What does your consumer need? Top tips for creating brand-leading products

27-Jul-2016 - Last updated on 27-Jul-2016 at 05:55 GMT

Don’t just think about what the consumer wants, think about what they need. This is the advice of market expert Belinda Carli, director of the Institute of Personal Care Science, for formulating a brand-leading product.

Speaking at the recent in-cosmetics Korea event, Carli noted that there are several key steps to creating a product that tops the market and drives innovation. Here, we round up her key points for market-leading product formulation and development.

Address the needs

Carli believes that telling a consumer what they need through “clever marketing” and then following through on this demand is crucial.

To do this, the market expert advises that formulators know their target market extremely well, and, through marketing materials, show the consumer that the product provides an instant fulfilment of their needs.

'Before and after' photos of the effect of the product is one particularly successful way of creating this element of instant needs-fulfilment, Carli notes.

Be exceptional

Carli believes that investment in R&D is essential: being able to prove a product’s effectiveness with impressive in vivo results and making sure the product reliably delivers on those claims will ensure success.

The market adviser recommends using actives with exceptional claims, choosing a sensory experience that immediately appeals to the consumer, using an impact aroma and making sure the product has both immediate and long term, visible results.

Be the first or loudest

Giving consumers the impression that your product is novel is essential, Carli believes, and she reckons this is best achieved through effective marketing.

“Without a suitable marketing budget to be noticed, even if you are the first, another brand making a louder noise could be seen as the first,” she explains.

Invest in R&D

Finally, Carli reiterates how important it is to make sure a product is genuinely innovative when looking to create a market-leading item.

Effective R&D requires a few key things, Carli believes: a well-researched brief, great communication with the marketing/concept developer, a knowledge of the available materials that will achieve the ‘wow factor’, the appropriate regulatory checks and appropriate quality control.