Following L’Oréal Group’s sustainability commitment, the To-Morrow plan proposes an end-to-end sustainable beauty consumption experience for L’Oréal’s customers in China with the aim to empower a positive circle of sustainable beauty in the Chinese market.
From the real voices of beauty customers, beauty companies, and third-party support organisations, we discovered a vicious circle for today’s Chinese beauty sustainability situation. As consumers do not pay attention to sustainability, this factor becomes less critical and competitive in the market. This makes the beauty companies less motivated to emphasise on beauty sustainability, and shrinks the chance for consumers to touch on and gain knowledge on this topic. Eventually, this results in the subject of beauty sustainability constantly getting ignored. Our progressive research later shows that some of the detailed reasons that lead to beauty consumers’ disregard include lack of awareness on the value of individual contribution and responsibility, lack of interest and motivation to care, and lack of guidance on how to participate. By reducing these painpoints, the ultimate goal of our service is to reverse the vicious circle to a virtuous circle of beauty sustainability.
The service of the To-Morrow Plan comes first with a comprehensive promotion design for establishing compelling company attitudes and outputting incentives from the company's side. First of all, a big shout-out is made to loudly present that 25 brands under L’Oréal China are uniting together to raise a beauty sustainability revolution. Then, an advertising video is launched to communicate the spirit of the service: enabling beauty for you and our tomorrow (video below). The advertising will go through offline and online channels. Internet influencers will also join the promotion through social media, further attracting the public’s attention to the To-Morrow Plan. Lastly, selecting one product from each brand, our service upgrades a new fully biodegradable packaging for them. With this pioneering packaging technology, the bottles are made from 100% bio fiber and is fully compostable. We aim to bring the customer new sustainable experiences and knowledge through this.
To-Morrow Plan also includes an app to implement participation incentives, transparent information and customised guidelines for L’Oréal's customers. Firstly, the app provides a 10 percent discount voucher for new users to attract sign-ups. There are 3 main features: augmented reality (AR) scanning, product record and credit collection. Through AR, users can scan a L’Oréal product to see its sustainability performance. They can also scan their beauty products at home. The AR will identify L'Oréal items and add them to product records automatically. In records, products are documented in 4 statuses: purchased, ready-to-end, in-use, and finished. Customised guidelines are offered to end a product properly. Unsuitable products will also be marked out to reduce waste. After contributing, users earn both material and social credits. They can redeem material credits for full-sized drugstore products and donate social credits to Commonwealth campaigns. Feedback will be provided on recycling and Commonwealth projects, acting as another spirit incentive.
The To-Morrow Plan first establishes a compelling company attitude through promotions to raise awareness on beauty sustainability. It also provides comprehensive incentives to boost customers’ interests in participating and contributing. Then, by implementing transparent information throughout customers’ entire consumption journeys, the service levels up their understanding about the subject. Lastly, with the customised and simplified guidance, customers can now contribute in the most comfortable way. These details build up a unique experience for customers, cultivating their new demands on sustainable beauty consumption. By doing this, we aim to empower a virtuous circle of sustainable beauty in China: with more people experiencing the sustainable beauty consumption, their improved recognitions allow them to appreciate this subject more. Sustainable beauty then becomes a more valuable competitive factor, and L’Oréal will be more motivated to emphasise on this. This will influence more and more customers, boosting L’Oréal's reputation and profits.
We conducted 3 workshops with a total of 16 target consumers who provided feedback on several aspects such as incentive plans, rewarding design, waste reduction and so forth. Prototyping with L'Oréal and other stakeholders, Terracycle and convenience stores, also brought suggestions. They offered validation, too. L'Oréal will benefit from the project. Its social impact and reputation will increase, and the company will become a better co-operator of the government. On the marketing side, the plan will raise the bond of L'Oréal's brands in people’s minds, cultivating their dependency on L’Oréal. This isn’t a profitable plan, but it can keep running under a controlled input. L’Oréal will need to pay for the paper packaging, the smart bins, the app and Terracycle. However, it will save money on recycling service as the increase in the number of containers will decrease the recycling cost. And the To-Morrow Plan will keep customers more loyal to generate more revenue.
Special thanks to all of our interviewees and prototype partners, the industry experts from L'Oréal China, and project manager Linlin Chen from Terracycle China. Last but not least, a huge thank you to our tutor John Makepeace for supporting us through this challenging project.
