Individual Assignment

Case Study

SHISEIDO
Name: Vu Lan Chi

ID: 1911150012

Class: KDOE307(GD2-HK1-2021).2

Instructor: MSc. Nguyen Hong Hanh

Page number: 13

Ha Noi, December 2021

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 SUMMARY

Shiseido is one of the strongest Asian cosmetic brands. Originated from Japan – a country
has for long been known for its prowess in technology, production efficiency, and superior
quality, Shiseido has made it to global brand rankings. Shiseido is one of Japan's few non-
technology firms to have built a name for itself in the global fashion, beauty, and cosmetics
markets. Shiseido has been able to enter international market by producing high quality,
relevant, and fascinating products, using its unique heritage and the favorable impacts of
its nation of origin. They recognized the need of providing clients with a highly
differentiated experience while also exciting them on a regular basis with new and high-
quality products. This assignment will analysis the success of Shiseido in the international
market through international business strategy and organizational structure.

1. SHISEIDO INFORMATION

1.1. HISTORY

The history of Shiseido is not only the story about products and services, this is the story of
a company always tries to take a broader perspective but still, keep the culture and seeks to
create new value.

Shiseido was founded by Arinobu Fukuhara as Japan’s first private Western-style pharmacy
in Ginza Tokyo in 1872. From the beginning, the name Shiseido already expressed an
“Oriental style, Western learning”. That name includes the determination to create a new
culture, build up a new business based on Western medicine by high quality, authentic
products. Shiseido stepped into the world of cosmetics in 1897 with the introduction of
Eudermine lotion – a symbol of Shiseido aesthetic beauty. Eudermine success created a
premise for Shiseido cosmetics business. From 1916, Shiseido reoriented from
pharmaceuticals to cosmetics. Especially, in 1923, Shiseido began its Cosmetics Chain
Store System and worked to strengthen it.

In 1927, this company changes limited partnership to joint-stock company Shiseido Co.,
Ltd with Shinzo Fukuhara as its first president. And in 1949, Shiseido stocks were listed on
the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the first time.

It was in 1957 that Shiseido first took its products to the world beyond Japan and starting
with Taiwan began establishing overseas sales companies one after another. Through these,
the Shiseido beauty method became a vehicle for communicating the Japanese sense of
hospitality and customer-care to the broader world. On the company’s 100th anniversary of
entering the cosmetic industry in 1997, with the escalating globalization of society, the

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company set out to bring new value, with even more beauty and depth, to even more world
regions.

In 2012, Shiseido launched its “watashi+” and “Beaty & Co.” website to utilize the far-
reaching potential of the Internet to connect and share value with an even broader spectrum
of people (Co, Shiseido. (2021))

1.2. INTERNATIONALIZATION PROCESS

In the second half of the twentieth century, Shiseido rebuilt its overseas operations in Asia
with its first overseas sales company in Taiwan in 1957(Co, Shiseido. (2021)). Asia was a
central theme of Shiseido’s expansion plan, and China was a high priority given its massive
market potential. (Kazuyuki Motohashi, 2016, p.162) The Chinese market did not open for
foreign companies until the late 70s, so it was not until 1981, Shiseido began selling
cosmetics in Beijing China. As one of the earliest entrants into the Chinese market, Shiseido
took the first-mover advantage to develop trusting relationships with the government and
penetrate the market that was little explored by Western competitors. Other from China
market, Shiseido soon established its company in Singapore (1970), Thailand (1972). In
Vietnam, Shiseido has been selling skin care and makeup products under “SHISEIDO”
brand through agent stores since 1997. In response to growing needs caused by the high
growth of the cosmetics market, accompanied by dramatic economic growth, Shiseido
created Shiseido Cosmetics Vietnam Co., Ltd and began operations in January 2010
(Kazuyuki Motohashi, 2016). Shiseido also tried to get into the Korean market in 1990s,
unfortunately, the Korean cosmetic market has been had strong local manufacturers and
sale channels left Shiseido not received expected result in this market (Kazuyuki Motohashi,
2016).

