Chemical free claims always bug me. You see them a lot in the sunscreen market where people claim “chemical free sunscreens.” For some reason they don’t see titanium dioxide or zinc oxide as chemicals. But they are chemicals! Every substance is a chemical.

Chemical free anti aging cosmetic

So, how is it that this headline is about a chemical free anti aging cosmetic? Well, it’s based on this story about research carried out at Jena University. Researchers found that when people surrounded themselves with other people who were much old, observers judged the younger people to look even younger than they really were.

That means you can create a chemical free cosmetic. Just get a bus full of senior citizens and hire them out to follow people around who want to look younger. A totally new and innovative beauty product.

And it really is “chemical free”. (Except for the chemicals in the people of course).

As an ongoing project, we here at Chemists Corner try to put up posts that might inspire people to come up with truly innovative new cosmetic products.  The majority of things that are invented now are simply minor tweaks on existing technology.  We would love to see some incredible new breakthroughs.  Only by actively brainstorming wacky ideas will completely new innovations get invented.  Of course, most of these will be useless but it only takes one idea to make something really new.

All your consumers are Synesthete

Are you familiar with the concept of synesthesia?  This is the idea that there are people out there who have wires crossed in their brains and can experience mixed sensations.   That is they can smell colors simply by looking at them or they experience taste sensations by reading certain words.

Wonder if you are a synesthete?  Take the test on this website.

Innovation exercise

So, imagine that your consumers are all synesthetes.  How would you make your products different to appeal to them?

List 5 ideas

Here are mine.

1.  Remove fragrance from products.  Use colors to adjust the fragrance.
2.  Remove colors from products.  Use product name to change the color.
3.  Sell products in bottles shaped like letters and number to change the experience.
4.  Use meaningless combinations of letters to create unique sensorial experiences in consumer
5.  Name your products by days of the week to give them characters.

Ok, your turn.  Add some ideas if you have some.

This seems like a pretty handy app for formulators. Hopefully, other raw material manufacturers will jump on this bandwagon. Floratech has created an app that allows people with smart phones to scan the QR code and get access to all kinds of information about the raw material including INCI name, product descriptions, efficacy claims, MSDS and other technical data sheets.

If you don’t know, a QR code is that little square of black and white pixels. Each one is unique and leads users to a website. You can generate your own QR code here. See if you can figure out what the QR code in this blog post is associated with.

Cosmetics of the future

Forward thinking cosmetic chemists will start devising ways how this technology could be used on thier products. For example, you could have a link to a video which shows a funny commercial for the product. Or you could have a link to some more information or some fun interactive game related to your product. The possibilities are limitless. But the time to do something is now. No one else in the marketplace is doing it. Could you get your company to be first? And you entreprenuers out there…could this help differentiate your product?

We always appreciate the messages we receive from followers of Chemists Corner. I love to read the ideas that people have and am encouraged that innovation in our industry continues despite the unintentional efforts government regulators to stop it.

Natural overload

But I must say, I’m a little concerned by how often I hear the same idea. Almost every “new” cosmetic line is going to be…

1. All-natural
2. Organic
3. Chemical free

And they aren’t going to contain…

4. Parabens
5. Silicones
6. Preservatives
7. Artificial anything

Sigh.

I really do appreciate the thinking and effort that go into ideas like this but to actually launch a product you need more of an idea than that.

All-natural has been done…to death.

A quick review of Drugstore.com shows that there already exist over 250 cosmetic brands that are “green” and “natural.”

That is no longer enough of an idea for a new product.

Focus on the consumer

So, what can you do if you want an all-natural, green cosmetic line? Certainly, you can go ahead and make one. You can take our course on Natural Formulating or hire a natural formulation chemist who can make the products for you. Do it!

However, you need to take the next step.

Ask yourself a few questions to see if you can make your product stand out. For example…

1. Who will buy my product and why?
2. Why will they buy my product instead of a competitor’s?
3. What problem is my product solving?
4. If my product never gets made, how will the world be worse?
5. What will my product allow people to do that they can’t already do?

There are at least 250 brands that are all natural, organic, green and everything else.

If you want to successfully launch a new brand…

How is yours going to stand out?

Do you have ideas about starting your own line?  Get our Free ebook that tells you what you need to know to start your own cosmetic line.

