Reductionism & sustainability

When I sk myself “what does sustainability mean to you?” I instinctively answer, “buy less stuff, use less stuff.” Consumers are being exposed to this message across many categories. Makeup bloggers are talking about anti-hauls¹.  In laundry care, P&G, Unilever & Reckitt Benckiser are encouraging consumers to skip a wash (and use their fabric refresher sprays instead).  This summer consumers in the Benelux saw giant posters from Coca Cola with the slogan, “Don’t buy Coca Cola…. Unless you plan to recycle.” 

Keyword “reduction”

The message is also filtering across to fashion. Huw Hughes² reported on a presentation from David Shah (owner of Metropolitan Publishing, the publishing house behind Pantone View Concept) at a recent Appletizer trend seminar. “Reduce the colours, reduce the choice, reduce the materials …The keyword at the moment is reduction… Reduction of problems, reduction of stress, reduction of materiality.” This is an incredible challenge and also an opportunity for mass market cosmetics and toiletries. We can mimic laundry care with skip-a-shower body freshener sprays. We can build on hair refresher sprays. We shouldn’t be afraid to discourage use of a product. Outdoor brand Patagonia’s famous ad campaign, “Don’t buy this jacket ”³ encouraged consumers to think before they buy, thereby reaffirming the brand as an ethical one.

“No” is the new “yes”

These signals tie into the “no” movement, which personal care has had for a long time: no preservatives, colourants, parabens etc. Now “no” is shifting from the brands that had to remove ingredients, to the consumers who say “no” to buying products. The “no” axis is moving and this is a giant trend of which we need to be aware. Finally on sustainability, we should take a lesson from Irish businessman Norman Crowley⁴, whose latest venture is electrification of gas guzzling super cars. Paraphrasing him, most consumers don’t buy a product because it’s better for the planet, they buy it for pleasure and for fun. He says sustainability should be a side effect of great product design.

Take the example of the whiskey industry

When looking for inspiration for cosmetics and toiletries, please don’t hit the bottle, but do take a look at what’s happening in the spirits category. Glyph⁵ molecular whiskey from California is a great place to start. “Whiskeys owe their flavour, aroma, and mouthfeel to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of molecules that develop during distillation and barrel ageing. These are the building blocks of all spirits“, says the Glyph company. “To make Glyph, we source these molecules directly from plants and yeasts, rather than obtaining them through distilling and aging. By using the same building blocks as conventional distillers, we create fine spirits through a process we’ve developed called note-by-note production. Glyph is biochemically equivalent to the finest aged whiskies.”

Not all consumers will be attracted to “biochemically equivalent?” – but those that do will be passionate about the process. In terms of story-telling it’s all about the ingredient backstory at the moment, not the brand story. Can we do something similar for personal care? It can be argued that this is more sustainable practise.  Madara⁶ for example was one of the first beauty brands to claim that using plant stem cells is more sustainable than using the whole plant). Glyph calls this “molecular whiskey” which taps into the “science, no BS” trend we see in skincare with the Ordinary & Inkey-List. Let’s leverage this consumer appetite for other categories.

Another spirit that inspires my thinking on non-food NPD is rum and one specific concept called Brum⁷-- Bram’s rum. The spirit’s bottle is based on a new concept, active packaging. That is, packaging which influences the contents of the package.  Designer Bam van Oostenbruggen replaced “a section of the glass bottle with a wooden panel lets the taste develop in your own living room. It enriches the experience as you see, smell and taste how your drink unfolds over time.” Consumers can choose the wood and the treatment for the replacement panel. This is customisation and theatrics, two deal makers for our categories. Packaging in cosmetics is static and mustn’t react with its contents. But what if it did? Could cosmetic packaging be active in some way?

Speaking of customisation, we need to look at how we sell our products. In the mass market it’s transactional; there’s no joy. Nobody says, “I’m really looking forward to buying a bottle of shampoo today.”  When we buy coffee, however, we have a conversation with the barista. We might talk about our mood and they will talk about the beans. We instinctively customise when we order a coffee.

We can replicate the barista model at beauty counters. Reps will become beauty baristas, creating fresh products tailored to each customer’s needs. At mass market, we can also learn from coffee, where coffee robots⁸ craft beverages for the masses. It’s easy to imagine linking this into skin data.

References:

1. https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/soul/article/46301/1/anti-excess-beauty-youtube-samantha-ravndahl-rawbeautykristi-influencer 

2. https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/top-consumertrends-that-brands-should-know-about/2019102145828

3. https://www.patagonia.com/blog/2011/11/dont-buythis-jacket-black-friday-and-the-new-york-times/

4. https://www.electrifidreams.com/

5. https://endlesswest.com/glyph/

6. https://www.madaracosmetics.com/en

7. http://www.bramvanoostenbruggen.nl/brum.html

8. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/08/this-25000-robotwants-to-put-your-starbucks-barista-out-of-business.html