Cosmetics Sector Consulting
At KEPLER, an end-to-end consulting firm, we establish impactful and highly-recognized contributions in collaboration with key stakeholders in the cosmetic industry.
To drive competitive advantage, KEPLER assists organizations in the cosmetic sector by addressing pivotal challenges such as the reconfiguration of their Innovation model and the implementation of more agile and resilient Operations to maintain their market leadership.
The cosmetics sector faces 4 major tensions:
Balancing a consumer-centric approach to address diverse customer needs, while rationalizing the number of projects and product ranges
Context and Challenges
- Acceleration of product launches and shortening product life cycles place considerable demands on development and industrialization teams
- Profusion of products and ranges, with the risk of perceived commoditization and diminishing consumer impact
- Emergence of new high-growth markets (new demographics, emerging economies) with specific needs that must be considered
Our Value Proposition
Scaling R&D and Marketing footprints to adapt products and solutions to global consumer diversity
Implementing strategic project portfolio management to focus resources on high-impact initiatives
Optimizing development and launching processes: accelerating time-to-market, eliminating MUDAs (Lean Development), deploying Agile best practices
Reinforcing disruptive innovation by protecting R&D resources to achieve genuine market differentiation
Implementing formula standards and rationalizing packaging across franchises to improve operational performance, aiming for delayed differentiation to address the diversity of needs
At KEPLER, our expertise in project portfolio management generates constructive dialogue between Marketing and R&D teams, enabling a judicious selection of priority projects in line with strategic imperatives. This approach reconciles short-term and long-term objectives, while preserving essential resources for breakthrough innovation projects that will secure future growth and competitiveness.Julien Besse, Partner
Achieving CSR Transformation While Enhancing Product Performance
Context and Challenges
- Increasingly restrictive regulations and high consumer expectations for products with a positive social and environmental impact
- A multitude of CSR projects and initiatives in R&D and Operations requiring complex trade-offs to find optimal compromises
- Specific challenges for luxury brands, which must reinvent themselves to meet CSR challenges
Our Value Proposition
Developing eco-design and identifying decision-making criteria (carbon footprint, CSR score) for best trade-offs across conflicting constraints: consumer expectations, marketing vision, R&D and CSR teams’ convictions
Utilizing CSR constraints as a true innovation lever: rethinking the entire consumer experience by testing new, innovative and sustainable business models (bulk buying, deposits, refills)
Ensuring the responsible sourcing of ingredients and packaging to meet due diligence requirements, secure business continuity, and enhance brand image in line with the company’s CSR convictions
Promoting the company’s sustainable initiatives and raising consumer awareness, particularly on the impact of the use phase
Assisting clients in identifying relevant partners with a social mission and optimizing their operations (production lines, IT interfaces) for the efficient integration of workers with disabilities or undergoing social and professional reintegration, as part of a co-development approach
The sustainability of products and the companies’ actions in the cosmetic industry has become an unavoidable requirement. The transformations that this implies are profound and long-lasting. They disrupt not only organizational work processes, but also the collective mindset, as part of a necessary continuous improvement approach.Fabien Lepère, Director
Transitioning from a “product-centric” approach to an “all-around consumer experience” approach, by integrating the notion of service
Context and Challenges
- Gradual evolution from a formulation business to a multidisciplinary business (connected beauty, personalization) with new entrants from other sectors
- Transition from a product-oriented logic to a service and consumer experience focus, driven by digitalization and customization
Our Value Proposition
Reframing product-centered marketing briefs to include the consumer experience, providing more latitude for R&D
Strengthening and professionalizing Make-or-Buy strategies and Open Innovation approaches to leverage innovations and technologies offered by innovative players (startups, large corporations, institutions).
Experimenting new disruptive business models to adapt to new consumption patterns and emerging technologies, or to diverse consumer needs, quickly testing technical feasibility, economic viability, and desirability of the solution
Regulatory evolutions, especially in CSR, and consumer expectations for natural products require a perpetual adaptation of operational modes and governance among brand owners and their subcontractorsFlorian Chauvin, Partner
Maximizing the Impact of Claims to Support Business Growth, While Remaining Sincere and Compliant with Country-Specific Regulations
Context and Challenges
- Increasing and variable regulatory constraints across markets, affecting claims
- Rising competition from independent brands with aggressive claims
Our Value Proposition
Transition from a conservative mindset to a ‘risk management’ approach for greater impact
Implementing an effective claims process with balanced involvement of key entities (Marketing, R&D, Legal/Regulatory)
Developing a real awareness of the impact of claims on business growth
Adapting to the Accelerating Data Production Expected by Consumers and Mandated by Regulations and Digital Business Transformation
Context and Challenges
- Difficult capitalization on extensive historical stability, safety, compatibility, and ingredient and formula performance tests, hampering predictive and extrapolation efforts
- New in-silico formulation tools, often limited to narrow formulation territories
- Numerous and diverse consumer feedback underutilized by development teams to improve products
- Growing opportunities to offer consumers an enhanced experience through digital solutions, known as “beauty tech”
Our Value Proposition
Coordinating digital transformation programs for R&D functions to capitalize on technological advances in artificial intelligence and new data integration possibilities on platforms such as data lakes
Assisting clients to better understand their consumers and develop products as quickly and cost-effectively as possible while minimizing reliance on physical tests
Supporting the industry in knowledge acquisition and digitalization – physicochemical properties of ingredients and formulations, stability, packaging compatibility, human and environmental safety
Cosmetics sector references
Cosmetics Sector Consulting Services by KEPLER
KEPLER is a consulting firm with a focus on Innovation , Purchasing , Supply Chain , Operations and Sales & Marketing and People functions , specializing in the cosmetics sector. KEPLER consulting teams support organizations in strengthening their Innovation processes through a better response to consumer expectations thanks to the provision of benchmarks, the reduction of time-to-market and the contribution of AI in decision-making processes. We are also improving the quality of operations, in particular through better consideration of CSR issues with associated decision-making bodies.
