Cosmetics executives apparently are more comfortable talking to each other, rather than to the consumers whom they are paid to reach — at least in the view of Paul Bennett, chief creative officer of Ideo, who was a keynote speaker at a full-day conference sponsored by Target and produced by the cosmetics master’s program at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Bennett — who advised the beauty business to look to the technology, health care and food industries for inspiration — speculated that the industry is perhaps too “introspective,” as competitors look to each other for ideas.
“Companies ‘talk beauty’ as if they’re talking to their competition in this bogus jargon, but not to their consumers,” said Bennett. “It becomes repetitive, and you can’t tell the difference between the brands, the claims and the language. One trend gets picked up and the next thing you know, everyone has the same product, but in different versions. We’re at the edge of a new revolution where consumers are in complete control and demand control over the things they use.”
Bennett finds that many brands today fail to connect with consumers. However, he cited the recent Dove campaign as an example of a company reaching out to its customers. “Dove hit a nerve with consumers because they took a more realistic approach to talking about beauty and spoke directly to consumers,” said Bennett. “Consumers are looking for participation in things and want things to be more real. Beauty companies need to start being less corporate and more personal.”
More than 300 students, master’s program alumni and beauty executives attended the conference, called “Building an Innovative Business: The Future of Beauty,” which focused on innovation and business growth.
“We don’t often get a chance to talk to the industry at large about what we’re doing in the classrooms,” said Stephan Kanlian, chairman of FIT’s master’s degree program in cosmetics and fragrance marketing and management. “Our first priority is to train innovative thinkers. But, as an educational institution, the program has a unique platform to speak to the industry and help come up with ways to move it forward through marketing, branding or reaching out to consumers.”
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Kanlian feels that there is a lack of genuine innovation and hopes that this conference will start that dialogue.
“Our industry used to be the most innovative among all consumer products, but over the last 10 to 15 years, other industries studied what we did and how we were able to touch consumers and now they’re doing it better than we are,” Kanlian said.
Along with Bennett was fellow keynote speaker Minda Gralnek, Target’s vice president of creative. The conference also held three panels focusing on brand culture, product design and retail innovation. The panels included executives from beauty brands such as Kiehl’s, Estée Lauder, Procter & Gamble and Sonia Kashuk; retail brands such as Target, Polo Ralph Lauren and Boots, and outside beauty brands such as the W Hotels.