When it comes to entrance of Shiseido into the US market, the company first distributed its
products in Hawaii, for two years before setting up an office in the US in 1964 (Co, Shiseido,
2021). It was one year after setting up the office that Shiseido officially began to market
itself in the US through its US entity. Over the subsequent half decade, Shiseido limited its
distribution in selected luxury department stores. Through three and a half years of testing
on these department stores, Shiseido accumulated insights into American customers and
market opportunities. With such market knowledge, Shiseido adjusted its positioning to
target the middle and upper category and began to scale up its American business. It was
also at that point that the company brought thirty of its well-trained beauty consultants from
Japan to promote sales in American department stores.

In Europe, Shiseido did not gain meaningful traction until its entrance into France in 1980,
although the company had been selling products in Italy since 1968. In 1980, Shiseido

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established a joint venture with Laboratoires Pierre Farbre, a French pharmaceutical
company, to market its cosmetics products in France. Through collaborating with the well-
known French fashion designer Serge Lutens, Shiseido achieved increasing brand
recognition in the European market. In 1988, Shiseido further expanded to the U.K., first at
Harrods in Knightsbridge and then in Kendalls in Manchester, Rackhams in Birmingham,
as well as Selfridges. In the European market, Shiseido put more stress on its advanced
beauty techniques and less on its Japanese-ness, a strategy different than that for the U.S.
market dating back in the 60s.

2. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

2.1. MACRO ENVIRONMENTS

PESTLE analysis is a powerful and widely used tool for understanding strategic risk. It
identifies the changes and the effects of the external macro environment on a firm’s
competitive position. PESTLE is an acronym for four sources of change: political,
economic, social, technological, environment and legal components.

The application of PESTLE analysis can help identify the major macro environmental
forces that shape the Shiseido strategy and competitive landscape and support its strategic
decision-making process. As Shiseido looks to expand and leverage its competencies and
core capabilities, conducting the PESTLE analysis is imperative for developing effective
strategies and achieving long-term growth objectives.

2.1.1. POLITICAL FACTORS

Shiseido currently operates in approximately 120 countries and region around the world
(Co. Shiseido, 2021.). Each country has it very own political tensions. Growing tension and
instabilities in the global political environment can affect the industry growth and limit the
growth opportunities available to Shiseido. Another aspect we need to consider is changing
policies. It is important for Shiseido to study the current trends in the country’s political
scenario as changes in government may alter the government’s priorities towards the
development of different industries.

2.1.2. ECONOMIC FACTORS

Economic factors have strong effects on Shiseido international business. Especially,

COVID-19 ravaged the world in 2020, triggering an economic crisis unforeseeable at the
beginning of the year. The cosmetics industry was also greatly affected by lifestyle changes
resulting from COVID-19. In Q1 of 2020, Shiseido Company reported a net sales decrease

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by 15.8% while net profit and operating profit fell by 95,8% and 83% respectively
(cosmeticsdesign-asia.com, 2020). The pandemic forced Shiseido to act.

2.1.3. SOCIAL FACTORS

As expressed in the company slogan “Love the differences”, Shiseido recognize and respect
each other in all the ways that make a person unique such as gender, age, and nationality,
as well as ways of thinking, to realize the corporate philosophy of Shiseido. The company
work on creating new value by promoting diversity and inclusion at the workplace
Marketing the Made in Japan product, focusing on prestige, premium brands. On wasteland
once used for earthquake drills in the small town of Otawara north of Tokyo, Japanese giant
Shiseido has built its first domestic factory in 36 years, hoping to capitalise on a boom for
"Made in Japan" cosmetics. Shiseido chief executive Masahiko Uotani told AFP that a
focus on the high end of the market and time-honoured attention to detail set them apart
from the foreign brands seeking to dominate globally.
In 2019, Shiseido increased its influencer marketing spending by 50% (Priya Rao, 2019).
The first of the 2019 marketing initiatives began in February with Shiseido’s refocused
marketing efforts on its hero skin-care category. That included a campaign for its Ultimune
Power Infusing Concentrate and Eudermine Revitalizing Essence involving a paid
ambassador contract with beauty editor-turned-influencer.

2.1.4. TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS

China is the world’s largest E- Figure 1. Retail E-Commerce Sales in China
commerce market with over 50% of 2018-2023
global E-commerce transactions ($ trillions)
coming from China. We can see in $6.00
the following paragraph, retail E- $4.00
commerce sales in China from $2.00
2018. In 2023, retail E-commerce
$0.00
sales in China is approximately 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
$4.096 trillions
Shiseido going ahead will be to maintain the blend that it created between the oriental
mystique and western cosmetics science and technology. It becomes significant as Shiseido
has been acquiring brands in the US and Europe with its own heritage and unique brand
stories.

