Reflect.com Web Site Adjusts To User's Personality; March Launch Set

Procter & Gamble's reflect.com e-commerce site is designed to "adjust to each woman's personality," according to reflect.com Interim CEO Denis Beausejour.

Before beginning to shop, each user is asked a brief series of questions to help the site place her in one of 12 "psychographic" groups. Once the user's personality type is determined, everything on the site is tailored to appeal to her, the exec explained.

The profiling questions are designed to be entertaining. In line with the site's name and positioning, they give the shopper "a chance to reflect on herself," Beausejour said. For example, visitors are asked to decide whether they would be a swan, hawk, dove or peacock.

Reflect.com is a stand-alone Internet company in which Procter & Gamble holds the majority stake. The Web site allows users to customize beauty products by answering questions about their preferences in benefits, fragrance and packaging. Calgary, Alberta-based Critical Mass designed the site.

All in all, about 50,000 possible formula and packaging combinations will be available through reflect.com. P&G formed the San Francisco-based company in September with Institutional Venture Partners, now RedPoint Ventures (¹ (Also see "P&G Start-Up Reflect.com To Offer 50,000 Customized Beauty Products" - HBW Insight, 20 Sep, 1999.)).

Reflect.com has been up and running for several weeks, but is not expected to be at peak performance until March, Beausejour noted. To compensate for slow shipping and other potential snags the consumer may encounter during the "soft launch" period, the company is offering its products at a 50% discount.

For the next two weeks, the full site will be accessible only to consumers who have received an access code through the company's direct mail pre-launch effort. However, any user can access an opening screen to register for "early access" and free shipping on the first order. Consumers who register will be sent passwords via e-mail later in the month.

In addition, visitors with or without passwords can use the site to create and e-mail miniature "movies" to friends, pairing their own text with selections from a library of photographs and video clips. A similar feature allows users to personalize and send e-mail postcards of images from the Web site and its advertising campaign.

The company will create an Internet mailing list using e-mail addresses of the senders and recipients and likely will follow up with special offers, such as a $25 gift certificate, Beausejour noted.

Reflect.com also is aggressively promoting the site through off-line media. A print campaign in women's books, including Glamour, emphasizes the idea of the reflect.com customer as an individual. Deutsch (New York) created the ads.

For example, in one ad, a mock dictionary definition superimposed over a model's face defines "character" as "an accessory you wear daily...on your chest, close to your heart."

Another print ad stars a model whose long hair is festooned with shells and starfish. Text reads: "Log on and experience beauty in a new way. Created by you, for you, to bring out the best in you." The campaign is tagged, "Reflect.com. It's the image of you." A related TV effort is under consideration.

To create a personalized beauty product using the reflect.com site, the user selects a category - skin care, personal cleansing, hair care, color cosmetics or fragrance - and completes a brief questionnaire about her related habits and preferences.

The site then recommends a personalized regimen. For example, a woman battling both acne and fine lines might be offered a skin care line-up that includes an acne treatment and anti-aging cream along with the standard cleanser, toner and moisturizer.

The shopper can then select any product in the regimen and begin to tailor it to her individual needs, again through a series of questions. In addition to being asked about the benefits she desires from each product, she is offered an opportunity to choose the preferred fragrance and packaging style.

When the process is complete, the final product is displayed. The user then has a chance to modify her creation and purchase it if she desires to do so. By clicking on an "ingredients" icon, she can review the components of her creation to check for potential allergens.

The products, which generally cost between $8 and $12, are delivered within about seven days; delivery time will be reduced to three days by March, the company predicts.