IS THE FUTURE OF BEAUTY PERSONALIZED? : CASE STUDY FOR MICROBIOME SKINCARE BRAND SKINOME

Abstract: The researcher takes a user-centric empirical approach to estimate different consumer group participant views on the personalization technology adoption within the skincare industry. In addition, the study aims to highlight the main identified opportunities and concerns that users associate with the personalized technology solutions within the industry, such as skincare and product quizzes, in-depth questionnaires, smart skin analysis tools, and others. The empirical study sample consists of 17 subjects who represent three different generation groups (Generations X, Y, and Z). For data analysis purposes, the author has performed content and discourse analysis, sentiment assessment, and word cloud visualizations using the Python word cloud library. The conducted sentiment analysis shows that the Gen X group’s users overall have a negative attitude towards personalization technology adoption for the skincare (average sentiment: 0.294) in comparison to Gen Y and Gen Z consumers whose sentiment analysis results showed neutral and positive tendencies. The content analysis showed that Gen Y and Gen Z consumers are more concerned about the data governance and its associated risks than Gen X consumers for whom the results and skin health-related improvements were indicated as having higher importance. According to the gathered data, the majority of Gen Y and Gen Z consumer group participants see personalization technology as the future of the skincare industry; nevertheless, Gen X consumers believe that personalization within the skincare will not be attached to one brand and will be more focussed on addressing specific skin conditions and concerns as well as will be more evidence-based.