2.1.5. ENVIRONMENT FACTORS

Developing sustainable products and packaging. In order to provide products with a smaller
environmental footprint, Shiseido are promoting analysis based on the Life Cycle

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Assessment. For packaging, since the footprint at the procurement and disposal stages is
large, Shiseido are promoting initiatives to "reduce," "reuse," "recycle," and "replace,"
which are effective ways of reducing the footprint.
As a result of climate change, the amount of UV radiation has been increasing. UV exposure
for people around the world is also expected to increase. In response to this, Shiseido have
been developing sunscreen that protects skin without negatively impacting the environment

2.1.6. LEGAL FACTORS

Based on the 2019 Industrial Catalogue China is set to ban the production of new cosmetic
products containing microbeads by 31 December 2020. Sales of existing cosmetic products
containing microbeads will be prohibited by 31 December 2022. China’s war on
microbeads will first target manufacturing of microbead-containing cosmetics and later the
ban will expand to cover sales activities. (King & Wood Mallesons, 2020)

2.2. INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENT

In orders to analyze industry environment, this article will use The Porter’s five forces
analysis includes the elements of threat of new entrant, bargaining power of supplier,
bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute product and rivalry among competitors.

2.2.1. THREAT OF NEW ENTRANT: Low

Figure 2. Cosmetics market share 2020

The cosmetic industry has a low
threat of new entrants. This is due
L'Oreal to several factors. The first is the
Unilever huge costs of entry. To produce a
The Estee Lauder new unique cosmetic product
P&G requires a lot of resources in terms
Shiseido of research, development,
Coty technologies, actual
LVMH manufacturing process…
Beiersdorf
Secondly, this industry has the
huge competition prevent in the
industry. In 2020, the companies holding the largest market share in the global cosmetics
industry including big name L’Oréal, Unilever, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Procter & Gamble
and Coty Inc (L’Oréal 2020 annual report, n.d.). These companies have a large market share
and, there are many other small-scale competitors who also have small market share and
who reduce the overall profitability of firms in the industry

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 2.2.2. BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS: High

The cosmetic industry has a high bargaining power of buyers. This is due to the increase
competition and availability of cosmetic products from a variety of manufacturers. The
buyers have low switching cost which mean they can easily decide to purchase another
product. Most of these products are undifferentiated or standardized, the buyers have wide
choice. It’s possible for consumers to force manufacturers to reduce their product prices
through purchasing those of their competitors. This is a challenge which manufacturers of
cosmetic products face across the world including Shiseido.

2.2.3. BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS: Low

The reason for low bargaining power of suppliers in cosmetics industry is the large number
of suppliers and substitutes in the market. The inputs used in cosmetic industry is well
differentiate. It would have an impact on both differentiation and cost There are also
substitute inputs. there are many cosmetics products have developed by both the large and
small scale of manufacturers. The supply is so huge that the consumer can influence the
market prices and opposed to the supplier.

2.2.4. THREAT OF SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS: High

In the comics industry there are so many competitors as has been discussed. there is
therefore a high threat of substitute products. if manufacturers sell their products at higher
price or if the products are low quality, when consumers are able to purchase substitutes
from the many competitors who are present in the market environment. It is therefore
essential for the market players in the cosmetics to be innovative if they are to tackle the
challenge of threat of substitute.

2.2.5. RIVELRY AMONG EXISTING COMPETITORS: High

The competition in the global cosmetics industry is of the highest level because of the
strength of the competitors in the industry. Many cosmetics brands have international
presence and acceptance which is the reason for fierce rivalry in the global cosmetics
industry. Although the competition is high but the competition is not negatively impacting
the current state due to the massive growth of the industry.

