Supplement-spiked food in Fancl Collaboration Series

Written by: Rebecca Milner on December 12, 2008 at 9:25 pm | In MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

Natural cosmetics leader Fancl has teamed up with Itoyakado food services to create a line of daily commodities spiked with Fancl branded health supplements. The Fancl Collaboration Series includes items such as bread, tofu, and sweets with added collagen, kale extract, germinated brown rice and “twintose” (a Fancl branded supplement made from Chicory root that purportedly aids mineral absorption).

These supplements, purported to encourage beauty within, are also used in Fancl’s existing beauty and healthcare products and are recognized components of the Fancl name. Just when we were getting used to see food and drinks boasting of collagen, “name-brand” collagen looks to shake up the competition. Actually the branding isn’t as obvious as you would think, the blue cross on the corner of the packaging indicates the Fancl collaboration.

Fancl is a well-known Japanese maker of beauty products and was one of the local forerunners of the natural, organic cosmetic movement. They also pioneered techniques such as making products in “clean rooms” so the name is associated with high quality production levels. The series, priced reasonably at ¥120 to ¥420, are sold exclusively at Itoyakado food stores from this month.

Tags: beauty, Fancl, FMCG, health, supplements
Category: MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

November 14th is Anti-Aging Day in Japan

Written by: Rebecca Milner on November 14, 2008 at 2:00 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

The NPO Anti-Aging Network (AAN) has declared November 14th to be “Anti-Aging Day.” AAN is a network of medical professionals and estheticians that provides information on the latest developments in anti-aging technology, practices, and preventative measures as well as general information on wellness as it pertains to lowering your “body age.” This year’s festivities will fall under the theme of “Now and forever beautiful and healthy through anti-aging” and will include seminars from well-known personalities in the medical and beauty fields.

We do have to wonder, however, does anti-aging really need more awareness, the way we have “breast cancer awareness month?” Anti-aging is certainly a national obsession (though one I am not claiming is limited to Japan) and is rivaled in its marketing usage here perhaps only by “metabo” (metabolic syndrome). There is more to this parallel: aging, once a concern of vanity, is being increasingly positioned as a “lifestyle disease,” like metabolic syndrome and stress related illnesses, that can be fought through a combination of scientific developments and wellness strategies.

Tags: Anti-aging, beauty, health, Metabo, Wellness
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Busy women get their own skincare lines

Written by: Rebecca Milner on October 7, 2008 at 3:57 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

With winter just around the corner, cosmetics companies have moisturizer on the mind. Early indications show that “busy”—as in busy working women and busy mothers of young children—will be a key marketing buzzword.

AnnaDonna has a “Tired Skin Coating Suppli Moist Gel” targeting working women who need a long-lasting quick fix for the harsh affects of long hours and industrial strength air conditioners. The products function as an all in one with over 10 vitamins, hyaluronic acid, and co-enzyme 10. Meanwhile Dariya Cosme has launched “Mom’s Companion Pride,” another one step skin care product meant to simplify that contains a blend of the latest moisturizing elements.

The fact that marketers are creating two different target audiences—working women and mothers—for essential similar products is noteworthy in that it reflects a demand for individualized products. “Tired Skin Coating Suppli Moist Gel” costs ¥1,890 ($18) while “Mom’s Companion Pride” comes in less at ¥1,155 ($11).

Also worth mentioning is the October release of Shiseido’s new Revital Granas skin care line aimed at the 30-something market.

This mid-range products line, priced ¥1,890 to ¥15,750 ($18 to $149), ostensibly has it’s sights set on picking the designer bags of the growing number of career women feeling the first flush of the ageing process. The line will be available along with a digital skin analysis at department stores, following a launch at the posh Omotesando Hills shopping complex.

Tags: beauty, cosmetics, Women
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Face shaping tools hit the shelves for self-change

Written by: Sascha Faustka on September 28, 2008 at 11:59 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 8 Comments

Unsatisfied with your face? Is your mouth too wide or your head too big? Do you want to change the shape of your face without an expensive operation? If you feel like this, you may not be alone, as it seems that a lot of Japanese people might think the same way.

Flipping through fashion magazines or switching through the channels on the television in Japan, it won’t take long to figure out that there are certain face and body types that appeal to Japanese tastes. Nowhere else in the world are young people are trying so hard to look like their idols, and are willing to spend so much money on fashion and beauty.

The cosmetic industry therefore offers a widespread quantity of products: from simple make up, to lash and hair extensions, and contact lenses to make your eyes look bigger - all quite common products people elsewhere in the world use as well.

But here are two products you may not have heard of so far:

People thinking to have a too big face or want to get a slimmer cheek, strain skin, or get rid of a double chin could be helped by the Kogao Meiku Beruto (small face make belt). According to the manufacturer, the face will become smaller and slimmer by just stringing the belt around the head while sleeping or relaxing. Sounds easy, right?

Men who are unlucky with their face can also be helped. This next product claims that if you feel like your mouth is too wide and makes you look like you eat too much, you better try Tex Mex’s “Slim Mouth”. This simple looking product is supposed to make your mouth slimmer and smaller by just training the right muscles three minutes every day.

If it comes to the face, Japanese in general seem to agree: “the smaller, the better”.

The small face belt is available in internet shops for about 900Yen ($9).
Tex Mex’s Slim Mouth is available at Tokyu Hands for 820Yen ($8).

Tags: beauty, cosmetics
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Tofu face masks and other natural, edible, beauty treatments

Written by: Rebecca Milner on August 17, 2008 at 4:11 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | No Comments

With the LOHAS boom in full swing, more and more consumers are taking notice of what’s in their food and in their beauty products. Now the latest thing is to combine the two: beauty products that are made from all natural food stuffs.

While retailers, like the Girls’ Walker produced Cosme Kitchen, a select shop for imported natural beauty products, play up the idea for marketing, another company, Hiina is offering the real deal.

Hiina, a company staffed by all women, has introduced a face-mask made from 100% soy milk, or more specifically yuba, the sheet of soy milk that forms at the top when the liquid is heated at a low temperature.

Each face-mask is made by hand and, because it is 100% additive free, delivered frozen. While we’ve seen chilled cosmetics before, produced in medical quality labs, the Hiina face-masks are made of foodstuffs and thus produced in a food manufacturing plant, with the equivalent hygiene standards, and frozen immediately for preservation. Thanks to all this, a set of 5 masks retails for ¥6,000.

Like sake brewers (the inspiration for the famous SK-II skin care line), tofu makers often have noticeably bright and smooth skin on their hands. So Hiina applied this observation to where women are most concerned, the face, claiming that soy milk, which contains saponin, has the power to exfoliate dead skin and draw out pore-clogging debris.

Another, albeit unlikely, participant in this edible cosmetics movement is Tokyo Gas, which features an article on home kitchen made beauty treatments on its Food Lifestyle #110 Q&A website (110 is the Japanese 911).

Specifically, treatments that can be made from typically Japanese kitchen products, like sake, seaweed, and rice bran, making this just one more example of the “back to Japan” trend in beauty care.

Tags: beauty, cosmetics, health, LOHAS
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS