Choosing where to point suncare innovation and R&D
Formulating with SPF is hard, so every R&D bet in suncare is expensive. A beauty company wanted to know where to point its R&D, so we mapped where the category’s growth signals meet and explored the most promising spaces with consumers.
- Client
- Beauty company
- Industry
- Skincare
- Kind of work
- Innovation and concept development
- Our role
- Growth mapping and longitudinal consumer research to guide suncare innovation
The question
A beauty company wanted to grow in sun protection.
Before pointing development at any part of the category, the team needed a picture of it that was deep on what people need and forward on where it is heading.
Our approach
We started wide, with a growth map that layered category and competitor analysis, social and review data, trends, expert input and the company’s own capabilities into one picture.
Where those signals met, we drew the first opportunity areas. Then we took them to consumers in a scenario-led qualitative immersion that followed sun protection through their beauty routines, across changing days and situations.
We let the consumer evidence reshape the areas as it came in. What remained was a smaller set of opportunities, each connected to its consumer evidence and to a technical route.
What the team came away with
Category leadership had a focused set of innovation opportunities, each written as a concrete brief for R&D and grounded in what SPF chemistry allows.
Alongside them came the growth map itself, built to take in new signals as the category keeps moving.
Who we heard from
Consumers in a scenario-led qualitative immersion that followed their beauty routines, with experts and the company’s own stakeholders
Related work
View innovation and concept development case studies- What we do
- Innovation
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