly and fills the lipstick compound into a case. “Such a personal experience with our customers helps to bind them to our products in the long term,” she says.
The Perso lipstick mixer will also be sold in selected Breuninger department stores in Germany this spring.
(Photo: L’Oreal)
And to find out more about their own customers than if companies were to sell their products in stores. “This information also helps the manufacturers to develop new products that can later be of interest to the mass market,” says BCG expert Deutschländer.
However, the personalization efforts of many corporations are not yet profitable. Business is a bet on the future. “The first step is not about profitability,” says Neudeck. “Personalization is the future of the cosmetics market, and consumers are increasingly demanding it.” It is a matter of gaining experience in this area at an early stage.
The consumer has to dig deep into their pockets: “Perso” costs 300 euros. And each of the three exchangeable cartridges required for lipstick production costs another 90 euros. They should correspond to the amount of three and a half commercially available lipsticks. The company promises that customers can use it to create 4,000 different colors. L’Oréal offers the device through its luxury brand Yves Saint Laurent. A lipstick costs around 25 euros.
Such prices are too high for the mass market. For less loyal customers, this should hardly be more expensive than comparable non-personalized products, says Klaus Ballas, head of the consumer goods and retail sector at EY. It makes a lot of sense for companies to deal with such trends. “With many innovations, however, there will be only one marketing topic in order to achieve visibility.”
A step towards the mass market
L’Oréal wants to achieve far more than that with its new Colorsonic application. Perso could also be made accessible to a broader target group via other group brands in the future. Colorsonic is aimed directly at the mass market. The company plans to sell the product in supermarkets and drug stores through its L’Oréal Paris brand.
The manager runs L’Oréal’s tech incubator.
(Photo: L’Oreal)
The exact price has not yet been determined, says Balooch. “It will be a premium price, but one that is affordable in the mass market.” In the past ten years, ten beauty tech products have been developed, he says. This would mean that development costs would fall over time – and so would the retail price.
L’Oréal also presented an application for hairdressing salons at CES. With the Coloright device, the hairdresser can measure the hair color, the gray content and the texture of the hair. An algorithm suggests the most suitable colors from more than 1500 possible colors. The machine can remember the color and adjust it when the hair changes, says Balooch. It is not yet clear when Coloright will be available in this country.
More: More expensive, greener, more digital: This is how the business with everyday goods is developing