I saw some interesting development in the creation of artificial skin. According to scientists at Ohio State University, synthetic skin is getting good enough to mimic animal skins in test labs. This means that cosmetic companies will no longer need to do animal patch testing.

Of course, the technology is still a little way from being a replacement for animal testing (or for replacing human skin for burn victims) but they are making progress.

Things like this can really have a big impact on the development of better cosmetics. One of the biggest hurdles to developing better skin cosmetic products is that you don’t have a good substrate to test new formulas on. Sure, you can use living humans but most of them don’t take to kindly to having chemicals put on them for hours days and weeks.

This could be a great invention. I can’t wait until it happens.

If you are going to start your own cosmetic line (or even help your company launch something new) you have to figure out how to add value to your product so you can sell it for more money.  As an individual cosmetic chemist, you will not be able to compete with the big guys on price.  They can always sell products for less money than you.  But you can compete with them on quality, story, design, and formula.  So today’s challenge is to figure out what you can add to your product to justify making it cost 5 times more.

Challenge 09

How can you change your product to justify charging 5 times as much money for it?

One of the key techniques that has helped me immensely in my career as a cosmetic chemist is the Mind Map. I have previously mentioned mind mapping in my post about setting goals but it occurred to me that I didn’t go into details about what a mind map is and how it can help a cosmetic chemist.

Mind map

A mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas. It is a visual thinking tool that can help you organize your thoughts, connect unrelated ideas and come up with new ideas.

Uses of a mind map

Mind maps have a variety of uses that are beneficial to cosmetic chemists. Here are a few examples of when you might use one.

1. Brainstorming new product ideas
2. Solving technical challenges
3. Writing papers
4. Creating presentations
5. Writing marketing stories
6. Determining consumer needs
7. Studying and memorization
8. Planning your todo list
9. Taking notes at a conference or meeting

Basically, mind mapping takes a dull activity and makes it fun.

How to mind map

When I’m in a meeting, I like to use a blank piece of paper. When at my computer, I use a free bit of software called Free Mind. Click on the link to get your free copy.

The way it works is that you start in the middle of the page with some topic. If it is a meeting, you can just write the meeting subject. If you are brainstorming ideas, you can just start with a primary subject like “product ideas”.

Draw a circle around the initial word. Then come up with a related idea to the central topic. If you are in a meeting taking notes, just write your notes the way the speaker has organized them. For brainstorming ideas, just write down whatever topic comes to you.

Then simply repeat until you have written enough and come up with lots of ideas.

Here is an example of my mind map for goals. You can do the same for lots of topics.

Mind mapping is a great way to get your brain working, inspire creativity and speed up the writing process. You should try it out.

Here was an interesting article about innovation and creating disruptive ideas. The cosmetic industry is definitely in need of some disruptive ideas. Unfortunately, the big companies are risk adverse and any idea that is really disruptive likely won’t see the light of day. That is why it is up to the entreprenureial cosmetic chemist to create disruption.

Note – Odds are high that your disruptive idea will fail.

Anyway, if that doesn’t discourage you read on to see how you can develop innovative disruptive ideas for the cosmetic industry.

Disruptive ideas

The Mashable author suggests three steps to creating disruptive ideas.

1. Figure out what you want to disrupt
2. Figure out the industry cliches
3. Come up with a disruptive hypotheses

Let’s look at how this might work in the cosmetic industry.

What do you want to disrupt?

In this step you want to define what you want to disrupt. This should be high level stuff. For example, hair care or skin care. But you can get more specific. Hair products for curly hair or skin products for senior citizens. Then turn it into a sentence.

“I want to disrupt the hair care market.”

Determine the cliches

Figure out what are the things about the cosmetic industry that everyone (insiders) believe or takes for granted. In the hair care example…

1. Shampoo must foam
2. Hair products make hair look beautiful
3. Hair products come in plastic bottles
4. Hair products are advertised using women with beautiful hair.

Do a little research and see what everyone in the industry is doing. Checking out websites of the biggest brands and finding similarities is a great way to make this list.

Create disruptive hypotheses

Now that you have your list of obvious things that everyone does, come up with ideas that disrupt the status quo. It is helpful to begin with the statement “What would happen if…” For example,

“What would happen if shampoo didn’t foam?” – Like Dry Shampoo perhaps?

“What would happen if hair products couldn’t be sold in plastic bottles?” – How would you sell them?

Well, you get the idea. The more scenarios you come up with, the more disruptive ideas you can create. And the more ideas you have, the more likely you are to come up with something that is truly unique.

