[MEDULLA] Beauty personalization is deepened with communication data

Now, one of the main topics in the beauty industry is "personalization". in AmericaProseOrFunction of BeautyEtc. scrape the ho with shampoo, and with supplementsCare / ofEtc. are active. Shiseido is also skincare personalized in JapanOptuneWill be provided from 2019. All beauty products, such as face packs and basic cosmetics, are now beginning to be personalized.

Meanwhile, Japan's first personalized shampoo and treatment (hereinafter "shampoo") "MEDULLA" has been offered since 2018, and Sparty Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Sparty") has been the focus of attention in the industry. Following MEDULLA, Sparty will also release the personalized skin care "HOTARU PERSONALIZED" (hereinafter "HOTARU") in 2020.

MEDULLA and HOTARU are so-called "D2C". The author understands that D2C should not only sell products online, but also collect customer data from all channels such as the web and stores, and utilize the data in value proposition activities such as product development and marketing. (* This article does not touch on the relationship between data and privacy.)

What is Sparty working on to personalize MEDULLA and HOTARU? Also, what is Sparty thinking about where personalization goes? We spoke with Mr. Fukayama, CEO of the company, and Mr. Nishida, the head of the HOTARU brand.

You can find the shampoo that suits you just by web diagnosis

The brands developed by Sparty are the personalized shampoo "MEDULLA" and the personalized skin care "HOTARU".

MEDULLA is a service where you can get the shampoo that suits you by answering 9 questions online. The list price is 6,800 yen (excluding shipping and tax), and it is a subscription-type service rather than a purchase-out service. There are 9 items for personalization: "hair length", "scalp condition", "habit", "hair volume", "hair damage", "worries", "hair you want to be", "theme", and "name". It also deals with small problems such as fading and scalp odor.

According to Mr. Miyama, "Japanese hair patterns are large and there are only eight patterns." From there, make small branches and finally implement about 30,000 combinations. MEDULLA was released in 2018 and has grown to have about 150,000 members in two years.

The characteristic of MEDULLA is the continuous building of relationships with customers, as represented by the adoption of subscriptions. Once you decide on a prescription, it doesn't end there, but you can post your prescription evaluation and opinions from My Page. The information is used in the next prescription.

Mr. Miyama:
From the time of launch, Sparty wanted to create a hair care experience that would grow with our customers. We want our customers to feel that MEDULLA is your own smartphone beauty salon.

Naturally, conventional shampoos are compatible with shampoos such as "smooth hair" and "for perms". However, it is not easy to find a shampoo under multiple conditions. For example, the author is currently applying perms and colors, and the length is short and I am concerned about dryness. It is difficult to find a shampoo that meets this requirement at a drugstore. At such times, the value of MEDULLA is that you can easily choose the shampoo that suits you.

Although MEDULLA is a brand that develops mainly online, it has stores in Marui, Yurakucho.

"There are two roles for offline stores," says Fukayama. One is customer acquisition.According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, The EC rate of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals in 2018 is 5.80%, which is not a high number. Conversely, most shopping is done in real life. With the store, customers who cannot get a chance to buy online alone will have contact with MEDULLA.

Of course, even in stores, you can't try shampoo directly, but you can see the scent, which is an important factor in shampoo. MEDULLA also sells custom hair oils, which you can actually try in stores. There is also a second line of MEDULLA, which will be described later. It seems that it is envisioning a flow in which potential customers are made aware of MEDULLA at stores so that they can purchase MEDULLA on the web from the next time.

As with the first, the second role of the store is OMO. It aims to encourage existing customers to become more engaged fans by visiting stores and having additional experiences.

Mr. Miyama:
We haven't taken any OMO measures yet, but I think that "place" is very important as long as we create a community, so we would like to use the store as a starting point.

Overseas, an increasing number of emerging lifestyle brands are thinking of stores as a community of brand fans, not just a place to sell. Lululemon typically creates a community space in the store and frequently holds yoga and other events. This is a measure to increase customer engagement. In the future, Sparty may also offer more experiences than introducing shampoo to customers in this way.

