The Sun, People, and ANESSA
Part 1: "The trust of our customers is our value"
- Transforming that tradition into our strength
Kei Fukazawa, Group Manager, Product Innovation Group, ANESSA Global Brand Unit
Ayumu Enomoto, Conductor, R&D Group, Global Brand Value Development Center, Brand Value R&D Institute
ANESSA, born in 1992, has now become the No.1* suncare brand in Asia in terms of sales, surpassing 30 years since its inception. Why does ANESSA continue to evolve? Why must it continue to evolve? And what is that better world that
ANESSA is after? In the first part of this two-part series, we will be speaking to the two people in charge of R&D and brand communication.
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*According to Euromonitor; Beauty & Personal Care 2024 edition; total retail sales in 2023; Asia refers to the Asia-Pacific region as defined by the company
―Could you start by telling us about your roles at ANESSA?
Enomoto: I was involved in pharmaceutical research during my school days. I then joined Shiseido in 2018 and initially worked on SPF-related development in the Suncare Group. I hadn’t yet created an ANESSA "product" at that time,
but I was involved with ANESSA through the value development of SPF that was essential for sunscreens. Then, from 2021, I became a dedicated researcher for ANESSA, working on the development of product content, information written on packages,
project management, and so on.
Fukazawa: I'm actually a newcomer who just joined this year as far as being a marketer for ANESSA is concerned. However, I do have a long history with the brand as I've been using its products as my most reliable and favorite sunscreen
since before I joined the company. I used to always use it when I went to the beach with my friends in college. In that sense, it was a part of my life for decades.
―How do you feel about being involved with a brand that you personally love?
Fukazawa: I was thrilled! I felt honored to have the opportunity to get involved with ANESSA. Also, all the learning about the brand's history, products, and past creative work since joining the ANESSA team…the more knowledge I
gained, the more I realized that it was a special brand even within Shiseido, with a strong brand character.
The brand itself “shines” exceptionally
―What makes it special?
Fukazawa: ANESSA “shines” exceptionally. This applies to both the brand and the personality of the team that creates it. It's not just because it's an outdoor-use product, but it has an image of being open to the world. While we all
want to receive the warm light and energy of the sun as much as possible, we also have to deal with UV rays. How can people live comfortably and happily in such a world? That’s the ongoing question with suncare. That's why we are focused outwards
and are open. That’s what makes the brand special.
―Enomoto-san, you're nodding in agreement.
Enomoto: The sunscreen category is unique. This is because there’s an absolute quantitative axis of SPF and UV protection as a function. So, research and marketing are very intricately linked. With other products, it’s usually the case
that the marketing side puts forth a plan asking for a certain kind of product to be created, and then it gets linked up with technology. But in the case of ANESSA, we start the planning process with a counter-proposal from research. Where
sunscreen products are concerned, I think this is the ideal form of development.
Fukazawa: To begin with, the UV ray blocking function that is a given for sunscreens has an upper limit of SPF50+・PA++++. This is almost universally regulated. Development becomes about meeting that upper limit correctly and then
creatively devising defenses that adapt to environments beyond that that can’t be measured by numbers. That's something unique to this category of cosmetics. I think the challenge is for researchers and marketers to work together and turn the ideas
of technology into "real value"—one that can be communicated to customers and that they can experience personally.
―It's like figure skating. One can become a world champion if both their technical and expressive skills are exceptionally high. You update the content of your main products every few years and deliver them to your
customers. What motivates you to do this?
Enomoto: The pressure to exceed our previous best and continue to evolve, both from a marketing and research perspective, actually becomes a good motivator. I saw the same sentiment written in the reports of past researchers. There has
always been a good kind of expectation, or pressure, with the development of ANESSA, and I think that's how we're able to meet our customers' expectations. By the way, I was born in the same year as ANESSA—1992.
―When you transform pressure into motivation, how does the development process proceed?
Enomoto: Conversations about what could be interesting and what should be done next are important for ideation. In a discussion about the kind of environment that we need to adapt to next for this evolution to happen, someone said,
"What about gravity?" The idea was that it would be interesting if we could create a film that when applied to the skin it moved naturally against gravity. This may seem far-fetched, but research starts from this wondering of what would be
interesting if it can be done.
―How would you describe this evolution that began from an unreal idea, in one sentence?
Fukazawa: Various facial expressions and movements that one routinely makes cause "wrinkles" in the sunscreen film. For example, it is said that we blink about 1200 times an hour. Even if the product has an SPF50+ rating, if it wrinkles, its effectiveness is hard to maintain. The new Auto-Repair technology was inspired by this. It automatically repairs the wrinkles and gaps in the sunscreen caused by movement. How much sunscreen is wrinkling around the eye area is something that users themselves may not notice. ANESSA is all about having a start on research, addressing issues such as those that are unnoticed and unfelt, and evolving the product to make it more effective in protecting the skin.
