BRAINS & BEAUTY
Digital disruption in the beauty industry has created new opportunities for innovation. A leader in the field shares her insights. By Victoria Baker.
Digital disruption in the beauty industry has created new opportunities for innovation. A leader in the field shares her insights.
FOR ALL ITS gorgeous gloss, the beauty industry is serious business. In Australia it’s continually growing, and is forecast to be worth A$9.5 billion by 2024. In the much larger US prestige beauty market, the skincare sector alone grew 13 per cent in 2018, accounting for A$7.9 billion in sales. These are enviable figures, driven, of course, by a largely female consumer base, but also, increasingly, by women as the leaders and founders of beauty businesses. Jane Anders is senior vice-president of innovation for the Asia Pacific region for the Estée Lauder Companies. With the group’s senior ranks consisting of 54 per cent women, she is no longer alone. “In previous roles, there were many times when I was the only woman at the table, so it’s a real pleasure for me having so many other female leaders in the company,” the Canadian executive says.
Based in Hong Kong, Anders’s role encompasses responsibilities in research and development, product development and packaging development. “From my perspective, innovation is about new ideas that add value. New ideas without any action are useless,” she says. “We work to understand consumers deeply – understanding what motivates them, and then develop products to satisfy and delight them. At the end of the day, the consumer is at the heart and centre of what we do.” A desire to understand the needs and wants of customers is not new, but the level of engagement and feedback made possible by social media has changed the equation, as has an increasingly savvy customer base. “Consumers value transparency, that’s a trend we see worldwide,” says Anders. “The internet has really democratised information. Consumers have access to information that they never had in the past, and that’s really exciting. As a consumer myself, I really value understanding what’s in my skin or beauty products and how it works – maybe that’s the scientist in me.”
The analytics and data available in relation to web traffic and social media enables easier tracking of trends, which is something
Anders and her team consider from several viewpoints. “As a brand-led company, we focus on creating a multi-year pipeline of products,” she says. This means thinking long-term, looking for big societal trends and demographic shifts over a 10year horizon, as well as in shorter cycles. This is challenging in an arena where the science and technology are shifting fast. “We broaden our capabilities through scientific and technology partnerships with universities and institutes: growing these relationships with universities is part of our R&D strategy.
Partnering directly with academia and fast-moving research is critically important, because science and technology are always accelerating,” says Anders. Recent projects include studies on the effect on skin of the blue light from our ever-present screens (spoiler: it’s not doing us any favours). When asked about innovative products, she points to Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair serum and to the new Clinique iD programme, which allows consumers to add active ingredient cartridges to their favourite Clinique moisturiser. “I believe this concept of personalisation and customisation will continue to grow as consumers become more sophisticated,” she says.
Packaging design is another area in which innovative thinking is required. Anders is aware of the rub between the desire for tactile and luxurious packaging and the need for sustainable thinking. ”Packaging in the sphere of prestige beauty is paramount to the consumer’s total experience. It enhances the delivery of the product and increases its appeal,” she says. “But we also believe that packaging can meet these needs responsibly and we are committed to delivering products that perform well for consumers and for the environment.” In March 2019, the Estée Lauder Companies published its new Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. The plan is that by 2025, 75 to 100 per cent of its packaging will be recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled or recoverable, an increase of up to 50 per cent in the amount of postconsumer recycled material in its packaging.
Anders herself has a background in chemical engineering, which she credits with teaching her problem-solving skills and acquiring the ability to embrace and learn new technologies. Her team is spread across Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore. Apart from their professional qualifications, Anders refers to curiosity and patience as key qualities in her team. “We need to have the drive and imagination to explore the unknown as well as understanding consumer insights to lead and create trends,” she says. “You also need patience. It’s an iterative process to create the very best products, from formulation and rigorous testing to getting products to the stores.” Anders also believes diversity is a pre-condition of innovation. “We believe it’s really important to have diversity of thinking, which means diversity of background, a mix of gender, of race, of culture and of ways of approaching problems,” she says. “I spend more of my time listening than speaking. We hire really smart people and we need to listen to them.”
And as for career advice? It’s about demonstrating impact. “In my experience, your university degree and your academic qualifications get you in the door of a company. Once you’re in the workplace, what you need is to be able to demonstrate that you can make a difference, that you have new ideas, that you can see new possibilities, and, importantly, that you can garner support for those ideas and make them happen.” With a mother who taught her she could do anything, even as her school guidance counsellor suggested nursing might be a more appropriate career for awoman than her chosen course of medicine, Anders believes in limitless potential. “One thing I have learned from my own mentors throughout my career is to be imaginative and bold about what you can achieve. Be aware of the possibilities, but bear in mind that opportunities favour the prepared mind. Nothing is static and the only constant is change, so you need to keep upgrading your skills and knowledge to stay relevant,” she says.
True innovation can’t be satisfied only by novelty: there is also a requirement for utility. For Anders, this is why everything comes back to the science. “Science and innovation underpin everything we do,” she says. “In my opinion, the range and rigour of the science we apply across the research and development process is unparalleled. It’s also critical that we convert our concepts and ideas to products that will excite our customers, which is really the most important part of our job. Every day, I’m inspired by the extraordinary passion for creating the very best products and, by the same token, I love seeing the passion our consumers have for our products.”
Jane Anders was a keynote speaker at the 2019 Vogue Codes Sydney Summit. You can listen to her speak in the Vogue Codes podcast series, available via the iTunes Store and Spotify.
“We need to have the drive and imagination to explore the unknown as well as understanding consumer insights to lead and create trends”