3. COMPANY RESOURCE AUDIT

3.1. TANGIBLE
Shiseido have 8 global innovation centers and 12 production sites worldwide and selling
their products in about 120 countries with approximately 46000 employees (Co. Shiseido,
2021).
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Shiseido has developed a wide distribution network throughout Japan, throughout Asia and
all major markets in the world. The company has 3 main distribution channels: High-end
product showroom, with staff to advise customers; Representative office (branch): Selling
high-end and mid-range products, with staff to advise customers; Sales agent: Provide
intermediate to primary products for owners of clean cosmetics stores.
As of December 28, 2021, Shiseido net worth is $22.47B (Macrotrends.net, 2021) and total
assets for the quarter ending September 30, 2021, were $11.293B (Macrotrends.net, 2021).
Shiseido posted a nine-month net profit of more than 36 billion yen, after having recorded
a loss in the same period a year prior in Sept. 30 (Wetherille, 2021). Shiseido is in top 10
biggest cosmetics company in the world in account of net profit. Shiseido financial
resources is adequate for any up coming strategy
3.2. INTANGIBLE
Step into cosmetics industry since 1897, up to this point, Shiseido have built a good
reputation within this competitive industry. The company have a high rate of loyal customer
worldwide especially in Asian market such as Japan or China. Shiseido have offered
products and services to enrich the lives of people everywhere, responding to everchanging
social value diverse needs of humanity. Shiseido strive to promote a broader range of social
values. By offering various avenues of education, aim to move away from monoculture,
stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination to nurture a society of diversity and inclusion.
With products to be sold in 120 countries, Shiseido gained high reputation. When ever
anyone mention Japanese cosmetics, people will think about Shiseido. Shiseido is iconic
cosmetics company not only in Japan but also in the world
Shiseido has an experienced management team which are structured to be small for quicl
decision-making. Shiseido are on the fast track of renovating offices around the world.
Teeming with life and buzzing with innovative ideas, they are designed so Shiseido people
can interact freely and effectively across time zones, not only with one another but with the
vibrant local communities and broader society as well.

4. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY

As a multinational cosmetic company, Shiseido soon realize their advantages and
disadvantages of their global business and they operate by transnational strategy.
Shiseido has a global network that supports the technology of the company. Via the multi-
hub network, Shiseido has 8 global innovation centers which take advantage of and utilize
their regional strengths, located in Japan, Asia Pacific, USA, and Europe. Shiseido are
promoting a “multi-hub network,” allowing 8 centers around the world to pursue research
by taking advantage of and maximizing their regional strengths to meet local consumer
needs and develop outcomes globally. Besides that, Shiseido has 12 production sites around
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the world in Japan, Asia Pacific, USA and Europe. To secure further growth in the future,
Shiseido aims to establish a stable production system in the medium to long-term. (Co,
Shiseido, 2019)
4.1. REASON WHY SHISEIDO CHOOSE TRANSNATIONAL STRATEGY
Firstly, Shiseido have strong pressure for cost reduction. When enter the global market,
Shiseido have to face up with many big competitors in cosmetics industry such as Estee
lauder, L’Oréal, Johnson & Johnson, Coty, P&G, Unilever. Under the cost reduction from
the competitors that compete directly with Shiseido, the company has always taken action
to reduce their cost.
Another reason is strong pressure for local responsive. Unlike other products, such as
automobiles or consumer electronics, cosmetics are less readily disembodied from their
country of origin and face high pressures from local responsiveness. Anthropological
research has long demonstrated how culture has a pronounced impact on the use of
cosmetics. (Cordwell and Schwarz, 1979)
4.2. SHISEIDO TRANSNATIONAL STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
4.2.1. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Shiseido has formulated its unique research and development philosophy “DYNAMIC
HARMONY” with the aim to strengthening its R&D activities. Shiseido have redefined
and articulated their strengths as unique R&D concept of creating unique unprecedented
value by fusing seemingly opposite, oil-and-water values.
Amid the ever-diversifying social environment and consumer needs, radical innovation is
vital for a company to achieve continuous growth. Based on this viewpoint, the company
will try to visualize strengths and uniqueness in the R&D field both internally and externally
through the establishment of five research approaches and maximize the capabilities of
researchers from diverse backgrounds around the world. Through these initiatives, Shiseido
will accelerate the creation of innovation aiming to further strengthen R&D division and
provide new products and better services based on corporate mission “BEAUTY
INNOVATIONS FOR A BETTER WORLD”.
4.2.2. SUPPLY NETWORK
Shiseido supply network actively engaged in all regions of the work. It allows the company
to keep a very close ear to their markets, developing solutions and address the market
specific needs and proactively adapting Shiseido strategies with agility and speed.
The company supply network role is to deliver the most agile, efficient, and responsible
“end to end” solutions, creating a competitive advantage. Secondly, it is actively engaged
teams, always honoring Shiseido’s heritage, values and working principles (TRUST 8).
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Finally, it is a diverse inclusive team, able to adapt with best class agility to the ever-
changing market condition and consumer expectation all around the world.
4.2.3. COST MANAGEMENT
In the new Win 2023 strategy of Shiseido, the company planned to achieve 15 %OPM by
2023 through fundamental reform with key actions to increase profitability including
reduce cost of good sold by enhance productivity, improve product mix by increasing
skincare ratio and optimize the supply network.
Beside COGs, the company must deal with SG&A including marketing investment,
personnel expenses, R&D and other SG&A such as revised non-essential costs,
amortization of Drunk Elephant goodwill, etc. And depreciation of IT investment and
software development costs and in FY 2020, the company has succeeded in reducing the
SG&A (Takayuki Yokota, 2021)
4.2.4. CONSTRUCTION OF THE OPTIMAL BRAND PORTFOLIO
Shiseido divides brand business into four types based on customers' point-of-purchase type,
which are prestige, cosmetics, personal care, and professional, and reposition the brands to
cultivate many strong brands and execute marketing optimized for each area.
Prestige business: This is the core business of group, and the company aim at global growth.
The company cultivates global brands: "SHISEIDO," "bareMinerals," "Clé de Peau
BEAUTE," and "NARS." They lead the expansion of share by stable growth in Japan,
America, and Europe, and growth in the high growth markets: Travel retail, China, and
Asia.
Cosmetics business: Shiseido introduce the lines of "Elixir" for China and other Asian
countries in the medium-to-high price and high-value added areas and "Za" as a low-price
product and for the young generation mainly in emerging countries in Asia, expecting that
the expansion of the sales scale will be accelerated by the growth of the markets mainly in
China and Asia. Also, Shiseido put a lot of effort into E- commerce, which is expanding,
in Japan and China.
Personal care business: Shiseido reform the positioning of brands in each category such as
hair, bath, body, and men's to reconstruct business structure. Shiseido also improve
competitiveness by pursuing simple and clear benefits and reinforcing in-store maintenance.
Professional business: Shiseido cultivate the core brands in Asia: “Shiseido Professional”
and “JOICO”. The goal in the Asian market was achieve a high growth rate besides Japan
and America. Shiseido also actively create values and contribute to salon management to
meet the needs of practitioners.

