Beauty Packaging’s Jamie Matusow reached out to Allan Hafkin, a proven leader in the industry, about the many ways to view innovation in the Cosmetic Industry.

Has the meaning been modified from designating something that’s “truly unique” to a process or service that meets criteria such as quick-to market, sustainability, materials use, online sales, Instagrammable...?

Here are Hafkin's insights on defining innovation—and how it relates to packaging—in today’s evolving beauty world.

Innovation is one of the many overused words that mean different things to different people. Webster defines innovation as a new idea, method, or device. It’s hard to argue that definition other than that it offers no tangible metric for determining value or impact. 

Consider defining innovation in terms of today’s beauty world as a process, product, or system that did not previously exist in that form and has a positive influence in terms of our consumer, our business, or the greater community. 

This definition is also very broad, but we can use it to begin to qualify or quantify an innovation.

“The best way to tell a compelling story through a package is
to show how the package enhances the product and becomes
an integral part of the product performance.”
—Allan Hafkin

Defining Innovation

Today, more than ever, we need to think of innovation in terms of consumer benefit.

Every day, brands use creative marketing campaigns to demonstrate innovation. Convincing a consumer that an incremental improvement to existing technology, process, or product is “truly unique” or even a “breakthrough” can be measured in terms of brand awareness and sales.

Often, we are just not communicating the benefits or new possible uses of a product. New ways of leveraging insights with existing technology or capability are the low-hanging fruit for brands and for packaging suppliers. In every part of our business, we can find examples of this. 

A simple change in graphics can make something “Instagrammable,” thereby making a significant impact in consumer purchase intent.

Likewise, a slight variation in the shape of an applicator can significantly improve product performance that can be measured.

Innovation Is Not Always Obvious

Innovation that is not consumer-facing can also have a significant impact on brands and our industry. A change in the assembly of a cap and collar on a package can drastically improve automation in a manufacturing process. Simplifying a supply chain can significantly reduce time to market and cost. 

There are few “novel” or “truly unique breakthroughs,” but incremental improvements or creative applications of existing technologies are fundamental to all areas of our business.

Innovation is not often obvious to the consumer, or even to brands. This type of innovation makes products better, packaging more sustainable, lowers costs, makes them more attractive, or user-friendly… you pick the improvement! The possibilities are endless.

Leveraging Social Media

Today’s instantaneous expression through social media often levels the playing field for brands and suppliers. This can have both positive and negative impacts and has made it difficult to distinguish what is innovative. 

We leverage an influencer to aid in the adoption of a consumer-visible “innovation.” Products can sell out instantly if the right person uses it! Getting the right person to “Like” the right product is often a successful strategy, but what is the cost for that “Like”?

If there is no immediate positive influence in terms of our consumer, our business, or the greater community, is the idea innovative?

Often, innovation is not profitable in the short term. It takes insight, and courage to be innovative. 

Some innovative ideas are just born at the wrong time or have not crossed with the right product, function, consumer, or business need.

It is so important to be open-minded to new innovative thinking, but also to look at the vast number of innovative ideas, products, and processes generated previously. It’s very possible that many of them have value today.

We can also see innovation validated on the business side based on “who” created it or developed it.

Was it implemented by an industry leader? If so, we may assume that they have already determined the value.

Likewise, innovation can be validated by the “brand of the moment” and the consumer reaction. These innovations could be a new product, product form, or delivery system, and depending on that brand, that validation could have been assessed by a team of experts— or simply by one daring decision-maker!

Is Your Innovation Truly Meaningful?

How do we determine if an “innovation” is meaningful?  This requires an understanding of the current state, alignment of the metrics of measurement, and an assessment of the impact.

This sounds complicated, and for this reason, innovation often dies a slow death by 1,000 papercuts or in other words, analysis paralysis. 

At the “risk” of oversimplification, I would suggest that answering the following questions will give you a quick assessment of how many papercuts you should endure—or how much analysis may be required.

• Does your innovation solve a current problem, make a significant improvement, or satisfy an unmet need?
• Is the innovation easy to test (performance, consumer acceptance, efficiency…)?
• Is the investment low or scalable in terms of time, resources, and capital?
• Is the implementation in your, or a limited number of decision makers’ control?

If the answer is yes to all of these, then your decision should be easier. In some cases, these types of innovations could be valuable or impactful.

The fun comes when some of the answers are no. When it comes to innovation, two phrases come to mind if your objective is to be first or make a big impact:

• “No risk, no reward.”
• “You can never be a fast-enough follower.”

This is not intended to discourage innovation, but to distinguish the attributes required in people and assess the opportunities.

Going back to the original question, what is innovation? 

Innovation is not something that can be scheduled or synthesized through committee. Even with analysis and testing, it takes a decision-maker willing to take some level of risk and trust in your business partners to implement.

Leaders will need to determine if there is value, how much the value is, how much to invest, and most importantly when to make decisions.