Personalization of skin care by web + camera diagnosis

Just two years have passed since the appearance of MEDULLA. HOTARU, a personalized skin care product, was born on May 22, 2020. Currently, we offer lotions (lotions) and moisturizers (beauty emulsions). In both cases, personalized products arrive at the customer. Although women are the main target, men can also use it.

HOTARU also answers 10 questions on the web, such as "dry" and "acne", just like MEDULLA. The difference from MEDULLA is the skin diagnosis using a PC or smartphone camera. Both are used to diagnose the user's skin and personalize skin care. The skin diagnosis system adopted the technology of Taiwanese AR company perfect, which is known as "YouCam Makeup".

Like MEDULLA, HOTARU does not end once it is diagnosed, but based on feedback from users, it will personalize the texture and dry state again.

(image: Sparty)

As mentioned above, MEDULLA and HOTARU provide products to users through a similar process other than skin diagnosis, such as web diagnosis and feedback.

Mr. Nishida:
MEDULLA asks users about scalp and hair problems, and HOTARU asks users about skin problems, but in the end, we would like to integrate the problems of one customer as a whole. In fact, the condition of the skin and the condition of the scalp are very close. In the future, it should be possible to reflect skin diagnosis information in MEDULLA and customize skin care according to the hair quality you want to be.

Customer data deepens personalization

Sparty, which develops personalization with MEDULLA HOTARU, says that the customers who are suitable for personalization are not those who are familiar with beauty, but "people who do not have much knowledge but are looking for a product that suits them." People who are familiar with beauty can look it up and make their own choices, so there is no need for personalization.

Also, in an era when this information such as products and word-of-mouth is overflowing, it is very difficult to find a product that suits you. That's why Sparty defines its concept as "more suitable than good." The method for that is personalization.

Mr. Nishida:
When it comes to "personalization," some customers seem to sound a bit like geeky science. However, what they are doing is as simple as "listening to their worries and prescribing them according to their worries." I also think that MEDULLA and HOTARU can be made into products that can solve their own problems that the customer did not recognize.

One example of Mr. Nishida's "unrecognized problems" is that "the problems of the scalp can be understood from the problems of the skin." In order to highlight these issues, it is necessary to collect user data well. That's why Sparty emphasizes regular user feedback. For example, HOTARU's skin care is designed so that you can hear the feeling of use and satisfaction of the product within 1 to 2 weeks after the product is delivered. When users say, "The texture should be thicker" and "It should be refreshing," we will use it again for personalization.

Also, when asking for feedback, we will ask about lifestyles such as eating habits and sleeping habits that were not included in the initial question, and deepen personalization. Of course, worries change between summer and winter, so personalization content also changes.

By the way, as I mentioned earlier, the person who is suitable for personalization is "a person who has little knowledge but suits himself". If so, isn't it possible that feedback is not good?

One of the solutions is the use of HOTARU's camera-based skin diagnosis technology. Of course, the qualitative data of feedback is important because it is what the user wants, but the prescription based on the actual data of what the current state is actually also important at sparty. The user isn't aware of it, but camera analysis shows that stains are actually starting to appear and should be dealt with.

There are four data that can be obtained by HOTARU's skin diagnosis: age spots, wrinkles, bears, and textures, but we may increase the number of items in the future. Perfect, which provides skin diagnosis technology, provides services to various places such as Tmall operated by Alibaba, and it is highly possible that more diverse data will be available in the future.

Regarding data collection, Mr. Fukayama says, "We handle data from all kinds of communication."

Mr. Miyama:
In the first place, Sparty considers the customer experience from three points: "innovation," "crush," and "customer service." When it comes to data, customer service is becoming more important, where communication is important in addition to improving prescribing power, improving product lineup, and software value. Call centers, LINE @, prescription cards, newsletters, etc. are all communicating to collect and utilize data.

Is the influencer model inconsistent with personalization?

Sparty is growing with MEDULLA at the forefront, but in 2020, as the second line of MEDULLA, "ME BY MEDULLAIs on sale. As mentioned earlier, MEDULLA already has 150,000 members and holds hair chart data on the scalp and hair. Based on this data, "ME BY MEDULLA" is a shampoo for the average hair quality of Japanese people, which has been formulated to be effective against the problems that many users have. Currently, it is basically sold on the assumption that it will be sold in stores.

