Clairol computerizes hair color analysis

Discount Store News, June 9, 1986 by Karen Paxton

Clairol Computerizes Hair Color Analysis

Technology is Clairol's most powerful marketing tool for growing its hair color business, said Bill Susecktor, director of the division. And he wasn't just talking about advances in formulations.

Clairol Color Visions, a kiosk center using video technology, was unveiled last month in the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Galleria for a two-month stint.

By using a video camera, a computer and a printer, Clairol can actually give potential customers a photo of themselves with hair of a different color to take home along with name of the exact product they should use to achieve that effect.

Add a one-on-one session with a professional beauty consultant, and customers can get the personal attention not usually offered in mass merchandise chains (which represent about a quarter of the company's hair color volume).

On June 16, Clairol will break down its kiosk and review the results of Color Visions' premiere run.

What remains to be decided is where future kiosks will be set up.

Although Color Visions is similar to what department store cosmetics booths have started doing, it took three years for Clairol to develop a system that would duplicate the textures and interactions of hair color.

Use of the technique known as "image simulation" is expected to expand the hair color business by taking the risk and the mystery out of hair coloring.

In addition, the Color Visions computer also gathers valuable marketing information about the hair color user. The consultants create a file for each person and store data on age, background and previous hair treatments before suggesting any Clairol product.

That information should help the people at Clairol find out if they are attracting new or previous users. They will also be able to call people who used the computer to find out if they actually colored their hair.

It is also possible that the participating consumers will more often be sent to salons for professional jobs rather than to retail stores for home coloring kits.

In the Galleria, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., the Color Visions kiosk can be found, along with department stores including Lord & Taylor, Jordan Marsh and Burdines. With two terminals operating, the booth can handle 30 to 35 people in a 12-hour day.

Ft. Lauderdale shoppers were invited to visit the Color Visions kiosk, and, for a $15 fee, get a 30-minute session. A Clairol consultant helped each customer decide between salon or home care and between permanent color, temporary color or highlighting.

Customers saw two versions of themselves with a new hair color and got printed color photos along with recommendations to take home. Patrons were given part of their money back in the form of a coupon for a free kit or a 25% discount at a salon.

There are many aspects of the Color Visions promotion still to be explored, said Ben Brooks, president of Clairol.

The possibilities thrown around at Clairol early in the game ran the gamut--from a booth at the Epcot Center to a series of limited runs in malls across the country.

The software was developed specifically for Clairol by Sony. The program can be used to change a woman's make-up, haircut and even show the effects of having one's nose fixed. Clairol could potentially find a partner in the cosmetics field to share costs and benefits of its systems.

Clairol's Color Visions applications go beyond the mall or retail floor. Copies of the video pictures and data files of Color Visions customers are being forwarded to the Clairol consultants who service the public via the company's toll-free hair color help line.

Now, if a woman who has been photographed calls in for advice, the consultant at the other end of the phone will be able to pull a file complete with her background and photo.