FIT's Beauty Think Tank Presents Groundbreaking Research and Digital Imperatives for Industry

NEW YORK, June 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Fashion Institute of Technology's (FIT) beauty industry think tank unveiled "disruptive" visions for the future of consumer product marketing in three key areas of the digital sphere when they presented Beauty in a Digital World, on Wednesday, June 5, 2013, at FIT. The key areas – digital analytics, digital marketing, and digital commerce – were presented by candidates for the Master of Professional Studies degree in the college's Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management (CFMM) program.

FIT's CFMM master's degree program cohort is comprised of outstanding rising executives in the beauty industry who are recommended by their companies. The graduating class annually presents in-depth research and forward-thinking, often astonishing, predictions and proposals to the industry.

Research white papers for Beauty in a Digital World, along with white papers for past presentations, are available at www.fitnyc.edu/5518.asp. For images, go to https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z3whz3z7eyux0ii/reNB1YuF1D.

Joe Rospars, chief digital strategist for President Barack Obama's election and reelection campaign, and founder and CEO of Blue State Digital, gave a keynote address. 

This year's research was conducted in conjunction with Google, Inc., and with contributions from leading global digital technology and business experts, with the support of event sponsor, Beiersdorf North America.

"Beiersdorf was honored to serve as this year's title sponsor of the FIT Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management graduate program," said Bill Graham, president, Beiersdorf North America.  "Not only did we celebrate the graduation of two of our company's brightest managers, we supported a one-of-a-kind program that promotes innovation and unprecedented collaboration within our highly competitive industry. Digital marketing is at the core of our brand campaigns. We look forward to implementing some of the great thinking and research findings to continue growing our brands."

Predictions from the Research:

1. Leveraging artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and predictive analytics technology will revolutionize the in-store experience by completely personalizing it.
2. Motion-activated technology will allow consumers to virtually browse aisles of products located anywhere in the world and make purchases directly from interactive screens in their homes.
3. "Beauty on Demand" will utilize image-, sound-, and video-capture technologies to allow consumers to shop for anything, anywhere – with just one click. The street becomes the new shopping mall.
4. Micro-targeting, enabled by data and technology, will allow brands to create highly personalized communications. The result, micro-engagement, will increase individual consumer lifetime value for brands.
5. ROL is the new ROI. Return on Learnings (ROL) will replace Return on Investments (ROI) as a new real-time metric to track and drive brand value.
6. Sensors will be molded into product packaging to track actual consumer usage behavior.

A synopsis of the three key areas' presentations is below:

Digital Analytics
With a focus on six key areas of impact for big data, this study shows how digital analytics will help grow the beauty industry's data-centricity and customer personalization. The white paper develops ways that big data can identify new customer needs, validate concepts, increase successful innovation, optimize inventory distribution, track consumption and diversion, and build stronger customer relationships. These categories are applied to a new product launch model called Beauty 2020. "We're proud to be the research partner for the FIT research study. There are huge opportunities for building brand value through the smart use of data, and we support projects that seek to make this accessible and actionable for brand marketers," said Kevin Kells, national industry director, Consumer Packaged Goods, Google, Inc.

Digital Marketing
The power of micro-targeting and micro-engagement in a micro-marketing world is captured in a new smart media framework called m^3, which highlights marketing's evolution from sending the same message to all consumers to individualized, personalized outreach conducted in real time on multiple platforms. The study lays out what it takes to succeed in today's micro-marketing, zero-friction environment, sharing the advances required in media, metrics, and management to win with m^3 marketing. "This type of innovation and accountability is going to be essential as we move our business forward. In the end, everything has to be measurable," said Jeanine Shao Collins, executive vice president and chief innovation officer, Meredith 360, advisor to the Digital Marketing research group.  

Digital Commerce
Using a high tech, high touch new business model that conveys the fluid cycle of commerce, this study explores what it takes to succeed in digital commerce. Its analysis of convenience, curation, and customization provides insights into how consumers will be able to make purchases from anywhere and how brands can sell everywhere. The immediacy of "Beauty on Demand" creates infinite points of sale and instant gratification for customers. "The Digital Commerce team's research and findings both pinpoint the digitally enabled opportunity for omnichannel retailers to better service their customers as well as specifically highlights a tremendous commercial potential for the beauty industry," said Mariah Chase, co-founder, sendthetrend.com, this group's research partner.

About the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)
Fashion Institute of Technology's Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management (CFMM) program was developed in collaboration with industry as a leadership development program for outstanding mid-career executives. The curriculum combines strategic business skills and specialized creative and product innovation skills with intensive global field studies in Europe and Asia. Executive mentors from industry and a personalized development plan are part of a tailored management curriculum that develops future leaders for the sector.

FIT's graduate program combines the talents of future industry leaders, nominated to participate from leading global companies from luxury firms (such as Chanel, Estée Lauder, and LVMH) and consumer packaged goods (including Beiersdorf, L'Oréal, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever).  As part of the research focus in the School of Graduate Studies at FIT, the graduate program has become the beauty industry's recognized think tank, producing high level research each year that is presented to an audience of 700 executives and media, as well as in specialized panels, symposia, and forums in both academia and industry. For more information, visit www.fitnyc.edu.

Contact: Cheri Fein, FIT, 212 217.4700 or [email protected]

SOURCE Fashion Institute of Technology