SK-II offers a variety of products categorized in collections to cater to various consumer needs. Their best seller, ‘Facial Treatment Essence’, commonly known as ‘Miracle Water’, is one of the many skincare products they offer. The ‘Wrinkle Resilience’ and ‘Radiance Enhancement’ collections are some examples that SK-II targets customers who have these concerns.
SK-II has always been available only in departmental stores. However, due to the recent decline in human traffic in departmental stores, they expanded their retail channels to specialty stores such as Sasa and Sephora in order to reach out to their target markets. Furthermore for big countries such as USA, they have even offered e-store to allow women to shop comfortably from home.
SK-II spends large amount of money on advertising every year. They have appointed well-known and respected celebrities as their brand ambassadors to boost their brand equity and lend credibility to its differentiation. They do large scale advertising on traditional media like television commercials to ensure exposure and increase brand awareness. Furthermore, they have also published advertisements on many beauty magazines to constantly remind their consumers their existence. To better reach out to the younger generation, they have ventured into the new advertising space online like Youtube and interacted with them on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
(http://sk-ii.com.sg/en-SG/Miracleofpitera/skii-ambassadors)
SK-II has always been providing first-rate customer service. They ensure that at every SK-II counter, there will be at least one service personnel who can attend to customers’ needs and concerns. These service personnel will provide guidance and suggestions for the customers with regard to their purchase. This will aid the customers in decsion-making when deciding what best suits their needs and concerns. Product booklets are also provided for the customers to refer to the directions of use after they purchase the products if they meet difficulties in recalling the sequence of using the products.
As the beauty industry is ever-changing, SK-II has thus launched their product line for men in October 2011. It has also appointed a Taiwanese model and actor who Godfrey Gao as its international male ambassadors to further boost the prestige of the brand.
(http://www.herworldplus.com/beauty/updates/beauty-updates-sk-ii-names-godfrey-gao-new-face-men’s-line)
'Bringing user experience and science to life' has also been one of SK-II's communications strategy. They have continuously engaged themselves in research and development to develop the best anti-ageing products. Over the years, SK-II has developed various skin analysis devices. The latest one is known as the Magic Ring to analyse the five dimensions of crystal clear skin - texture refinement, firmness power, wrinkle resilience, spot control and radiance enhancement.
SK-II is commonly known for their anti-ageing skincare products. Using their skincare technology, they have manage to merge skincare benefits into basic makeup products like foundation. The ‘Skin signature cream in foundation’ is an example of how skincare benefits are incorporated into foundation. It is marketed as more than just foundation as it contains 75% skincare cream ingredients to help hydrate the skin when the foundation is worn.
This device has been used at SK-II retail counters to check customers’ skin conditions so that the service personnel can provide credible advice to them on their skin conditions and recommend the best available products for them. Furthermore, the information of consumers will be stored and can be retrieved anytime.
Customers are even allowed to check if their skin conditions have improved after using SK-II’s products. This differentiates SK-II from its competitors due to their ability to provide more personalized and credible services for consumers with the help of technology.
SK-II is known for their simple and clean product packaging. There are minimal details of the products on the packaging due to the fact that assistance has been provided to the consumers at the point of purchase by the service personnel. Each skincare collection has a distinct colour and packaging to help consumers recognise the products. Their products are contained in frosted glass containers that exude sophistication and prestige.
SK-II products contain pitera, which is proven to achieve crystal clear skin in as little as 14 days. Pitera also serves as their trademark differentiating them from their competitors. Pitera also has other ingredients such as polysaccharides and proteins that improve the skin functions. The combination of Pitera's delicate balance of vitamins, amino acids, minerals and organic acids, and the Natural Moisturising Factors provide the unique ability to adapt to the skin and yielding multiple skin benefits to bring skin back to harmony.