―Is it the responsibility of a top brand to anticipate things and innovate in areas that customers don’t even notice yet?
Fukazawa: Yes, and since we do this, we have, in the past and even now, receive many comments claiming ANESSA is indeed unique. These obscure innovations lead to the realization of effectiveness, which is what ANESSA is all about. We
are secretly proud of this. That's why I think we've been able to become the No.1 suncare brand in Asia as far as sales go.
Pride in "What ANESSA Should Not Do"
―In the 90s, there was intense competition for high SPF values. At that time, Shiseido declared that it would not participate in the reckless SPF competition. Instead, Shiseido would not just get involved in the
numerical competition but rather create products for customers that have sufficient functionality, such as protection and comfort.
Enomoto: Yes, that pride is being passed on. Sunscreen is fundamentally an item for preventing and protecting against UV rays. You can recognize its value when the skin doesn’t get sunburned, that is, when nothing happens during
the day. It's hard to recognize. That's why trust is very important. We have to make it so that when customers use it, they think, "Sure enough, it’s ANESSA"—ensuring their continued trust. The trust of our customers is our value.
―We often hear about exceeding customer expectations, but you’re saying that the value is “being trusted…”
Fukazawa: I think there is a culture and foundation of naturally making things in such a manner because our seniors have built that up over a long period of time. For example, when we, the marketing side discuss ideas, and we're not
sure about them, Enomoto-san and his team will tell us straight, "We can't say that about ANESSA this time because it would be a lie." Just like that.
―Looking at records from the 90s and so on, we see documents showing that researchers actually went to various UV environments overseas to measure the relationship between UV rays and the skin.
Enomoto: To advance research, we need a vast amount of data on what actually happens to human skin. There are records of field research on UV rays and the skin conducted by our predecessors in places like Nepal, and we also have
various data that we collected over a long period of time, thanks to Shiseido's 100-year history of UV research. Because we have a vast amount of skin data, we can accurately set standards and goals for protection, and we can set standards for
gaining the trust of our customers.
I remember what my boss emphasized when I joined the team. At that time, I also had the desire to make something that felt good, that was comfortable to use. I wanted to bring out a value that could be
readily felt, even if it meant compromising on the protective effect. But my boss told me that wouldn't work for ANESSA. Because we have always made our products this way, every time I think about what my boss said, I just think we’re doing the
right thing. There's no need to panic by looking around at what’s going on around us.
Not wanting to be the best in comparison to something
Fukazawa: Actually, where we want to be the best at is to be seen as the brand that protects people's skin the most in the world. Even if the person doesn't realize it, if they're using ANESSA, we want to make sure we are protecting
them completely. It's a bit of an exaggeration, but I feel like there's a kind of responsibility to the world in the prescription.
―It's similar to the history of Shiseido as a company, which started as a Western-style dispensing pharmacy, introducing good quality medicines and new cultures to people that were not yet available in Japan.
Fukazawa: ANESSA’s brand purpose is defined as "Free to shine: Let people shine infinitely under the sun." We are striving to let people shine infinitely under the sun. The thinking has been the same since the brand was launched,
even though the way it's expressed has changed. Protecting the skin is obviously a given. But what else can we do to stay healthy and beautiful? What can we do to live happier under the sun? That's what we’re about.
―In the midst of all this, the Night Sun Care Serum was introduced. Does one have to use ANESSA at night too? I thought this for a moment.
Enomoto: (Laughs). One of Shiseido’s strong areas of research over the past 100 years has been about how to protect against UV rays and what impact UV rays have on the skin. We've always been at the forefront in this regard. More so,
we also have on mind, how one can recover from damage quickly, how to coexist with the sun, in other words…how to create a skin that is resistant to UV rays. The idea of suncare throughout the day and night, which is unique to ANESSA—the brand that
knows all about UV rays—is the starting point.
―Paradoxically, if the skin evolves in that way, could there be a world without sunscreen?
Enomoto: If technology advances in the future and UV protection can be achieved just by night care, there might be a future without sunscreen, in theory. But I still want people to feel that they can coexist with the sun all day long
just by having that ANESSA bottle in their bag. As long as that feeling doesn't go away, I think ANESSA will continue to evolve.
The Dream ANESSA Wants to Fulfill
―When will ANESSA's dream come true? Do you have any specific dreams you want to achieve in your own work?
Fukazawa: I want to relentlessly pursue the realization of true skin-focused effects and benefits, which cannot be fully expressed in words. If we stop doing that, we're no longer ANESSA, and this is an important point that everyone in
the brand has been protecting for many years. Ultimately, I think that's the only way trust can be born.
Enomoto: To continue to be trusted by our customers…I don't know how long I will be working with ANESSA. When my successor comes along, I hope he or she will build on our history by adopting the way we think about Aneesa and the things
we tirelessly value, without hesitation.
