Premium Beauty News - How would you describe your company’s contribution to the beauty industry?
Schwan Cosmetics - We at Schwan Cosmetics have been a key contributor to the beauty industry since 1927, when we invented the first wooden cosmetics pencil. Our relentless pursuit of innovation, our knowledge and expertise in liners and other color cosmetics paired with quality, our conscious approach to safe formulas and our wide portfolio (which we sell globally to more than 700 clients) have made us a key player in this industry. We have always been at the forefront of bringing new and innovative products to our customers – like the first cosmetics pencils with plastic rotary mechanism or the first pressed powder mine for eyeshadow.
Premium Beauty News - What are the main transformations affecting your business today?
Schwan Cosmetics - The markets have changed dramatically over the past few years, largely due to a digitalized world which features a very different consumer type – namely the millennials.
Consumers these days are fully connected, they expect instant gratification, they dictate what’s in and what’s out and all at a speed that nobody expected to be possible.
They are less interested in brand loyalty and more focused on what a product can do for them. They are connected to their tribe, fully immersed in social media, critical and discerning. What was once a market driven by brands has turned into a completely consumer-driven market.
We have to be able to respond to this development by working with the brands to satisfy consumer desires. We need to be fast, agile, adaptable, innovative and versatile. We have to listen. Listen to the markets, listen to the customers and create the future of beauty together. Fortunately, we have a global network of subsidiaries that are close to our customer base. We invest in the future by being in sync with what is happening in the markets and translating this into sustainable innovation.
Premium Beauty News - What is your vision of beauty in 10 years? What will be your contribution to this beauty of the future?
Schwan Cosmetics - Consumers expect brands to take sustainability seriously. If you consider the food industry, this has changed completely and today consumers are able to buy an amazing array of organic, sustainable products no matter where they live. We believe the same will happen in the beauty industry. Cosmetics products will have to be high performance and sustainable while allowing consumers to look great in a conscious way.
Another key development is digitalization. The millennials want to be informed 24/7, they want to hear from the bloggers and influencers where beauty is headed, they want to share, they want to be ahead of the curve and, whilst they want to belong and be part of a tribe, they also want to be as individual as possible.
Digitalization offers us a wonderful platform to better understand what is happening in the markets, what the consumers expect and what the brands will want to offer.
The beauty industry will also increasingly move toward the application of AI and AR, the use of big data and a very customized approach to the individual consumer derived from data shared via digital platforms.
