Customers of Most Beauty Products - Assignment Example

After Shave Gel: Make-up Paper For the past several years, women are the only customers of most beauty products out in the market, be it for slimming, hair grooming, skin whitening or tanning and other purposes. However, in these days, men are also competing with women not only on almost all beauty products but also on how they look particularly on the face. As a result, men wanted to shave unwanted hair in their face and to have a clear skin. This change in lifestyle among men had motivated business pharmaceuticals to come up with a product that provides that “good looking” face in the form of after shave gel. However, not all after shave gel possess the same quality effects. Some are not satisfying yet expensive for many reasons while others have the quality men wanted in an after shave gel. With these discrepancies, our group had an interest with the after shave gel products and conducted a research on it for the purpose of determining a better product for treatment of acne among men and at the same time to provide convenience. But the study seemed limited. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present a discussion on the product components, manufacture, and marketing strategies as additional information and a form of improvement of the former study. It aims to answer the following questions: 1. What modification could be added to improve the former products? 2. What process is involved in the manufacture of the product? 3. How to market the product? 4. What is learned from the study design? The group had chosen Gillette and Clearasil as the focus product of study. Gillette and Clearasil are manufactured by Johnson and Johnson, Aveeno, PNG, and Clinique companies. Both products come in a handy container or tube in which undoubtedly is easy to manipulate when in use. However, containers differ in size. Gillette comes in a shorter and wider tube while Clearasil is contained in a longer and slimmer tube. Plastic tubes are preferred for convenience and environmental friendly as compared to spray method. Their presentation of labels is also not the same. Each has its own prompts for the customers to easily associate them with shaving. Chemical components of Gillette and Clearasil include Benzoyl Peroxide which is 2.5% and Aloe Vera. Benzoyl peroxide has been among the first solution for treating acne and still among the popular acne treatment these days. Benzoyl peroxide is used because it has the peeling and anti bactericidal effect to kill bacteria and clear the skin pores of debris. However, before skin is cleared, it has to be rubbed off of its the epidermis which may cause skin abrasions, flaking, redness and burning sensation as a part of the debriding process. This discomfort may be mild to severe but rarely do they occur. With the irritating actions of Benzoyl peroxide, Aloe Vera is added to moisturize the skin and to counter act skin irritation. The combination is deemed perfect since each product compensate the deficiency of the other. What modification could be added to improve the former products? To further improve the product, Benzoyl peroxide has to be encapsulated. This is to reduce irritation as a side effect of the chemical. However, to achieve best result, encapsulation has to undergo process to trap lipophylic components inside the amorphous silicon dioxide. This involves a run in the oil-in-water emulsion process with an active material of either tetramethoxysilane or tetraethoxysilane. As a result, the silica shell may harden. The formation of hard silica shell results from the hydrolysis of silicon droplets and condensation of silica which occurs in the oil-water interface. This way, the encapsulated drug may consist with it silica microsphere that may form a barrier not only between the skin and the medication but also with other chemicals used in mixing. Since benzoyl peroxide is known to have difficulty stabilizing with other chemicals, the process of micro encapsulation may release active ingredients to minimize such problem. The process however, has to be done with cautions. Factors such as acid-base catalysis, surfactants, nature of silicon precursors, temperature, time, and mixing conditions should be under control to come up with the desired particle size and porosity. The advantage of this silica encapsulated benzoyl peroxide is that it significantly reduced the lesion counts in the face compared with non-encapsulated therapy. Reports from customers who had been using the encapsulated drugs reported positive feedbacks. Results of study where several patients with comedones, papules and pustules who participated showed reduced lesions of either type. Not only that the new improved product is effective but also safe for the person to use. In addition, it is environmentally friendly because of the improved containers. What process is involved in the manufacture of the product? Not only has benzoyl peroxide had to be improved. Aloe Vera likewise has to undergo chemical changes to get the best of it. Aloe Vera has many uses. It had contributed greatly to food industry and as a beauty component which made the plant popular. However, before benefitting from aloe Vera, it has to be properly processed to extract the needed moisturizing property. Aloe Vera gel powder is derived from the pulp of the leaf of the plant. Leaves need not to be of quality but it is imperative to consider that it should be fresh right from harvest or refrigerated to keep the juice intact or prevent loss of the biological properties. Storing or postponing the processing of the leaves may cause decomposition of the gel as a result of natural enzymatic reaction and may even harbor bacteria since oxygen are present in the pulp. Long term treatment of the leaves with enzymes may also destroy its biological polysaccharide compound which is the most important substance of the plant. Processing the pulps needs to consider well developed processing techniques to preserve and maintain all the bioactive natural ingredients of the plant. This way, the end quality of the product is better. Aloe vera leaf has to undergo the process of crushing, grinding and pressing. This is followed with several steps of fine filtration and stabilization. Crushing includes mechanically separating the gel matrix from the cortex. This whole leaf process allows the cellulose to be dissolved. Grinding is the separation of the gel from the leaf which is facilitated by placing the cut pieces into the Fitz Mill grinding to crush the leaves into a soup like mixture. Obtained aloe liquid is then treated with chemicals like activated carbon to remove aloin and anthraquinones and to decolourize the substance as it passes through the pressing machine. The pressing process is complete if the liquid shows no signs of residue. Several steps of filtration, sterilization and stabilization may further improve the resultant liquid. Application of cold and heat treatment, and exposure to ultraviolet rays sterilizes or purifies the liquid. However, temperature has to be balanced especially the application of heat so that it will not reduced the activity level that may in turn affect the quality. To make the resulting liquid to powder, it has to be dried through pasteurization to get rid of the water content. The resulting powder is then incorporated with benzoyl peroxide to act as moisturizing agent. How to market the product? After analyzing the product, conducting survey, and improving the former product, the strategy of the group is to manufacture some samples, do some demonstration in small groups to apply the product and at the same time give dole out samples. Samples should be packed in small or mini tubes or containers for the customers to try. However, samples should not just be given away. It should be accompanied with real demonstration to customers showing the right shaving techniques and tips. Demonstration should also include some educational teachings to the prospect clients discussing shortly why customers should patronize the product. Components, benefits, and improvements from the former product should all be contained in the presentation. This way, the new product is not only introduced but may effectively shift the focus of the customers to have an interest on the product and talk about it. This could also target customers which have not been reached by the product. The strategy should be followed with aggressive selling but sensitive pricing should be done. Improved after shave gel may compete with current known products. What is learned from the study design? The design study had taught me many things. One is that I had learned to write the paper correctly. Without such, I should have done a different proposal and would not have succeeded in completing this paper. The writing itself guided me to become a better writer and maybe in the future could excel in this aspect. Apart from this, I should have no opportunity to explore the right components of the after shave gel and should have cause more damage to customers with the strong product. Furthermore, the design experience provided me the basic tools and skills in improving existing products to the benefit of human kinds. Read More