PRODUCTS & CUSTOMERS
Cosmetics – Safe!
High-quality, sustainable and safe cosmetic products – that’s what connects the customers of Symrise. Now there is a digital platform that makes product protection even easier.
We are constantly working on further improvements in product protection,” says Yohanna Sander, who is responsible for this in the Cosmetic Ingredients division (CI). This involves ingredients that protect cosmetics against microbial growth. The HOGO platform, which was launched at the beginning of October, should make the formulation process easier and faster for cosmetics manufacturers looking for the highest product protection. The word HOGO comes from Japanese, meaning protection or care. The platform gives customers mobile access to comprehensive, detailed information on ingredients, data on efficacy and a wide range of potential combinations. The new online platform can also quickly provide dosage recommendations and information on any applicable regulatory requirements, if desired. A sophisticated filter and search system makes this possible.
The idea for HOGO came to Yohanna two years ago. “I wanted to develop a tool that centralizes our portfolio and possible solutions and gives both our customers and our sales team a unique instrument,” she explains. After the idea had been fleshed out and the already existing, similarly positioned tools on the market had been analyzed, the startup INFLOWS was brought in as an external partner in 2019 to develop HOGO in collaboration with the team from the BU Micro Protection, CI Operational Marketing and CI Communication. The final step was to get the employees from the labs and the sales team to provide their extensive user feedback.

We hope that HOGO will become the reference in the market for personal care products when it comes to product protection.
Yohanna Sander, Director Global Product Management at Symrise Cosmetic Ingredients (CI)
A PLATFORM WITH BACKGROUND Starting next year, the platform should also contain editorial background information. “We hope that HOGO will become the reference in the market for personal care products when it comes to product protection,” says Yohanna. Another important feature of the new platform: It doesn’t just show solutions that exclusively combine Symrise ingredients – it also shows solutions that integrate other products on the market.
GREAT INTEREST The response to HOGO has been very positive so far. In the first ten days, Yohanna says, the platform was used 760 times and SymSelect logons – the CI website, which HOGO provides access to – were up by 20 percent. Yohanna is very satisfied with the results so far, she continues, “The platform was developed with the thought that it would become an indispensable tool for formulators in their daily work. We’re on the right path to achieving this goal.”
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