A look at Shiseido’s developments in Asia in 2016

05-Sep-2016 - Last updated on 05-Sep-2016 at 11:34 GMT

Shiseido has rapidly expanded across the Americas and Europe this year with focused efforts on travel retail, R&D hubs and partnerships with major beauty players. Here though, we’re taking a look at how the Japanese cosmetics player has still managed to keep its’ eye on the ball back home in Asia.

Early on in the year, Shiseido announced it was set to launch its first Japanese plant in several decades from the brand’s Osaka site.

Hopes were high for the Kansai-based plant to contribute to an increase in output by 50 per cent while cutting production costs.

At the time, Shiseido reps stated that the brand intended to achieve the dramatic hike in productivity and efficiency through increased automation across its production line, reducing the need for more costly manual labour.

High profile top exec

Around the same time, top Shiseido executive, Tanemasa Nagano was very much present at industry events like Cosme Tokyo where he discussed the importance of simplifying and speeding up the beauty routine.

At the event, Nagano discussed the beauty giant’s efforts to cater to Japanese women’s preference for the subtle and understated look while keeping in mind elements that may resonate with consumers in other markets too.

By July, the ambitious beauty player had brought three new sun protection products for children to the Japanese market using its sweat- and water-resistant technology.

High-tech sunscreens

The sunscreens featuring the slogan ‘Get sweat on your side’, joined Shisieido’s ‘Anessa’ range around the same time Euromonitor was reporting the category to be witnessing strong growth, with sales nearly doubling what they were a decade ago.

The brand’s focus then shifted to the digital platform where it was launching a concept called ‘Rouge Rouge Kiss Me’, which plugs Shiseido’s lipstick range by getting consumers to create a kiss image on their mobile screen and share on various social media platforms.

No stranger to embracing digital in its marketing campaigns and retail experiences, the beauty behemoth has made particular efforts in the past few years to position itself as a market leader in this arena.

Some notable examples include its ’Beauty Tablet' app which allows 10,000 beauty consultants working in its’ retail outlets across Japan to offer customers a personalized service and ’Omotenashi Sound’ - an aesthetic music software that responds to beauty consultants touching consumer skin during beauty counter skin care techniques.