Creating Brand Identities: Using the Design Thinking Process to Bring a New Cosmetic Product to Market

Creating Brand Identities
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Creating Brand Identities
QUESTION 2
Using the Design Thinking Process to Bring a New Cosmetic Product to Market
The design thinking process is the process used by product developers and designers that is user-oriented and involves an ongoing process. Dam and Siang (2020) note that the design thinking process is iterative and involves reframing research topics in human-centric formulas to develop more interaction and fluidity in the process due to its non-linearity. Waloszek (2012) describes the process as focused on understanding the product’s users through redefining the problems and challenge assumptions as a way to enhance innovation and suitability in the development of prototypes and testing the products. The process involves five stages which are interchangeable as they depend on the reactions and reception of the former stages including empathizing, define, ideate, prototype, and testing. As a product manager at Olay Cosmetics, I follow these steps in the introduction of a new Antiaging cream and serum for different age-groups.
The empathy stage involves the research on the user needs and preferences as well as understanding their motivations and experiences (Waloszek, 2012). In developing antiaging products, which are most common with women in their late twenties to 60+ years, the research would involve both online platforms and physically targeted surveys to cover the entire customer base. Online research would involve video-based interactions where customers share their expectations, challenges, and preferences with similar products. Some of the aspects to cover in consumer analysis include safety, cost, and quality, and any other emergent challenges when choosing skincare products. Another main challenge for skin products is the lack of knowing what products are suitable for their skin as the wrong choice can be detrimental to the user (Beauty with Brains, 2018). This stage will also involve any marketing and the specificity of products to different skin types and ages of the consumers. In summary, the empathy stage will comprise studying the specific needs and marketing problems of the customers to help them in choosing the right product.
The defining stage in developing the antiaging cream would include analyzing the observations to aid in identifying the main problems in the industry (Waloszek, 2012). Some of the issues I would state in the stage include that customers are more reliant on natural products and organic ingredients as they switch to conservative consumption. This stage would also identify the connection between cost and quality of products due to the increasing reliance on premium specialty products (DiCarlo, 2017). Noting that there is a dire need to deliver quality affordable products due to the increasing clinics for skin care services. It would be also worth noting that customers need guided marketing to identify the products suitable for their skin types during this stage.
The ideation stage would involve generating ideas on how to specialize the cream according to different skin types and how to help the customer in choosing the right product. This would involve using facial recognition and analysis tec...