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NFC-Ready Label Boosts Skincare Adherence, Engagement

Near Field Communication (NFC) RFID labels are becoming practical for higher-end products. We follow NFC trailblazer Société Clinical Skincare on its journey into a unique NFC beta test that’s less about retail theater and more about ongoing engagement.

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Near field communication (NFC) technology, a subset of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), has been around for going on two decades now. Packagers have eyed NFC tags as having the potential to extend their brand and product messaging, since unlike the parent RFID technology, no special reader hardware is required for the system to work. An NFC-enabled device acts as a reader.

But price and accessibility were initial obstacles to widespread NFC adoption. Over the years, some variation of Moore’s Law has predictably chipped away at price, though some experts say we’re now on the flattening side of the curve where the price probably won’t drop a whole lot more. Maybe more importantly, iPhone’s 2018 adoption of NFC-reading capabilities as standard to the operating system destroyed the accessibility hurdle. Android phones already were NFC-friendly, so now virtually every American is addicted to an NFC-ready device. This move by Apple was the tipping point where converters began to deem NFC market-ready for labels. 

The floodgates haven’t exactly swung open in terms of adoption, but the barriers to entry are much lower for NFC-curious brands. Products like liquor (see this article on a high-end whisky’s NFC journey) and cosmetics, which carry a high price per product relative to their packaging costs, are the target market. The per-unit price of NFC labels can be buried in the steeper cost of the product, without eating away at margin. One expert says that labeling cost should be at or less than 1% of the value of the product for the NFC fit to be a good one. While that might not describe everyone, the market isn’t tiny, either. 

First foray into NFC
Société Clinical Skincare is one such cosmetics and personal care NFC pioneer. The company’s creams and serums are designed to help minimize the appearance of aging, hyperpigmentation, rosacea, acne, and sun damage. It also carries specialty lines of therapeutic products designed to be recommended by dermatologists or physicians for assisting in healing skin after certain medical procedures.

The most common conception of a typical NFC label application is of an in-store retail experience—a consumer tapping a phone to a liquor bottle in order to cue a brand story, special offer, or upbeat video, for instance. Simply by having NFC capability, some sophisticated and premium brand cues are conveyed. Still, Société is coming at the technology from a different angle.

“We're a medical-grade skincare line,” says Brian Starrett, Managing Partner at Société. “We are a B2B business, so we're not on retail shelves. We’re selling to dermatologists, plastic surgeons, estheticians, and other people in the professional marketplace who  are then using our products in their practices to deliver exceptional results for their patients.” 

Société products are used in the treatment rooms, then are sent home with patients to improve the results of the treatments they're getting. The zero moment of truth in purchasing this product comes from the doctor’s recommendation, not from a nifty NFC experience in an aisle (or in this case, waiting room). Instead, the value of NFC capability comes in the ensuing, post-purchase weeks, as the consumer gets the product home and begins using it. In pharmaceutical circles, this might be called adherence, but for brands more widely, it can be called engagement.

“Being B2B, we get to talk to that skincare professional—the esthetician, the dermatologist—the person who’s recommending our product to that end user. But it's ultimately the end user who is going to dictate the success of our products,” Starrett says. “So the number one challenge that we face is really making sure that that end user understands the protocol that they need to adhere to in order to have the best success. And that's where this NFC label has come in. It allows us to interact on a one-to-one basis with an end user in a way that we never have before.”

NFC-enabled package
The NFC-enabled RFID inlay that Société partners selected is indeed one that can be read by tapping a smartphone to the spot indicated on the product's label. These tags are placed behind the label to avoid using valuable branding space.

Société turned to Avery Dennison, the only supplier from which a full construction, including both the RFID inlay and pressure-sensitive label, can be ordered. Société sourced its Avery Dennison NFC label technology through label converter WS Label.

“The NFC tag is added to the label at the labeler,” Starrett says. “From a process standpoint, it should be seamless to go from traditional to NFC label for this application.”

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