Hotaru — a glowing new skincare brand from Japanese personalization specialist Sparty
Sparty, Inc., the company that operates Japan’s first personalized skincare brand Medulla, has launched the long-awaited skincare brand Hotaru Personalized. This summer, Sparty is also planning to link user IDs between Medulla and Hotaru Personalized.
Following in the footsteps of Sparty’s personalized shampoo Medulla that was released in 2018, Hotaru Personalized was commercially launched on May 22 this year, and only three weeks, consumers have taken over 10,000 skin diagnoses. The product’s conversion rate is also higher than Medulla’s, and roughly half of buyers are completely new customers who haven’t used Medulla before.
Brand manager of Hotaru Personalized, Masayuki Nishida, says that “while the majority of Medulla users are overwhelmingly female, Hotaru Personalized on the other hand has an unexpectedly large number of male buyers. Also, Hotaru’s female buyers are from a wide range of ages — from those in their 20s to those in their 50s — so we feel quite confident about the results.”
The brand’s name “Hotaru” (Japanese for firefly) was adopted, Nishida explains, because “similar to how fireflies glow differently depending on their type and individual differences, each person also has an individual way of glowing, and so we want people to find their own unique glow”. In addition to this, they wanted to use a name that inspires a Japanese feeling in anticipation of expanding the brand overseas.
Hotaru Personalized uses answers to a web survey of 10 questions and a skin analysis based on photographed images to classify a user’s skin condition in one of 110,000 different categories. As per that result, a prescription is matched to the user and two products, a lotion and a moisturizer, are prepared.
Adding an objective view via camera
A feature that wasn’t in Medulla’s process and that has been newly incorporated with Hotaru is the use of a camera for skin diagnosis. Here, AI-driven skin analysis functions from Perfect Corp. are used through an API. Just using a self-diagnosis through a web survey usually ends up with an unrealistic result, and so by adding a more objective view using photographed images of the user, a more correct diagnosis of the skin becomes possible.
As Hotaru Personalized is skincare that is optimized based on data, it’s important for users to regularly take the online counselling that can help the system to know about any actual changes in the way users feel when using the product or in their skin condition.
For this reason, Sparty is trying different approaches to get users to take the counselling. This includes encouraging them by email before the next product is due to arrive and displaying a reminder banner when they log into their personal Hotaru webpage.
The amalgamated feedback data from users is analyzed internally per prescription and the prescription mechanism is constantly updated — for instance, if a user is left unsatisfied, the personalization logic is reviewed, or they look into replacing components with better ingredients. By repeating this process, Sparty is able to get closer to skincare that matches each user individually.
UI design focused on being with users all the way
The design of the overall Hotaru Personalized experience of communicating and purchasing online takes advantage of the knowledge gained from Medulla. Hotaru Personalized is unified under a neutral design with a base greyish-blue tone that avoids suggesting a particular gender or age. The survey section — which could have easily been dull and mechanical — has a UI that makes answering the questions easy, fun and never a chore. There’s also a tiny circle that chases the user’s mouse cursor, invoking a firefly glowing in the darkness.
On the diagnosis page is displayed information about the user’s current skin condition and the ingredients selected for their prescription, as well as advice tailored to their unique skin and lifestyle habits.
Currently, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Sparty hasn’t set a specific sales target. As to the reason for this, Nishida explains: “The very essence of personalization is in having users find what suits them. To have users not simply buy once and then stop but continue to use the product, it’s important to see how much we can raise the satisfaction level of each and every user and also see whether we can make this a service that can fit the market. This is what we’re focusing on at the moment, and by doing this, I think the sales numbers will naturally follow.”
Previously with Medulla, they found that the number one reason for users deciding to stop purchasing was linked to their satisfaction levels regarding the prescription. In order to lower the rate of users opting out, they repeatedly analyzed the diagnosis results and prescriptions of these users and reviewed the personalization logic. As a result, users noticed how the brand followed closely along with them as they used the product and tried to improve it into something better, and this encouraged users to give further feedback about the less-than-satisfactory points when they received a new version. Now Medulla’s repeat purchase rate is extraordinarily high, ranging between 70% and 80%.
In the summer of 2020, Sparty will link user IDs between Medulla and Hotaru Personalized and collect data on the diagnosis results and levels of satisfaction from both services. On top of that, they’re currently working on a number of new personalized services that will be next in line after their haircare and skincare endeavors. Nishida reveals that “in terms of the future, we will aim to realize a platform that recommends not just products by Sparty but also those by other companies that customize to individual users through personalized diagnoses.”
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Lina Ono
