Cetaphil Harnesses the Power of Perfect Corp.-Powered AI Skin Analysis to Grow Market Share and Overall Business

Situation: Helping Consumers Identify Skin Needs

For more than 75 years Cetaphil has worked closely with scientists and dermatologists to create skincare products specifically designed and clinically proven to help people take care of their sensitive skin and skin conditions associated with sensitive skin. Cetaphil believes skin health is what leads to beautiful, glowing skin, and so it develops all products with skin health first and foremost in mind.

Based in Fort Worth, and with sales around the globe, Cetaphil is part of the Swiss company Galderma, which is dedicated to the body’s largest organ: the skin. With multiple product lines, all focused on skin health and beauty, Galderma builds trust-based partnerships with healthcare professionals to meet consumer and patient needs with superior, lasting outcomes, as it shapes the future of dermatology.

Cetaphil’s dedication to helping those with sensitive skin led it to consider using artificial intelligence (AI) to enable consumers to better understand their skin conditions and find the best products for their specific skin needs.

Solution: Perfect Corp.’s  AI/AR-Powered Technology 

Cetaphil selected Perfect Corp.’s skin analysis technology, which harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and augmented reality (AR) to enable consumers to understand their precise skin condition. Perfect Corp. is the leader in providing AI/AR solutions for the beauty industry. 

 Cetaphil, which has always been a science-focused company, had its technical experts and dermatologists work closely with Perfect Corp. engineers to create its skin analysis application, which it brands as My Skin by Cetaphil.

Consumers can engage with the skin analysis tool from the Cetaphil website, through a QR code on retail product displays, through social media, and other channels.

Cetaphil invites consumers to take a selfie using the My Skin by Cetaphil app on their iPhone or similar device, to begin the process. The AI skin analysis covers more than a dozen skin conditions, including moisture, oiliness, dark spots, acne, redness, moisture, oiliness, dark spots and wrinkles. Consumers enter their email address to receive a personalized report, including their skin type, concerns, and susceptibility to various skin conditions. 

As part of its skin report, Cetaphil provides personalized recommendations suited to the user’s needs from its line-up of products, including cleansers, moisturizers and sun care products.

The results are so impressive that Cetaphil was recently honored with an MM+M Gold award for the best use of AI. Judges described the Cetaphil AI Skin analysis with one word: “Outstanding!”

Alicia Criner, Vice President, Global Head of Digital & Media, said incorporating AI emerged  as a logical choice when studying customer needs.

“I always recommend to the team that we first look at what the business challenge is, without thinking about the technology,” Criner says. “One of the insights we had is that people are not sure how to identify if they have sensitive skin or sensitized skin. We wanted to find an easy, straightforward way to quickly help them identify their skin condition across a range of markers. After being introduced to Perfect Corp. we saw this was a great way to leverage AI technology—scanning someone’s skin and giving them an AI-generated score identifying their skin status, and then giving them customized product recommendations, and tips and tricks.”

Benefits

Cetaphil has found a number of benefits in working with Perfect Corp.’s AI/AR skin analysis technology, including:

• Giving consumers a powerful educational tool
• Achieving high customer engagement
• Meeting consumer needs
• Creating personalized connections with consumers
• Tracking market changes and relevancy
• Enabling targeted marketing for new and auxiliary products
  

Giving Consumers a Powerful Educational Tool

Since Its inception, Cetaphil has worked closely with dermatologists. The company sees its My Skin by Cetaphil as a continuation of this partnership.

“This is why our AI tool was made in partnership with dermatologists and is dermatologist  tested,” Criner says. “We're not here to diagnose any type of clinical skin conditions. We're here to help educate consumers on what types of questions they should be asking or what types of products they can use for their different skin concerns.”

“We already know that consumers are searching about skin conditions on Google or social media like TikTok to diagnose themselves,” Criner says. “We wanted to provide a more precise source of information, crafted through our work with dermatologists, to raise awareness about potential skin concerns so our consumers can better understand what their skin is going through in that moment.”

Achieving High Customer Engagement

My Skin by Cetaphil has proven to be a strong driver of customer engagement.

“We see very high engagement from QR codes on our retail displays,” Criner says. “Consumers in a CVS, Walgreen’s, or any of our other retail presences are using their phones to check their skin type and get product recommendations right in the stores. We also see high customer engagement through partner websites and social media.”

The ease of use and precision of the AI-powered My Skin by Cetaphil helps drive customer loyalty and retention.

“We see consumers coming back to our skin analysis tool,” Criner says. “It can be to try new products, or to address other skin concerns, or to find the best products to use as the seasons change. Customers also come back to see the before and after benefits of using our Cetaphil products.”

All of this helps grow the business.

 Criner says: “Our Perfect Corp. AI-powered My Skin by Cetaphil helps us grow our market share and grow our overall business by enabling more people to fall in love with Cetaphil.”

Meeting Consumer Needs

After using the My Skin by Cetaphil application, consumers are e-mailed a full skin analysis report—along with AI-generated suggestions for the best Cetaphil products to meet their skin needs.

