In recent years, the makers of beauty and personal-care products have been
using near field communication (NFC) to create a competitive advantage. They
know that today’s consumers are tech savvy and are likely to have an
NFC-enabled smartphone with them at all times—and brand owners are
using this knowledge to deliver more engaging experiences. They’re
equipping their products with NFC tags, thereby making familiar products like
cosmetics, fragrances, aesthetic devices and other beauty items part of the
Internet of Things (IoT).
Smart, connected products let brand owners engage with consumers in new ways
and also help the bottom line. A report from the Harvard Business Review found
that smart products have an 85% lower cost per engagement and a 152% lower
cost per lead.
Why are so many products using NFC as a way to connect? Because NFC tags are
small, flexible and battery free so they integrate easily into labels, caps
and packages. They let everyday products become intelligent, aware and
interactive. With just a tap of a smartphone, NFC tags can connect consumers
to the cloud, for access to digital applications and social platforms, or can
be used to deliver information to the manufacturer’s enterprise,
supply-chain and customer-management systems. As a result, NFC tags let brand
owners increase brand transparency and accountability, create closer bonds
with customers and gain insights into consumer behavior.
Full Life-cycle Benefits
NFC works at the edge of the IoT, making it possible to deploy data security
and intelligence capabilities on everyday products. The benefits begin in
production when NFC tags equip each product with a unique ID for use in the
supply chain and after the sale. Equipped with additional security features,
NFC tags can help verify originality and provide sourcing and ingredient
information as part of quality assurance programs. This is important, because
inauthentic products are a real concern in this market sector. According to
Vandagraf Research, 10% of luxury beauty products and 20% of mass-market
fragrances are fake. What’s more, consumer analysts have found that
consumers expect greater brand transparency and accountability as a standard
(Mintel).
Brand owners can reassure consumers by letting them verify that the products
they’re considering are, in fact, genuine and made with ingredients
they can believe in. NFC tags let consumers confirm originality and access
extra information, including product reviews, helpful hints and usage guides.
NFC tags also support loyalty programs and can reward VIP customers with
exclusive content or entry into dedicated social communities. Customers can
enable automatic reordering when supplies run low and can receive recycling
tips when it’s time to dispose of the product.
From the consumer’s point of view, NFC delivers a new level of
personalization and convenience. Brand owners are finding that customer bonds
are slipping and, as a result, there’s a need to engage with consumers
earlier and develop a deeper dialog that goes beyond the purchase. Tapping a
smartphone to a product’s NFC tag before you buy lets you explore
options, with interactive guides that let you do things like identify your
skin type, find your favorite fragrance profile or scan an image of your face
so you can experiment with lip color or different styles. After the sale, the
NFC tag becomes a link to how-to tutorials, suggestions for new beauty
regimens, expert styling tips or previews of new products. With each
interaction, consumers become more engaged and help brand owners gain a deeper
understanding of consumer behavior.
The Power of NFC Solutions
Here are four main ways that NXP’s innovative security features and
interactive functionalities can enhance NFC operation and support brand
differentiation, whether interacting with Android or iOS devices:
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Better Brand Transparency and Accountability
NFC tags equipped with high-level security features, such as originality
signatures, cryptography and tamper detection, can be trusted more
completely to verify an item’s authenticity and integrity at any time
and at any point in its life cycle. By giving instant access to product
information and authentication about where, how and when a product was made,
brand owners can provide greater transparency and accountability to their
consumers. Also, an individual NFC tag can be securely assigned to a
specific location or distributor, making it easier to identify sales outside
of authorized markets.
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Next-generation Customer Experiences
NFC tags let brand owners evolve a customer’s experiences by engaging
more dynamically and more intimately. Customer interactions can reward
purchases and make ownership more valuable with personalized services,
loyalty programs, exclusive lifestyle content and tailored VIP services.
Promotional campaigns, involving vouchers or coupons, benefit from an added
level of security to prevent the misuse of discounts or unauthorized access
to exclusive member benefits. These things are made possible by advancements
in NFC chip functionalities, such as tap-unique URLs or
proof-of-tag-presence.
Brands can also use on-chip opening status to prompt targeted messages.
Pre-sale messages for sealed products can, for example, include product
reviews or buying incentives, while post-sale messages for opened products can
include loyalty rewards and access to social communities.
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Improved Insight into Customer Interests and Behaviors
Brand
owners can access real-time intelligence from their products by
acquiring first party customer data from NFC enabled interactions.
Cloud-based monitoring reveals what consumers are buying and interacting
with, so brands can deliver tailored content and re-target messaging for
future purchases.
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Smart Operation of Beauty Devices
With personal-care devices,
when a new accessory, such as a brush head, is attached to the main device
with a built-in reader, a secure NFC tag can automatically and safely
transfer settings to ensure proper use while accommodating automated
configurations. Secure authentication can verify the origin of any
consumables and can enable access to helpful hints and usage guides. Devices
can be set up to track usage and send replenishment alerts, and consumers
can prompt fast, secure ordering with just a tap of their phone.
Provider of Choice
As the leading supplier of secure NFC solutions, NXP offers
a wide variety of tag solutions,
from feature-light, ultra-low-cost tags like the
NTAG 210µ, to tags with opening detection like
NTAG 213 TagTamper, to feature-rich, advanced security tags, such as the
NTAG 424 DNA
series. We also supply interoperable reader devices for use with our tags in
system solutions. What’s more, we provide value-added NFC services, so our
customers can deploy quickly and easily, at any scale. NXP’s
NTAG 2GO Configure and Trust
supports a cost-efficient IC customization program, creating NFC chips that
are ready to use as shipped and
NTAG 2GO Cloud Services
give developers access to a secure, scalable and privacy-protected cloud
platform with an easy-to-use management portal.
Case Studies in Innovation
World-class beauty and personal-care brands rely on our solutions because we
are the market leader in NFC technology solutions. Here are just a few
examples of how brand owners are putting our NFC tags to work.
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Philips VisaPure, USA
In this line of personal-care devices for skincare and aesthetics, the
international health-technology company Philips uses NFC to authenticate
brush heads and configure device operation, setting preferences for rotation
and pressure. Consumers also have the option to easily reorder accessories.
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VIVACY, France
To protect their STYLAGE lidocaine products, a range of
dermal fillers for use in anti-aging and aesthetic medicine, VIVACY places
an NFC label on each box. Distributors and consumers anywhere around the
world can e-verify the authenticity of VIVACY products by scanning them with
their smartphones via a dedicated mobile app, called My Vivacy.
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Henkel Indola Haircare, Germany
This giant of international consumer goods equips their salon-exclusive
Indola brand of haircare and style products with NFC tags. The tags let
professional stylists find inspiration with product formulas, a creative
look book, styling tutorials and more. The tags also provide access to a
peer community where a stylist can connect with colleagues, exchange ideas
and garner support.
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Albéa Cosmetics Packaging, France
As the world’s #1 wholesaler of cosmetic packaging,
Paris-based Albéa offers a new line of packaging solutions, called the
Internet of Beauty (IoB), which uses NFC to enhance consumer experiences by
enabling a range of services, including quick access to product information
and interaction with the brand community.
Take the Next Step
NFC tags represent a way to revolutionize the everyday routines of consumers
while ramping up personalization and increasing value. NFC tags let brand
owners realize the potential of the IoT and also offer new methods for
fostering trust, demonstrating supply-chain integrity and increasing revenues.
To learn more about how NXP’s smart, secure NFC solutions can transform
beauty and personal-care products, visit our
dedicated site for NFC
or contact your local
NXP sales office.