Apart from this, the artist'sChiaki Ito, Korean influencerMr. 강태리 (Kang Teri)The original model MEDULLA "SPECIAL HAIR CARE BOX", which uses the above, is on sale. This is to sell MEDULLA with their own prescription to the general public. In July 2020, "Disney SPECIAL HAIR CARE BOX" in collaboration with Disney will also be available.Announcementdoing.

All of these items are tailored to the average Japanese or a particular person, so these sales seem to contradict personalization at first glance. On the other hand, rather than doing something "small and difficult" in a sense of personalization, I can understand the desire to get closer to that person by giving the same prescription as the entertainer or influencer I admire. What is the aim of Sparty in this regard?

First of all, the second line is so-called two-step marketing. As mentioned earlier, 90% of shampoos are purchased in real life, so over-the-counter sales are an important channel. We envision a flow in which you will experience a kind of sample product called ME BY MEDULLA at the store, and if you like it, you will purchase MEDULLA.

The other original model, of course, may have the purpose of increasing marketing awareness, but it is also a stepping stone for future "building a foundation where anyone can easily create and sell personalized items without inventory risk." ..

Mr. Miyama:
Now, anyone can easily send information using the Internet, and opening an online shop is easy. And in the future, Sparty believes that anyone can easily make products. In fact, for example, sitateru makes it easy to make clothes, and overseas, it is becoming easier to make cosmetics through matching with OEM companies. In the future, Sparty wants to lay the foundation for anyone to easily make shampoo and skin care.

However, there is no way to get off to a good start. Therefore, we are making an original model of a famous person as a use case. In the future, I would like to create a world where influencers and the general public make original products.

Mr. Miyama is talking about a personalization platform, which can be thought of as an application of what is said in terms of mass customization and industry 5.0 to shampoos and cosmetics.

Of course, it's not easy for anyone to create a personalized product. In many cases, the supply chain that assumes mass production will not work. In fact, for example, the movement to personalize sneakers is seen mainly by major companies, butAdidas has closed its core factory. Of course, sneakers and shampoo are different, but it can be seen that personalizing the product is extremely difficult. In that respect, cosmetics OEM Satis Pharmaceutical has invested in Sparty, and it seems that they are working together to establish a system.

Mr. Miyama:
Of course, we are also considering expanding into other products. However, what Sparty is good at is "handling ambiguities." For example, bespoke tailor-made items include suits and furniture, but these are things that you know to some extent what you want. On the other hand, for cosmetics, where worries and solutions are ambiguous, the way of proposing changes. With that in mind, it may be better to use a product such as healthcare.

In the sense of personalizing all products, Sparty started a new initiative in July 2020. Together with TEMONA Co., Ltd., which provides subscription business support services, for personalized D2C solutionsNow availableI did. We provide personalized D2C solutions for e-commerce companies based on diagnostic solutions. TEMONA will be in charge of system provision, and Sparty will be in charge of concept design and UX design. This will make it easier for businesses that have ideas but do not have the know-how of personalized D2C to enter the market.

(image: Sparty)

The field of beauty x personalization handled by Sparty will be democratization of beauty. Beauty has always been personalized with time and money. By using digital technology, anyone can benefit from it.

Mr. Miyama:
Personalization has the potential to fundamentally change the way existing cosmetics are made. Until now, we had a product strategy for each channel, but when it comes to personalization, we have to be consumer-oriented. By personalizing, you can have your own sales channel, control prices, and collect all the data, which is a different point from existing cosmetics manufacturers. From here, I would like to change the way cosmetics should be for consumers.

Sparty develops shampoo and skin care based on personalization. The first thing to look at is a world where personalization is democratized. Personalization of toiletries and cosmetics using digital technology is appearing one after another from major companies and startups, but it seems that there is no winner who represents the industry yet. In that respect, the interview with Sparty gave me a clear sense of OMO and marketing strategy.

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