Warc, 31 July 2014
PARIS: As part of its bid to seek a more direct relationship
with its customers, cosmetics giant L'Oréal has developed and launched a free
app that allows users to try out make-up products via an iPhone or iPad.
Launched in May this year, the "Makeup Genius" app
has already been downloaded 250,000 times in France and is also available in
China and the US before being rolled out to other markets, the Financial Times
reported.
It effectively turns a customer's mobile device into a
virtual mirror, so allowing the user to swipe through the L'Oréal Paris range
of cosmetics, to experiment with the look, to share the results, and to seek
advice.
L'Oréal's face recognition technology is so advanced, the
app shows what the make-up looks like even when a customer moves their face or
smiles into their device.
For L'Oréal, it hopes to gain direct access to its
consumers, build engagement, gain feedback, and generate loyalty.
"Digital recreates a content and a relationship with
the consumer that we have never had in the self-service world," said
Jean-Paul Agon, LOréal's chief executive.
"People go into a store, they are faced with a wall of
products and by definition they don't get any advice when it's self-service. We
can create the digital beauty adviser that will help them choose," he
added.
While retailers may worry that L'Oréal's new app could go
some way to cutting them out of the consumer loop, Agon insisted that its main
purpose is to provide a service.
"For customers who want to, they will be able to buy
directly online. But I think it's going to stay marginal," he said,
pointing to the L'Oréal Paris e-commerce site, which has made sales of only €1m
in France since its launch a year ago.
Data sourced from Financial Times; additional content by
Warc
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