ATRIO from INTI International College Subang will represent Malaysia at the L’Oreal Brandstorm Worldwide Finals in Paris, France next month.
Team Achieve, which beat two teams to emerge as champions at Brandstorm 2018 National Finals, will be among the thousands of participants from across 60 participating countries vying for the grand prize of 10,000 Euros (RM47,700) at the global innovation competition.
L’Oreal Brandstorm is an annual innovation competition that provides students an opportunity to tackle a real business case and to innovate new ideas for L’Oreal’s 24 international brands.
Every year, the mission for the students to solve is different. This year, participants need to invent the customer experience for the professional salon of the future.
L’Oreal Malaysia managing director Malek Bekdache said: “The competition is about letting young talents discover the company, its challenges and its culture from the inside, and enhancing participants’ employability with educational resources.
“Brandstorm enables us to identify qualities such as an open mind, persistence and the ability to work in a group.
“Team Achieve had very good insight, an interesting idea of using apps as well as good communication.”
The trio from the winning team are identical twins Natasha Bong Sue Yan and Natalia Bong Sue Yin, who are pursuing the Bachelor of Science Business Administration programme, majoring in International Management, and Nur Azre Abdul Aziz, who is a Bachelor of International Business and Management student.
Natasha said their idea started from an application that turns from online to offline when integrated with a smart mirror as soon as the customer reaches the salon.
The smart mirror, also commonly known as a magic mirror, is a transparent mirror that displays information such as news, social media notification, calendar events and weather forecast.
A TV, tablet or monitor is hidden behind the glass. The smart mirror is also known as a virtual mirror that displays a user’s image on the screen like a mirror.
Virtual mirrors are available as mobile phone applications, some of which allow users to modify their hairstyle, make-up or accessories.
“Before we started on the project, we asked a few millennial customers on their choice of treatments at the salon. Most wanted a haircut and hair treatment that is fast and convenient,” said Natalia.
“The app, SWISH, was conceptualised to help fulfil customer’s needs.”
SWISH gives the user L’Oreal points every time the app is used.
“The points allow users to redeem discounts, vouchers and products. Its primary key feature is the fact that it mobilises millennials to be socially responsible in two ways.
“The first encourages hair donation by offering them rewards in return and the second encourages them to pay it forward by using their points to pay for someone else’s hair care,” she added.
Participants at the international finals will be competing in three categories: marketing, technology and corporate social responsibility.