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Shiseido aim to increase sales of makeup and fragrances in the global prestige market in
order to expand market share while strengthening profit base by increasing sales of skincare
products, Shiseido’s biggest strength. Through the introduction of innovative breakthrough
products, product development in collaboration with retailers, upgrades in visual
merchandizing, expansion of brand shops, and optimization of digital communication
through social media the company provide our customers with more brand experience
opportunities. Shiseido also develop further upon expand our cross-border marketing,
mainly focusing on the Chinese consumer, expanding to all of Asia and in the future to the
rest of the world.

5. ORGANIZATIONAL STUCTURE
5.1. VERTICAL DIFFERENTATION

Figure 3. Business Management and Execution Structure

The Company has adopted an executive officer system, placing its business execution
function under the control of executive officers and separating it from the supervisory
function, the responsibility of the Board of Directors. On top of that, Shiseido have the
Executive Committee, which discusses important matters related to business execution
from various aspects before final decisions are made by the President and CEO, and the
Global Leadership Committee, which deliberates business plans, medium-to-long-term
strategies, and other matters. Both committees are chaired by the President and CEO.
At the same time, Shiseido are working to delegate authority to executive officers, clarify
their responsibilities, and accelerate business execution. Executive officers make decisions
regarding the execution of business in their areas of responsibility and deliberate matters to
be proposed to the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.
In order to ensure that our Board of Directors maintains an independent perspective and
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further strengthen its supervisory function over business execution, in 2006, Shiseido
appointed two highly independent external directors. Currently, the number has been
increased to three. Among the four internal directors, two have built careers outside of
Shiseido: one as a corporate manager, and the other as a financial officer; while the
remaining two have had long careers in Shiseido: one having expertise in various brands of
the Company as well as new business development, and the other possessing knowledge
and experience in such fields as marketing, product development, finance & accounting,
and supply network.

