Clariant opens its doors to expanded digital world
14 Dec 2021 --- Leading specialty chemicals developer Clariant saw that the personal care market is undergoing a period of immense change, categorised by advancing digitalization, new textures and novel formats. As a result, the Swiss multinational spotted the opportunity to develop its online presence and activities.
Amid this surge in market digitalization, along with the growing demand for new textures and formats, today’s consumers are seeking quick and effective solutions for their ever-evolving needs. Clariant believes these demands stem from various drivers such as the popularity of e-commerce and technological tools, sustainable and innovative product formats and developments in ingredient technologies.
Click to EnlargeThe new online offering allows for the creation of innovative prototypes. Source: Clariant.In recent years, beauty and personal care consumers have come to think of online as a distinct category within the industry, lending itself to improved access and convenience along with novel items and interesting, rapid innovations. As part of its strategy to enhance its online capabilities, Clariant will center its efforts on growing the amount of data it is able to utilize to provide customers with real-time insights. “Access to up-to-date, on-trend information is critical to stay relevant in the market,” details Michael Haspel, Clariant’s North America Industrial and Consumer Specialties Regional Head. “To enable success, we need to help our customers with this.”
For Clariant, more data leads to an increase in the number of substantiated claims made possible, which in turn equals a heightened ‘reason to believe’ in products that will be launched on to the market.
The company has recently introduced a number of specific tools into the beauty space, with the aim of helping bring customers closer and keeping them up to date with new innovations and trends. One of Clariant’s latest releases is Clarihub, a free portal that is a ‘one-stop shop’ for customers. The platform is designed to help Clariant respond immediately to customer needs, providing real-time ingredient data, 24/7 access to documents and ingredient-related information such as MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) and TDS (Technical Data Sheet) files, ecolabel information, trend reports, webinars and ingredient selection tools to inspire new formulations.
Click to EnlargeA virtual tour helps overcome distance barriers. Source: Clariant.The portal also offers the latest insights through BeautyForward 5, Clariant’s global trend platform for the personal care industry. The purpose of BeautyForward is to inspire and guide, connecting market trends with formulations and Clariant ingredients. After identifying and quantifying relevant trends through market research, these are then curated into kits and supporting materials to create prototypes for customers and their projects.
Clariant has also recently unveiled another digital development, its North American Consumer Care Innovation Center virtual tour. The company’s Innovation Center in New Providence, New Jersey, is a cutting-edge collaborative space where its formulators and chemists create new ingredients, formulations and product concepts. The tour aims to help customers work together with Clariant’s teams and create new ideas that capitalize on emerging trends, validate performance claims and solve problems with challenging product formulations.
“At a time when it’s more difficult to travel, we still want to be able to connect with customers and the virtual tour allows us to do this, showcasing our capabilities and empowering them to access the resources needed for the development and use of new ingredients and formulations,” explains Clariant in a recent press release.
Formulation Studio
Through its Formulation Studio, Clariant strives to showcase creations from its Innovation Center. The goal is to support customers in staying one step ahead of current market trends and to provide data that is relevant to validating performance claims, helping to envision the product and formulation concepts to reflect how consumers view them.
“We're always looking at the different trends that are emerging and it’s evident that the current trends are not going anywhere, anytime soon,” says a spokesperson for Clariant. Reconnecting safely post COVID-19, and the hygiene vigilance that comes with this, are among these trends. In addition, the importance of brand values in purchasing decisions, such as sustainability, diversity and inclusion, also feature highly along with consumer calls for personalized solutions that deliver individualized results.
Click to EnlargeThe online portals link customers with Clariant's experts. Source: Clariant.“As people emerge into post-pandemic life, some product types are resurging, including skin care, hair care and the comeback of cosmetic beauty, particularly with a focus on the eye area,” outlines Clariant’s spokesperson. “We see the trend that consumers largely want to maintain protective behaviors, and this will be made easier with value-added products.”
Clariant strives to be at the forefront of solutions to create personal care products that offer hygiene claims. The company aims to produce ingredients that enable elevated sensory profiles and offer the ability to create transformational and unique product formats. Clariant has created formulations to showcase this, most recently in BeautyForward 5 and ReMagine. It also plans to launch additional solutions in 2022.
“The personal care market is incredibly fast-paced,” emphasizes Haspel. “Brands often come and go with new launches at rapid speeds and every player needs to keep up with or stay ahead of trends and consumer demands. Companies and brands need quicker access to our solutions and ingredients.”
In addition, the consumer approach to gathering information focuses on transparency. Beauty and personal care buyers’ interaction with brands and products, Haspel details, is an “approach [that] trickles up to our customers and, in turn, needs innovations and technical expertise quickly”.
Haspel has been looking into the key trends taking place in the digital beauty sphere identifying three areas of interest:
1. Increased adoption of personalization
It is important to find “personalized solutions that are inclusive and considerate of the diversity of consumer needs,” says Haspel. “Brands need to be able to deliver on the fact that one size does not fit all.”
A Clariant spokesperson adds: “Consumers will continue to seek inclusive and representative options on a growing scale. It’s exciting to be at the forefront of helping to create technology and products that lend themselves to this level of personalization.”
2. Sophisticated use of technology
“Artificial intelligence, smart beauty devices and growing adoption of online channel shopping and research due to more time at home and hybrid work models, all equate to the increase of access to information that consumers have these days,” details Haspel.
3. Access to information
“Transparency of information and credible answers” are a must according to Haspel.
“All of these are driven forward by digitalization in a world where e-commerce is the norm, data-backed ingredients and substantiated claims are available at the click of a button and consumers use new tools like digital avatars to make product choices,” shares a spokesperson for Clariant.
Commenting on the vital need for digital awareness and understanding in beauty, Clariant’s spokesperson adds: “This kind of digitalization is no longer a nice option to have, it’s a customer expectation and therefore integral to Clariant’s commercial strategy now and going forward. Sustainability is more than a trend in this industry, but more and more a must-have for consumers. As the demand for transparency and brand responsibility grows, Clariant’s Blue-Beauty formulations, for example, showcase waterless formats to help save this precious resource.”
As the company focuses on reaching consumers through online channels, Haspel details three key ways it is developing its ecommerce potential:
- Combining and delivering hands-on experiences with products, information and highlights that can be accessed easily and quickly;
- Bringing innovative formats and market inspirations to the market;
- Putting our tools and resources in a conveniently accessed portal.
Haspel explains: “We hope to meet these demands by helping our customers, brands and partners be able to trust us that we are also in step with consumer needs; that we can work together by providing solutions and ingredients not only through traditional channels, but provide the ability for them to access it in a modern and relevant way.”
By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe, BPC Insights Senior Journalist
