A North American cosmetics major wanted to develop a new range of applicators for their beauty product. The traditional applicator design uses wire brush technology to deliver the product, The objective of this design program was to develop applicators that are unique and meets the growing demands of the consumer. Use of new injection molding technologies was targeted to provide breakthrough application benefits, unique consumer design and branding opportunities while sustaining proprietary advantage.

The key challenge was to identify preferred applicator designs that would deliver desired consumer experience, in-use confidence and product acceptance. This required fast track development and quick consumer testing and evaluation.

Axiom was contracted to partner with cosmetics major’s prototyping and consumer evaluation teams to form a global 24/7 fast-cycle closed loop innovation process which led to identifying breakthrough applicator design.

Program Highlights

• Divergent Innovation: 20 times More design iterations than past projects, more than 60 unique applicator CAD designs were developed
  
• Innovation Speed: Fast cycle evaluation of options with more than 75% reduction in elapsed time.
• Cost and weight optimization
• Development of 3D and 2D CAD models
• Developed rapid functional prototypes for consumer testing

Result :

• The new family of beauty products along with the applicator propelled the cosmetics major to # 1 position in terms of market share
• This also supported global expansion with first-mover advantage with sustained exclusivity in technology application.
  

Core Competency Leverage: