Objectives: What are the opportunities to innovate in a skin care product? There are certainly many opportunities and many technologies involved. In this work, we assumed the role of identifying and categorizing these opportunities to develop a comprehensive and intelligible classification system, which could be used as a tool to support decision-making in different professional contexts.
Methods: Initially, we employed the Delphi method to identify, discuss and standardize the opportunities to innovate in a skin care product. Finally, we used the classification system obtained in the previous phase to label patent applications, therefore, testing the suitability and utility of the system.
Results: At the end of the process, we achieved a 10-category classification system for opportunities to innovate in skin care products, and we also illustrated how this system could be used.
Conclusion: The resultant classification system offers a normalized terminology for cosmetic scientists interested in dealing with the particularities of incremental and radical innovations in skin care products.
Keywords: Delphi method; delivery; formulation skin care; product innovation; statistics.
© 2015 Society of Cosmetic Scientists and the Société Française de Cosmétologie.