The “Beauty” of the beauty industry is that it is so dynamic, and the possibilities are endless. I encourage everyone to be innovative and take the chance to do something that impacts others in a positive way.

What Role Does Packaging Play?

We have all heard how the package not only protects the product but, in many cases, enhances the consumer experience.

In some cases, the package is an integral part of the consumer usage. We used to say that the package is the first point of contact for the consumer. 

Shelf appeal or “Instagrammable” is important for that first-glance moment of truth, but now, with social media and an influencer-based economy, that may not always be the case.

I am not certain that if the latest super-influencer told their followers that they loved a product, how much the package would influence the purchase, assuming the package could deliver that product to the desired performance.

This doesn’t mean the package doesn’t matter. It just means that the package itself had no or little influence on the initial purchase.

However, if the intent is to connect as a brand with your consumer, then maybe there are other things to consider. 

Related: From Plain to Premium - How Deco Brings Packaging to Life

It’s important to understand for each product, what functions must the package perform? 

This could mean to simply contain and protect the product, or to discretely deliver the product for a specific usage. 

Think of all the ways a product is used and applied. Packages can create a special consumer connection or enhance the experience. Packages connect consumers to brands and have a direct impact on not only the application and usage, but the joy and pride of owning a piece of the brand.

If this is your consumer, then the package is extremely important. We can easily find examples of extraordinary packaging in every tier and every category. 

We can likewise find examples of very simple packaging. I want to be clear, simple does not mean cheap.

In every case, quality is important, and it is possible to achieve quality, performance, and appeal at every tier.  For each product, it’s important to understand who the consumers are and what is important to them.

We also need to understand each brand’s DNA and what the brand wants to express to the consumer.

We now have the same consumers shopping the entire scale of products from uber-luxury to mass. In each of these categories, some products could be considered competitive across both categories and tiers.

Drawing these consumers in will take an understanding of what is meaningful to them.

Innovative Sampling

Beauty brands are always searching for new ways to connect with consumers. Innovation around sampling is an important tool for brands to leverage in order to build awareness, enable new users to try a product, create desire, build awareness, and increase purchase intent. 

What is the right mix of sampling? What types of samples should a brand offer? Should they be line image?

How do I reduce the cost? How and when are samples distributed? Are they free to the consumer, purchased, or both?

How well do they represent the image of the brand or product? Do they provide the same product delivery experience as the retail offering?

These are many of the questions brands ask in the quest to build value and to innovate around sampling.

If you add to this the regulatory landscape and sustainability requirements around small-size packaging, the answers are not often simple.

Related: Why 'Right-Sizing' Is More Important Than Ever

Opportunities to Innovate

I suggest that the following questions are also opportunities for our industry to solve:

How is a brand able to create a compelling story through a package? Or through a dispenser?

Brands are always looking for ways to demonstrate how a package enhances the performance or the experience a consumer has with a product.

Brands leverage design as a visual way to tell a story. This is often done through color and graphics, but it is also done through shapes and forms. Design can inform consumers that a product is linked to a brand, franchise, product type, and so much more.

This is the beginning of the story or perhaps the “cover of the book.” Successful brands are typically well-versed at expressing claims around product and product performance, but developing a story that has a product performance link to a package is often more challenging.

The best way to tell a compelling story through a package is to show how the package enhances the product and becomes an integral part of the product performance.

Some of the more typical claims could be related to enhanced product application, ease of use, product protection, sustainability, or even exclusivity.

We want to understand how the product is used and what are the required performance attributes that most impact the consumer usage.

In beauty, it is not only about performance. For a brand to align on a package that delivers the product, it also must meet many other requirements including design, cost, supply chain considerations, sustainability…

To truly develop quality and performance, it is best to conceptualize and develop product together with the package. 

When you get this right, you are also building a compelling story.

Are you seeing any trends in the industry? Where do you anticipate the most innovation in the future of cosmetics packaging?

I will refrain from making predictions on trends. I will say that whatever the next trend is, we as an industry must connect it to continuous improvements in the environmental impact of the products we create.

We must think of the entire life cycle of our products and find creative and innovative ways to communicate to our consumers, making them partners with us on this journey.

As much as I love creating new and great products, I understand our responsibility to continually educate ourselves and our consumers and make the best decisions for the future of our planet.

If we do not make these decisions and act on them ourselves, someday, the decisions will be made for us. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Allan Hafkin is a proven leader in Global Package Engineering and Development. His experience spans more than 34 years, and he has led Global Brand Package Development for many of Estée Lauder’s portfolio of brands for more than two decades.

His influence on innovation and sustainability within the Beauty and Packaging Industry can be seen well beyond the brands he has led directly. Allan is also a member of Beauty Packaging’s Board of Advisors.

Photos: (L) Allan Hafkin / (R) Photo by Pexels/Kaboompics 

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