Mapping where a beauty company’s suncare innovation should go

The question

A beauty company was looking to grow in sun protection, a category where formulating with SPF is difficult and a wrong turn in R&D is an expensive one.

Choosing where to point innovation meant knowing two things at once: what people need from sun protection across their routines, and where the category is heading. Any opportunity also had to suit the company’s strengths and be something its R&D team could work on.

Our approach

We built the growth map from the company’s own data, stakeholders and capabilities alongside trends, competitors and experts, so the first opportunity areas came where growth signals met its strengths.

The research with people followed their beauty routines over time through scenarios, so each area was explored in the moments sun protection is used.

We let that evidence reshape the areas as it came in, and brought R&D into the conversation before the map was final, because an opportunity only matters here if it can be formulated.

What the team came away with

An interim map came first, so the category team could react to the opportunity areas while the routines research was still running.

The final growth map then set out a focused set of opportunity areas, each chosen so R&D could be briefed on it, mindful of what formulating with SPF allows. Every area came with the growth signals behind it, the evidence from the routines research and inspiration for how it might be delivered.

Films of people’s routines went alongside the map, so colleagues outside the project could see the moments behind each area, and a short pre-read prepared the wider team for the final session.

The category team could now weigh where to point R&D from one shared picture of the category, the company’s own strengths and the people using the products.