That is what the cosmetic industry needs and you are the ones who need to do it.

One of the best books on marketing by Seth Godin is his book The Purple Cow. It’s an easy read and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in launching their own cosmetic line. It’s also great for cosmetic chemists who just want to get a better understanding on how you might help improve the marketing of your own formulas.

Being different

The basic thesis of The Purple Cow is that to succeed in business, you have to stand out. And figuring out how to make your brand, your product or even yourself stand out from the crowd is the way to success.

In the cosmetic business, standing out can be difficult. There are thousands of brands and tens of thousands of products. Just getting your product in a store to compete with others is going to be tough. Worse, consumers are not very good at picking up actual product performance differences. So, even if your formulas work better than someone else’s, you’ll have a hard time getting consumers to understand it.

How big brands stand out

The big mass market companies are always looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competition. Their biggest weapon is money spent on advertising. This allows them to “tell their story” to hundreds of millions of people. The simple exposure of their story to this many people is going to result in sales. It’s no coincidence that the biggest selling cosmetic brands also spend the most on advertising.

Some big brands that don’t compete with advertising try a different tact. They compete on price. White Rain, VO5 and Suave all shoot for the least expensive products they can create while still getting a decent profit. The profit margin isn’t great but when you are selling 100 million bottles a year, you can still make a lot of money.

How small brands can stand out

For the most part, small brands and independent cosmetic makers can not copy the tactics of big brands. They will not be able to out spend big companies in advertising and also can’t win a price competition.

However, there are still a number of ways that a small cosmetic product / brand can stand out.

1. Unique story. The best way to create a stand out brand is to come up with a unique story. Burts Bees did an excellent job of this and built their brand so large that it got bought for a huge amount by a large company. It should be noted that Burts Bees didn’t simply go for an “all natural, organic, chemical free” marketing position. They had a compelling origin story, a likeable character, some savvy marketing, and fortuitous timing. Beeswax lip balm wasn’t unique at the time but Burts Bees made it unique.

Here’s a company that is trying to stand out. They’ve created a line of nail polish inspired by things like menstrual blood, bruises and famous painters. The kicker is that they sell the polish for $80 a bottle and they are sold out (at least they claim to be). That is impressive marketing.

Action – Find your unique story.

2. Niche consumer group. While it’s critical to have a unique story, it may be easier to stand out by starting with a niche consumer group and creating products specifically for them. The age of the Internet makes it much easier to identify niche groups. These groups are still going to be too small for the big corporations to go after but for small brands, you can make a great living catering to a smaller group.

So, what would be an example of a niche consumer group? Groups like

a. People allergic to Gluten containing products
b. People with psoriasis
c. People who are religious
d. People with a political ideology
e. People who ride motorcycles

Action – Find your nich consumer group.

3. Noticeable differences. The most satisfying way to stand out is to create a cosmetic formula that is noticeably different from all other ones out there. This is exceedingly difficult to do as the cosmetic field is “mature” science and there aren’t a lot of breakthru technologies. But don’t stop looking because you may find something. To create a product that performs better than all others you need to first identify the market leaders. Do some research to find out who actually has the best performing technology. And test it yourself. Then start creating formulas that work better.

Action – Figure out what the current best technology is and work to best it.

4. Novel marketing. The final way to stand out is to come up with some novel marketing methods. Big brands do things like create viral commercials, do public stunts, or wine and dine magazine editors & bloggers. You can do some of those things but don’t stop there. Brainstorm some ideas how you can get people talking about your brand. Then try them out. An excellent book on this subejct is Guerrilla Marketing.

Action – Determine a novel marketing strategy for your product.

Remember, you don’t have to be the biggest brand in the cosmetic business to be successful and make a good living. You just need to be unique. Figure out how you can stand out from the crowd of competitors and you will be able to earn a living from your cosmetic brand for life.

Here is an interesting video explaining how P&G shifted their focus from merely creating excellent formulations to making products that make women feel better about themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJzeGL_5V5k

I’m not really sure how well they succeeded but they certainly changed the way products were advertised. They also had a huge impact on the role of consumer research in the development of cosmetic products.

If you have your own line, creating the best performing products is not good enough. You’ve got to create a compelling story too. P&G is a big reason why the industry has embraced this philosophy.

Is that good for cosmetic formulators? hmmmm