DEVELOPING 
INNOVATIVE MEN’S SKINCARE RAZORS FOR THE JAPANESE MARKET

The Japanese market is one of the most skincare-driven markets in the world, and the male segment is no different. Japanese men are constantly on the look for products with added benefits, and Schick razors were looking to develop a new product to fulfill the demand.

 

I started by immersing myself in the category to better understand target Japanese consumer attitudes towards skincare and shaving through different lenses, such as technology, social shifts, and business models, for example. Armed with this knowledge, the team and I planned and spearheaded a multi-region design thinking program gathering stakeholders from R&D, insights, branding, marketing, and commercial departments across the US, Australia, Japan, and China to co-create over 80 new consumer-focused product ideas.

 

We then had consumers rank the ideas against a number of KPIs, to ultimately select those most likely to succeed via a commercial viability sorting workshop, where ideas were ranked according to feasibility, viability, and scalability. Product ideas were then developed into fully-fledged product concepts, including prototype hand sketches to be tested in a final consumer validation.

 

The winning concept fulfilled the unique shaving

and skincare needs of Japanese men, and have been submitted to Schick R&D team for production.

 

The product was launched in the Japanese market in early 2022.