5.2. HORIZONTAL DIFFERENTIATION

In order to cope with the conflicting demands of a transnational strategy, Shiseido decided
to implement global matrix structure as below.

Source: Shiseido Annual Report 2020

Figure 4. Region x Brand Global Matrix Organization

Shiseido Group’s matrix-type organizational system with brand categories and six regions
combined, the Company as the global headquarters is responsible for supervising the
overall Group and providing necessary support, while many of the responsibilities and
authorities are delegated to the respective regional headquarters of Japan, China, Asia
Pacific, the Americas, EMEA, and Travel Retail.
The disadvantage of global matrix structure is that it is clumsy and bureaucratic. It requires
many meeting that it is difficult to get any work done. The need to get an area and a product
division to reach a decision can slow decision making and produce an inflexible
organization unable to respond quickly to market shifts or to innovate. However, Shiseido
Board of Directors adopting the monitoring board-type system to ensure sufficient and
effective supervisory functions over the Shiseido Group overall. Therefore, Shiseido
resolved on the monitoring board-type corporate governance framework while leveraging
the advantages of a company with an audit & supervisory board system.
The Company believes that its Board of Directors should be composed of directors with
various viewpoints and backgrounds in addition to diverse and sophisticated skills, required

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for effective supervision over the execution of business as well as decision-making on
critical matters. Furthermore, the Company believes that its Audit & Supervisory Board
members should have the same degree of diversity and expertise as directors, as they have
a duty to attend meetings of the Board of Directors and state opinions as necessary.

6. ISSUES THAT NEED ATTENTION THROUGH COMPANY ‘S GLOBAL

STRATEGY

Despite Shiseido’s enduring success for more than a century, Shiseido faces a new set of
challenges as it travels ahead into new markets with different demographics, increased
competition, and multiple segments.

One of the main challenges for Shiseido going ahead will be to maintain the blend that it
created between the oriental mystique and western cosmetics science and technology. It
becomes significant as Shiseido has been acquiring brands in the US and Europe with its
own heritage and unique brand stories. Given this, it will be quite a challenge for Shiseido
to carry on with the blending as that is one of its strongest differentiation factors.

Predominantly, Shiseido has been positioned itself as a high-end premium and luxury brand
in the US and European markets and it spans the entire market spectrum from low-end,
value, middle and luxury segments in Asia. With customers traveling around the world, a
global media landscape and with internet making information flow across countries much
easier, Shiseido should take steps to ensure that it conveys its varied positioning carefully
in its different markets.

Maintaining a strong brand architecture system: Managing the brand architecture can prove
to be a very challenging task for Shiseido. Shiseido has been engaged in three main
activities: Acquisition of brands in Europe and US, importing new non-Shiseido brands into
Japan through the brand holding company, and introducing multiple brand extensions in
the market.

Given the diverse market segments Shiseido’s brand extensions serve, these brand
extensions will obviously have their own brand image and personalities. Integrating them
with the parent brand and managing their interactions with the parent brand will be quite
challenging.

Even though Shiseido has been quite successful by following the acquisition strategy, it has
yet to build a very strong corporate brand in the US and Europe markets. As it has been
acquiring brands with a loyal customer base, to modify the brand identity and personality
of the acquired brand to suit the overall Shiseido brand architecture can prove quite

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challenging. Developing a strong corporate brand with a unique identity and personality
will be very crucial for Shiseido’s long-term success.

In today’s digital world, it is difficult to ignore the effect that digital technology will have
on businesses. Specifically for Shiseido, it is important to explore the possibilities that
digital technology can have on its customer experience. In June 2019, the brand announced
its strategy of ‘Total solutions using technology’.

One of the initiatives include its acquisition of a Silicon Valley firm in 2017 with the
capability of using smartphones with LEDs that can sense skin color and send the data to
laboratories, which can then create customized products. The plan is also to accompany
customers on their journey of using the product, checking back after 3 months to see how
the product has performed and how it can be made better to suit customers’ needs.
Shiseido’s success in the future will depend on its ability to execute on its digital strategy
to help drive its customer experience to the next level.

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[12]. Priya Rao (2019). Shiseido is increasing its influencer marketing spending by 50%
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