At the event held in Chennai, CK Kumaravel, co-founder & CMD, Naturals Salon & Spa, said that the Indian customer was changing fast. “In my childhood days, one bar of soap was shared among three children, but today each young person uses many products,” he said. “Customers now decide what they want, and brands have to follow their needs,” he added.
He said that young India now guided many decisions for older people, as the Internet and smartphones gave the youth more information. He said this change prompted the family to view the market in a new way.
Kumaravel said Naturals first planned to extend its own brand into the Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) market. His daughter and Founder-CEO of NXTFACE, Dhamyanthi, said that this idea was “old-fashioned”. This led to the creation of NXTFACE.
The brand focuses on the shift from teenage-hood to adulthood, which the company refers to as “Second Face”.
A main part of the launch was the real-time camera-based AI skin check. Users can look at their phone screen, and the system studies their skin and gives product and routine suggestions. The AI works on visual data and does not need any photo upload. Kumaravel said the business would use AI to understand customers better, to automate tasks and to plan future products.
