At the beginning of the project, we were divided up by international and domestic regional time zones and our team assignments were based on this criteria. Followed by a thorough introduction to the brand with team members from Unilever, MELE, and DFA we were instructed on the design challenges to identify, immerse, reframe, ideate and build our team's project.
My team members asynchronously participated in collecting primary and secondary research from customer interviews, social media influencers, and editorials.
We connected virtually in bi-weekly meetings to organize our information-gathering efforts and find the throughline within our artifacts.
Ideas & Insights
Who we are:
Persona
The direction the team focused on was how might we of encouraging a quality skincare experience. By taking into consideration where consumers will discover new skincare products focusing newbies to skincare routines.
Discovery of young (13-39) BIPOC consumers:
44% have a structured, deliberate skincare routine 29% say they watch skin tutorials online.
Accessibility
Concerns
Affordability
How might we... build a personalized community focused on providing authentic customer experience?
Marketplace:
Opportunity Zones:
Here’s where the disconnection happens:
Creating a personalized experience:
Gen Z want to learn and connect with brands - using social media as the channel, such as, TiKTok and Instagram. Social media over brand websites serve as vehicles to directly drive consumers to purchase products, as Gen Z consumers using social media for customer service, and they are not afraid to reach out, praise, and interact with brands.
We refined our research for the user journey map using the 5 E's framework by personalizing the experience with the following prompts:
Education & Consultation
Insights
59% of Gen Zers said they trust the brands they grew up with.
44% of Gen Z said that, if given the opportunity, they would like to submit ideas for product design
Iterating & Prototype
Our journey map → emotional storytelling and how this helps build up MELE's skincare community targeting its Gen Z audience
Gen Z, the skincare consumer
The modern age of technology has made the connection between gen z and the brands they support stronger than ever, requiring full transparency. It is a lot harder to fake being genuine in this day and age as most of the time gen z consumers can easily tell when a company is trying to portray something they're not. And they will put this to the public and information spreads rapidly, meaning it's more self-destructive than ever to lie to the public. This dynamic helps to create a more up-front and honest relationship between brands and their messaging.
Skincare Hashtags on TikTok
In fact, nearly half of TikTok global audience is below 34 years of age, with roughly 26% of TikTok users between the age of 18 and 24, which might leave you wondering: is TikTok really is an effective tool for your beauty brand?
Is TikTok Effective for Beauty Brands? Yes, it is.
One of the best hashtag strategies for TikTok is to use a combination of popular, niche-specific hashtags, like #beauty or #makeup, and a variety of less popular hashtags that are still relevant to the type of content that you’re posting, or perhaps a branded hashtag.
Branded hashtags are labels that are specific to your brand and its products or services. These will often include the name of your brand, your tagline, or possibly the name of your products or services.
For Example:
End result → skincare bundles personalized to our customer's needs and wants, such as the following:
#MELEnin #MELEnincare #BeBrightBeYou
Our team's project was a customer service design user journey focused on Gen Z's with melanin-rich skin and we created an interactive educational social media experience focused on the nourishment of melanin-rich skin
How might MELE generate trust with the Gen Z consumer to help them find personalized products for their specific skincare concerns?
Impact
At the very least, people like Ellie and Jasmine who already invest in skincare now have a personalized, bundled routine that makes it easy to buy exactly what they need. At most, people like Jessie who are skincare novices and need some guidance, are able to learn about how to tend to their needs and have a personalized bundle that takes the stress out of deciding which products they need.
Never working in the beauty industry, but as a women of color with sensitive skin I thought it would be a healthy challenge to expand my design sensibilities and community. This project challenged my skills as a designer and a leader, as our team was working at a variety of skill levels and at different points of our creative journeys.
The main roadblock was coordinating our schedules in order to find a cadence for all 6 of us to design in tandem. Once we were able to coordinate schedules and set up a 'north star' Google doc, the team was well on its way. We collaborated in Mural to mind map out our situations and independently collected research that supported our statement.
The final campaign was presented to DFA community members, MELE brand and Unilever representatives, and our fellow accelerator participates. Our feedback was encouraging as we were able to find a unique avenue to engage with a tricky to target demographic for legacy companies.
