{"id":31006,"date":"2018-11-13T01:20:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T06:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/maybe-shes-born-with-it-maybe-its-maybelline-or-maybe-its-proven\/"},"modified":"2018-11-13T01:20:25","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T06:20:25","slug":"maybe-shes-born-with-it-maybe-its-maybelline-or-maybe-its-proven","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/maybe-shes-born-with-it-maybe-its-maybelline-or-maybe-its-proven\/","title":{"rendered":"Maybe She\u2019s Born With It, Maybe it\u2019s Maybelline\u2026 or Maybe it\u2019s Proven"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Skincare is a large, global industry estimated to be worth $140B by 2019 where consumers are becoming increasingly focused on product efficacy \u2013 people solutions to specific concerns to work on their individual skin type1,2<\/sup>. The issue with seeking efficacy with skincare is that efficacy is highly personal. Individual responses of the human skin to external conditions are closely linked to differences in anatomy, physiology, and environmental factors. These differences are can affect the mechanisms of drug absorption, sensitization, and other longer-term effects from use of topical skin treatments. The unique characteristics of the individual skin function and, particularly, of ethnic skin types have shaped the future of skincare innovation as a basis for personalized skincare3<\/sup>. There is opportunity to leverage data to understand the correlations and interconnections between people\u2019s skin and the ingredients that work for each person.<\/p>\n

Exhibit from Source 2 (see citation)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Proven Skincare is a consumer application that plays in this space, using machine learning to eliminate the trial-and-error process of discovering skincare that works. Proven creates personalized skincare regimens based on a customer\u2019s unique skin type. The Company leverages their proprietary database, The Beauty Genome Project, to create their recommendations. The Beauty Genome Project is a database of +8 million customer product reviews, 100,000 skincare products, 20,000 ingredients, and information from scientific journal articles. Proven also requires customers to input data on their skin condition (e.g., dryness, pigmentation, etc.) and exogenous factors that could affect skin condition, such as age, sun exposure, race, diet, sleep habit, work and fitness regimen. They feed this data into their AI platform to formulate a tailored solution for the customer2,4<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the short term the opportunity for Proven is to increase skincare efficacy for customers using their tailored product approach; however their longer-term aspiration is to expand into the broader personal care category5<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Proven needs to successfully gather robust data from their initial customers and drive wide-spread consumer adoption of their product across a wide breadth of skin types and ethnicities. The company has taken steps to ensure they can accomplish these goals by (1) pricing the product at a non-luxury price point to increase accessibility of the product across a wider audience base, and (2) creating a two-month check-in cadence with their customers. Currently the price for Proven is ~$30 per product per month which is in-line with the cost of premium, non-luxury products1<\/sup>. Each product bundle is purposely limited to a two-month supply to ensure that new customer data is collected and changing environmental inputs are assessed for returning customers.<\/p>\n

The data collection and database building they are doing now will also greatly benefit the success of their longer-term vision. The lifestyle data they are collecting will help train models to understand how these factors impact broader skin health and bodily health of a person.<\/p>\n

One recommendation I have for the business is to collect a broader set of relevant data to assess skincare efficacy. Given skin is often a representation of health in the broader human body I think the company could increase the number of data points collected on the overall health of the individual, such as: history of health conditions \/ diseases, family health history, etc6<\/sup>. This data could be a powerful indicator of skin quality and need.<\/p>\n

The company could also do a better job at driving consumer adoption across a wide breadth of skin types and ethnicities. Collecting a diverse dataset will be critical to tease out impacts of physiological differences. To enhance data collection here, Proven could better target minority social media and publisher outlets globally.<\/p>\n

To successfully expand into hair care I recommend that Proven identify what characteristics between skin quality and hair quality are correlated. This could help them better assess what additional data points they can collect from their skincare business today that could also contribute to a haircare database they will need to build without making customers feel like they are being asked for excessive, irrelevant information.<\/p>\n

The key concerns I have for this company are (1) if consumers will truly view the personalized skincare category as more effective than traditional products and (2) whether Proven can differentiate itself in the market. Ultimately, there is no silver bullet for skin health. Though products can mitigate negative agents for skin health, skin is also a lagging indicator of life style choices. In the competitive industry of skincare, will consumers be able to tell if a personalized solution is more effective if it does not solve their skin conditions? Perhaps the solution for many people require more fundamental lifestyle changes. Also, in an environment where all personalized skincare players are leveraging machine learning to create predictive recommendations, what will allow Proven to sustain a competitive advantage?<\/p>\n

(word count: 780)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Taylor, Meggen. 2018. “PROVEN: This Female-Led Tech Start-Up Is Using AI To Customize Skincare”.\u00a0Forbes<\/em>. https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/meggentaylor\/2018\/11\/07\/proven-this-female-led-tech-start-up-is-using-ai-to-customize-skincare\/#a28b479744fa<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. “Beauty Retailing – US – September 2018”. 2018.\u00a0Mintel Reports: Academic Edition<\/em>47 (11): 47-6023-47-6023. http:\/\/academic.mintel.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu\/display\/860639\/.<\/li>\n
  3. Markiewicz, Ewa, and Olusola Idowu. 2018. “Personalized Skincare: From Molecular Basis To Clinical And Commercial Applications”.\u00a0Clinical, Cosmetic And Investigational Dermatology<\/em>Volume 11: 161-171. doi:10.2147\/ccid.s163799.<\/li>\n
  4. Jesus, Ayn. 2018. “Artificial Intelligence For Beauty And Cosmetics – Current Applications”.\u00a0Techemergence<\/em>. https:\/\/www.techemergence.com\/artificial-intelligence-for-beauty-and-cosmetics-current-applications\/<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  5. Lomas, Natasha. 2018. “Proven Wants To Sell AI Distilled Custom Skincare”.\u00a0Techcrunch<\/em>. https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/02\/22\/proven-wants-to-sell-ai-distilled-custom-skincare\/<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  6. “Face Mapping: What Your Skin Says About Your Health”. 2018.\u00a0Mindbodygreen<\/em>. https:\/\/www.mindbodygreen.com\/0-18257\/face-mapping-what-your-skin-says-about-your-health.html<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As long as vanity exists there will be a market for skincare. Learn more about how innovative companies leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data to disrupt a $140B global skincare market. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11217,"featured_media":31069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[1909,186,298,63,346,4519],"class_list":["post-31006","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-beauty","category-big-data","category-consumer-goods","category-machine-learning","category-skincare","hck-taxonomy-organization-proven","hck-taxonomy-industry-consumer-products","hck-taxonomy-country-united-states"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/rc-tom-challenge-2018\/","yoast_head":"\nMaybe She\u2019s Born With It, Maybe it\u2019s Maybelline\u2026 or Maybe it\u2019s Proven - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/maybe-shes-born-with-it-maybe-its-maybelline-or-maybe-its-proven\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maybe She\u2019s Born With It, Maybe it\u2019s Maybelline\u2026 or Maybe it\u2019s Proven - Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As long as vanity exists there will be a market for skincare. 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