Azelis leverages digital beauty tools to satisfy the “sophistication of masses”

30 Jan 2023 --- With the abundance of information on the internet, consumers and players in the beauty space have never been so well-informed or as active as they are today in seeking better alternatives to beauty products that meet their socio-political and ethical stances.

PersonalCareInsights speaks to Jacqueline Hoe, Asia-Pacific market segment director of personal care at Azelis, exploring the ties between beauty and technology and how it informs the company’s consumer engagement strategy.

“Innovation and sophistication meet at a technology spot. New at-home beauty tech tools allow consumers to further defy beauty and personal care limits, and manufacturers leverage this trend by offering high-end compatible products. Sophistication in beauty and personal care is taking a new turn with innovation,” she says.

“Innovation has fueled diversification in beauty and personal care products. And it is what makes us passionate about this industry. We are all actors that drive the improvement of the overall offering and make the market increasingly sophisticated. It is the quest for the better.”

Azelis lab to innovation
Hoe notes that consumers today can instantly obtain information easily, which drives the demand for better quality products backed up by science.Azelis relies on digital portals to connect with consumers worldwide, and also as a way to share knowledge and expertise.

“[Digitalization] has allowed us to keep a closer, real-time connection with customers. We have rolled out customer-facing digital platforms such as the Customer Portal and e-Lab, which provide customers with insights into trends, product information and 24/7 access to our innovation capabilities and technical expertise,” she shares.

“Azelis created a globally connected network of innovation through our laboratories that allow us to leverage insights and trends and enhance our formulations and technical expertise for all the markets we serve in the chemicals industry.”

The e-Lab offers to fix or enhance an existing formulation, create new innovative formulations and allow consumers to directly get in touch with Azelis’ technical experts. It is touted to be an easy way to create formulations with the help of Azelis experts at the lab.

The e-Lab which is part of the customer portal aims to offer inspiration to creators, offering insights into beauty trends and the market. Moreover customers can access the company’s product and formulations that can be of use.

Hoe explains that the e-Lab helps its customers request and define their formulation needs. “This gives them fast access to formulation and ingredient recommendations and facilitates the optimization of customers’ time-to-market.”

“Thanks to our combined technical knowledge and local sales teams across the region, we can deliver ground-breaking formulations matching the unmet needs of the consumer market,” she adds.

Moreover, Azelis can proactively develop conceptual formulations with its network of laboratories. “This allows manufacturers to tap into new markets and opportunities while also providing localization of trends for specific countries.”

Once customers create their formulations, they are able to order samples, quotes or place the final order.

Channeling investments
Hoe notes that consumers today can instantly obtain information easily, which drives the demand for better quality products backed up by science. 

“To respond to this trend, product manufacturers invest in ingredient upgrades in both mainstream and premium categories. This has, in turn, pushed ingredient manufacturers to invest further in R&D to develop new effective solutions at target price points,” she shares.

“This implies the sophistication of the beauty and personal care products across categories, fueled and fostered by innovation.”As a way to meet the demands consumers, Azelis relies on its digital strategy.

Transparency is key
Some ways that companies can better meet the demands of consumers for more ethical products include transparency and sustainability.

“Personal care companies should provide more transparency on how materials are sourced and manufactured and ensure this information is more readily available to consumers. More importantly, companies should also set goals and targets and continually track and report their progress,” states Hoe.

“At Azelis, we developed our sustainability strategy, Action 2025, which is an integral part of our identity and business model. As part of our Action 2025 plan, we have four pillars (People, Products & Innovation, Governance, and Environment), and we actively work across all four toward goals such as increasing the percentage of our revenue that is covered with ESG assessed suppliers and reducing our carbon intensity.”

At Azelis, sustainability has become the center point for “everything it does,” such as reviewing its portfolio to identify sustainable products that can be used to develop alternative environmentally friendly formulations offered to its customers through its Portal.

“Consumer demand focuses on products that support or minimize their impact on the environment, especially eco-friendly products. We also partner with blue-chip principals [of Aktaş/Whitechem] to ensure our portfolio contains a range of sustainable products to meet this requirement from consumers,” concludes Hoe.

Azelis in the spotlight
Last November, we spoke with Hoe about the “conscious beauty” movement driving consumers to become more aware about what kind of personal care and beauty products they consume, and question how they are sourced.

In another interview with Ghislaine Vigier, Asia-Pacific head of marketing at Azelis, we explored the rise in “beauty fusion” in social contexts like the COVID-19 pandemic that left many isolated at home. 

Unilever and Azelis have been scaling their Southeast Asian operations across the skincare, hair solutions and home cleaning product segments. The companies individually published updates on their investments in the Philippines, which is an attractive entry point to the broader Asia-Pacific region.

In other company developments, the company acquired 100% of the shares of Chemiplas Agencies, a specialty chemicals and ingredients distributor in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

By Venya Patel 

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