“We typically give three to five product recommendations,” Criner says. “We want to precisely meet their needs, without overwhelming them with all the Cetaphil products they could benefit from.”

While Cetaphil has a vast catalog of products, the initial suggestions are focused on areas of concern to the consumer, including products they might not otherwise think to include.

“To ensure we give consumers a thorough—but not overwhelming—suggestion for products, we have a program that we call CTMP, which stands for Clean, Treat, Moisturize, and Protect,” Criner says. “We have a large number of products within each of these categories, and suggest the best combinations from these categories to meet their specific areas of skin concern. And we always recommend a sun screen product, because even on cloudy days the UV rays are damaging your unprotected skin.”

In addition to product recommendations, Cetaphil sends consumers who engage with My Skin by Cetaphil relevant articles and pointers to helpful videos, including information from dermatologists.

“Our goal is to provide a high-quality and ultra personalized experience for everyone engaging with our AI-powered skin analysis experience,” Criner says. “AI allows us to identify what a consumer’s needs are, and we further personalize this by providing high-value information, because we really care about their skin.”

Creating Personalized Connections with Consumers

When consumers opt-in to receive their personalized skin reports, they can provide additional information, including ZIP code, all of which helps Cetaphil create personalized communications and promotions to better meet personalized needs.

“When a consumer entrusts us with their data, we want to make sure we're using it in the right way,” Criner says. “While we certainly want to drive purchases, we see this as building a relationship with our consumer. When we send promotions or content stories, we make sure it's all tailored to addressing their actual skin concerns.”

Tracking Market Changes and Relevancy

The rich opt-in CRM that Cetaphil gathers through offering consumers reports from their My Skin by Cetaphil AI tool provides an organic and in-the-moment view into skin concerns on a hyper local geographic level.

“We learn from people inputting information through our AI tool,” Criner says. “We learn through the content they're engaging with. We learn through the CRM program. We use all of this in our quest to always serve our consumers better.”

Opt-in data also enables targeting on a geographic basis.

“Using ZIP code information from our consumers we gain a view into how skin care changes evolve over time including from season to season,” Criner says. “On a localized level we can see how concerns about skin dryness, for example, change with the seasons. If we're seeing increasing reports of people having dry skin for an area, we'll make sure that we have refreshed articles on dry skin on our website.”

Beyond marketing, such data helps Cetaphil achieve its dedication to serving consumer needs.

“The information we gain from our AI skin analysis helps us with dynamic market targeting,” Criner says. “In other words, it helps us to more precisely meet the needs of our customers.”

Enabling Targeted Marketing for New and Auxiliary Products

Cetaphil harnesses the data it collects through its My Skin by Cetaphil application and other sources to precisely target its marketing efforts to reach consumers who would benefit from items within its vast offerings.

“There's so much data that helps us inform how we go to market with greater precision—from how we do our merchandising to how we partner with our retailers,” Criner says. “We have many lines of what we term our auxiliary products, which a consumer might not be aware of, but which can contribute to the benefits they receive from our most popular and well-known products.”

Criner again points to the often-overlooked benefits of sunscreens. 

“Most people forget they need a sunscreen,” Criner says. “We have all types of formulas—from physical sunscreens to chemical-based sunscreens, and everything in between. When someone needs a moisturizer, it is a good time to remind them that as soon as they step outside, UV rays are hitting them, instantly drying out and aging their skin. So, it is a great time for us to remind them of some of the auxiliary products that maybe aren't top of mind but are just as important.”

The same data is also valuable when bringing new offerings to market.

“It's a great way to introduce new products,” Criner says. “Cetaphil is all about sensitive skin. That's our focus area. We don't do lipstick, we don't do hair care. We focus on skin, face and body. So when we have something like our newest acne product, it is a great time to leverage our CRM database and say: ‘This something that you've been asking for.’ We closely monitor feedback in customer reviews and on social media. We’re able to target our new product to those who want it and say: ‘We know you need a gentle but effective acne product, which is why we created this for you.’”

Perfect Corp. Is a Great Company to Work With

Cetaphil values Perfect Corp. as a partner with whom they can work as they continuously look for new ways to engage their customers.

“Perfect Corp. is an amazing partner,” Criner says. “Cetaphil wants to continue expanding with AI because our consumers really respond to having this technology to guide them in their skincare journey and finding their skincare solutions. We want to continue growing with Perfect Corp. technology and expand it across different solutions and offerings to bring our consumers and professionals ever closer together.”

About Perfect Corp. 

Perfect Corp. is the leading SaaS AI and AR beauty and fashion tech solutions provider, dedicated to transforming shopping experiences through empowering brands to embrace the digital-first world. 

By partnering with the largest names in the industry, Perfect Corp.’s suite of enterprise solutions delivers synergistic, technology-driven experiences that facilitate sustainable, ultra-personalized, and engaging shopping journeys, as well as equipping brands with next generation of consumer goods.

Perfect Corp. offers a complementary suite of mobile apps, including YouCam Makeup and YouCam Perfect, to provide a consumer platform to virtually try-on new products, perform skin diagnoses, edit photos, and share experiences with the YouCam Community. 

To learn more, please visit PerfectCorp.com.