Companies in the beauty industry are developing products almost every year: in order to cater to trends, to satisfy consumers' desire for novelty, to benchmark competing products, and to upgrade strategies... .
So, how to ensure that product development is carried out in an orderly manner? Enterprises need to have relatively complete product development processes and management systems.
Specifically, it is divided into the following steps:
New product development is a process that starts with creativity, goes through research and feasibility analysis, and then goes through project planning and implementation. The process of transforming products into products and putting them on the market.
According to different product levels, it is divided into:
For more mature companies, product development is one of the important tasks carried out by the marketing department based on the company's development strategy and market changes. Ensure the company's position in the industry is consolidated and its brand is enhanced.
2.1 Product creativity
Product creativity is the premise and foundation of new product development. Often presented as simple qualitative functional descriptions, existing business opportunities can be identified such as unrealized customer needs, emerging markets, and untapped technology potential.
Consumer demand is an important source of product creativity. Taking consumer demand as the starting point and based on market research, the new product development process can effectively reduce the waste of enterprise resources. However, competition in the cosmetics market is becoming increasingly fierce, and customer demands are becoming more diverse and unclear. Companies sometimes need to "create" new market demands and develop innovative products in order to maximize development dividends.
The sources of product ideas are in addition to routine activities such as consumer research and market research conducted by the marketing department. The opinions of R&D personnel based on forward-looking research on technology are also crucial. Because they have a clearer understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the company's products, the company's technical reserves and future development directions, as well as the global technology and application information shared by suppliers. Therefore, the likelihood of quality ideas coming out of the R&D department is high.
2.2 Feasibility Analysis
After the ideas are collected, the marketing department will formulate a new product development proposal, and organize the relevant functional departments of product development to hold a feasibility analysis meeting based on the content in the proposal. It is also called a "pre-meeting meeting" to screen product ideas and eliminate those that are obviously unreasonable, thereby reducing the burden and uncertainty in the later development process.
The analysis content includes:
(1) Formula feasibility analysis: Under the current formula level, whether the dosage form and efficacy of the product to be developed can be realized, and ensure the quality of the final product Safety, effectiveness and use.
(2) Production feasibility analysis: Does the company have the relevant equipment and conditions to produce the product? If outsourcing is needed, are there corresponding reserve resources?
(3) Cost feasibility analysis: Whether the product can be produced within the acceptable cost range of materials, packaging materials, production, transportation, time, etc.
(4) Regulatory feasibility analysis: whether it falls under the registration conditions for special or non-special cosmetics, whether the ingredients to be added can be used in cosmetics, etc.
(5) Concept feasibility analysis: Can the product’s technological concept be accepted within the cognitive scope of the company’s existing consumer groups? If the concept is too advanced, how to transform it into a concept that consumers can understand for market education.
2.3 Project preparation
Based on the development proposals reviewed at the feasibility analysis meeting, the marketing department will prepare a "new product development project letter". After approval by the product committee, it will mark that the product can be Officially entered the development stage.
First, set up a development team and identify product managers and development team members. The product manager is responsible for writing a product development plan, including formula, concept, packaging development, etc., and formulating a development schedule to carry out and check the development work of this project according to this plan.
The passing standards for product development plans should be distinguished based on the importance of the product:
Category A products are hot products or star series that the company has invested a lot in, and need to be signed by the product committee. Batch
Category B products are ordinary new products and only need to be signed by the leader of the main functional department
Category C products are mainly adjustments to old products, such as fine-tuning formulas, fragrances, etc., and are approved by the product manager Just sign for approval.
2.4 New product development
(1) Formula development:
The R&D department needs to communicate frequently with the marketing department. After several samples, feedback, and adjustments , until accepted by the marketing department. However, considering that different batches of raw materials may lead to inconsistency between batches of products, the R&D department also needs to conduct a skin feel difference limit test on the internal materials confirmed by the marketing department to confirm the viscosity range in which consumers cannot perceive the difference in skin feel. , used to determine the specifications of the material body.
(2) Concept development:
Product concept is a description of the appearance, function and characteristics of the product. It is a deep understanding of consumers and the basis for following the development trend of industrial technology. Same result.
The concept of a product is often organically composed of four parts: dermatology, product dosage form, efficacy and skin feel, and ingredient story. The choice can be made based on the brand’s positioning and marketing strategy.
Concept development also includes the production of teaching materials at the same time. The teaching materials mainly include teaching materials used by training instructors to train the sales team, sales information (speech techniques) used at the sales site for consumer education, and one-sentence selling points of the product. The focus of writing textbooks is to correctly convey the core features and scientific and technological concepts of the product to beauty instructors, beauticians or target consumer groups in a popular but appealing form, ensuring that the final consumer's understanding of the product is consistent with the original development intention.
Finally, cooperate with the product manual copy and other promotional materials to disseminate the product concept accurately and widely.
(3) Consumer verification
After the formula is basically determined, a consumer trial should be conducted, and volunteers who meet the skin characteristics of the target consumer group should be invited to participate. The survey sample should not be less than 30 example. Within the specified period, if the satisfaction level is higher than 75, the formula test can be passed, otherwise the formula needs to be readjusted.
In addition to sensory evaluation, the efficacy evaluation laboratory should also use professional equipment, such as facial image/contour analyzer, skin moisture tester, skin elasticity/wrinkle analyzer, colorimeter, laser** *Focus microscope, multi-photon microscope, etc., conduct objective long-term efficacy evaluation of products to confirm whether the product has the efficacy that matches the claims.
2.5 Preparation for launch
Before large-scale production, trial production needs to be carried out. The purpose of trial production is to determine the production equipment, production process and filling process. It is also a troubleshooting process. The inner materials that pass trial production are standard materials, which can be used for stability, compatibility, safety, efficacy evaluation, and filling line testing.
After the standard product is signed and confirmed by the marketing department, the non-special registration process can be started. After the registration is passed, mass production can be carried out.
In this process, the R&D department also has a very important task - product risk assessment. Due to the continuous compression of product development cycles, it is sometimes impossible to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the stability and compatibility of new products during the development process. This requires the R&D department to evaluate the potential of the product based on theory and long-term accumulated experience. Only when the risks are assessed to be controllable and acceptable can production be carried out.
2.6 Launch and launch review
The final entry of a product into the market does not mean the end of the product development process. The R&D department needs to complete a product development summary report to compare the initial development plan with the final results. The scientific and technological innovations included in the development process should also be written into patents and converted into independent intellectual property rights of the enterprise. The R&D department also needs to conduct consumer research through the marketing department to investigate consumers' experience and related feedback on the product itself, so as to improve the product in future work, achieve product quality improvement in the formula upgrade, and gain more consumption market share.
The above is a simple process for skin care product development.
Thanks to the relevant developers of Belaya Cosmetics Co., Ltd. for sharing their experience.