An interview with Mr. Siddharta Lizcano,
Director of Digital Design, BMW Designworks
In recent years, China has undergone a rapid and widespread digital transformation. Digital life has penetrated into the homes of ordinary Chinese people, especially the younger generation. Many industries have also achieved business success through digital transformation. SpaChina invited Mr. Siddharta Lizcano, Director of Digital Design at BMW Designworks and an owner of his own aromatherapy family brand, to share his insights on how the spa and wellness industry can seize the opportunity to follow the digital trend and better cater to the needs of young consumer.
As the Director of Digital Design for BMW Designworks, Siddharta leads a team of UI/UX designers, in Shanghai and Beijing, to define digital interfaces (Onboard system, Apps) for BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce. Prior to joining BMW, he was a Creative Director and innovation consultant for top-tier innovation agencies such as Sapient and Frog Design. In this capacity, he has helped many MNCs, local brands and Startups to define innovative digital products and experiences that drive real impact across the Asia market. He has worked with Nike, Adidas, Burberry, 3M, Singtel, DBS, Haier, Haidilao, Midea, GSMA, to name but a few.
How many years have you been in China? What kind of changes do you see in terms of beauty, spa and wellness awareness and requests from Chinese people over these years? Compared with Europeans, do Chinese people have any special needs and interests on beauty and wellness?
I have been in China for nine years, and during this time I have had the privilege of seeing digital transformation at the largest scale possible. It’s truly remarkable that now our customers live completely hybrid lives in terms of how digital touchpoints have been integrated into their day-to-day. From brand, product and service discovery to fulfillment, payment and social sharing; its mostly all happening in the digital space. This is, of course, affecting the Beauty, Spa and Wellness industry, but I do see that the industry is slower to adapt than others.
When it comes to the Chinese customers’ needs, there is a big generational shift towards personal care and an appetite for new innovative ways to do things without compromising quality of life and comfort. I see this as a big opportunity. The Chinese customer is a kind of mass early adopter, willing to try new brands, products, rituals and routines. Now is the time to innovate and engage with them in ways that will resonate with their desired lifestyle.
The fact that they live hybrid lives is also changing how brands and service providers engage with them. They expect a more human, direct, real and engaging relationship that goes beyond commerce into general interests and personal development. The rise of short video and live streaming is a good example of this. These formats are, by nature, more direct, real and engaging. How we promote services and products needs to evolve in this direction.
Your speech topic for the SpaChina Summit is “Digital service delivery and content strategy – choosing the right tools for successful digital transformation.” What made you decided to talk about this? How does this topic apply to spa and wellness industry?
I have been a Digital Innovation, Strategy and Design consultant for over 13 years now, both in Europe and China. Throughout those years, I have helped many clients from a wide range of industries to develop digital services and products and to define effective digital strategies for business success. At my most recent role in BMW Designworks, I was both leading the design of the app and vehicle China interfaces and also consulting for external clients. Throughout all this time, I have helped to enable digital transformation efforts for different companies and seen the success that resulted. I feel that the Beauty, Spa and Wellness industry has been too slow to adapt these new technologies and processes and as a result established players might be at risk of disruption from new companies that embody this competitive advantage.
During the talk I want to share with the audience, not just the tools, but more importantly the mindset that comes with Digital Transformation. My ultimate aim is to inspire and empower the industry and its more established companies to innovate and remain top-of-mind for Chinas customers.
Your family is also in the product business. What is your branding concept and marketing strategy? Who are the customers for your products in China? What kind of distribution channel are you using? Do you also use any digital tools for business?
When we defined our China Market Entry Strategy for our Spanish Luxury Natural Cosmetic Brand, we first focused on customer research to gain a deep understanding of customer needs, expectations and pain points. This led us towards a “digital first” approach, where we developed both brand and sales channels exclusively on digital platforms for the first couple of years. Our focus was very much Brand Building, to establish a foundation that would enable customer loyalty and in-turn sales. Digital sales channels were selected to help build trust and reputation and we developed a content strategy to enable the right type of brand engagement.
This year, we have expanded into professional channels (which is our normal channel in Europe) and are developing integrated efforts that leverage our digital brand building. We are also looking forward to partner with some key clients to help improve their digital strategy and collaborate in a new, more integrated way. Ultimately we want to disrupt the idea of a Brand being a manufacturer and move towards a true partnership with Beauty, Spa and Wellness service providers, and we believe Digital Transformation is our enabler for this to happen.
In terms of digital tools, we leverage tools that our customers frequently use, but we have also developed early service concepts (WeChat MiniPrograms) to test out new ideas in digital wellness. We hope to roll some of these out if they prove to be successful in the near future.
How do you see the China Spa and wellness industry overall – market needs, market potential, competition and future possibilities?
I think the China Spa and Wellness industry could become a world leader in innovation and digital integration. We are already starting to see this in other industries. Automotive, for example, is now booming and soon Chinese Brands will dominate. TikTok has recently hit one billion active users, which is amazing! The fact that China has a population of early adopters and digital ecosystems that are more mature and advanced than the West is a clear market advantage for those that choose to capitalise on it. Couple that with this emergent hunger for lifestyle-driven self care and the opportunity is massive.
Of course, it’s not easy. The digital landscape is complex, volatile and dynamic but with the right agile processes in place and an innovation-focused mindset some players in the Spa and Wellness industry will rise to the top. After that, global success is just around the corner.
