2018 FIT Capstone Presentations

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Beauty’s Transparent Future

A Summary of FIT’s Class of 2018 Capstone Research Presentations

By Mary Palmieri, Founder, The Beauty Marketplace

On Wednesday, June 13, 2018, in an event titled, “Transparent Beauty,” sponsored by Coty in The Haft Auditorium at The Fashion Institute of Technology, leaders from the beauty industry, as well as FIT Alumni gathered to hear the graduating class of the Graduate Studies Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management program presented their Capstone Research Presentations.

The students’ research predicted how beauty brands and companies will evolve over the next ten years and examined the emerging consumer demand for transparency. On average, 71% of a person’s time is spent online today, and while consumers are actively searching for useful information, they are feeling overwhelmed with fake news. Brands must educate the increasingly savvy consumer about product formulations, supply chain, and marketing claims. 

Norman de Greve, CMO, CVS Beauty was the Keynote Speaker. His presentation focused on bottom up versus top down marketing where real people as opposed to celebrities or beauty industry executives will set the trends moving forward in a continuous feedback loop between social media and product development. Because the consumer is now most responsive to realness, relatable, attainable beauty, organizations like CVS have implemented initiatives that reward authentic versus perfection obsession in advertising. In their seal program, CVS places a signature seal on ads without airbrushing or touch-ups to remain transparent to the consumer and foster realistic expectations.

The secret for success in this era of digitization all comes down to one word: transparency. The more transparent companies are, the more trust from consumers. Transparency surrounding ingredients and the internal supply chain, as well as within the organization, a term now referred to as “glassbox” leadership, where an organization is fully accountable for defining and executing core values.

The beauty industry is at an inflection point where a once very structured and predictable supply chain is now being disrupted by advances in technology and new demands from digital consumers moving online en masse.  The future for beauty will involve demystify ingredients, aggregating data, utilizing blockchain to trace product journey, and the integration of the consumer into product development.

FIT’s Capstone presentations were followed by an awards ceremony and reception hosted by Coty celebrating the Class of 2018. Congratulations to all the graduates!

Guest Author
Mary Palmieri, Founder of The Beauty Marketplace and FIT Alumna

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