Why does this Estée Lauder-owned brand keep reformulating its hero products?

What if new product development didn’t have to be so complicated and expensive? NIOD, the second brand from Estée Lauder-owned Deciem, entered Sephora in August with an NPD tactic borrowed from tech companies like Apple. “NIOD is all about high science and high tech, and then bringing it to the consumer in as simple of a way as possible,” Amy Bi, vp of global brand at Deceim, told Glossy. “It's very similar to an iPhone. As technology within skin care evolves, as research evolves, we simply upgrade our products.” For example, NIOD’s best-selling Copper Amino Isolate 3 1:1 (CAIS) serum is on its third iteration, which is noted in the name as "3." Similar to an iPhone, which is on its 18th iteration, NIOD can constantly innovate without having to reinvent the wheel. “We're just upgrading them similar to how your iOS goes through a software upgrade overnight and then a bug is fixed or something has been simplified for you,” Bi said. “It's the exact same approach.” She told Glossy that some consumers stay well-informed about the latest version, which is messaged across traditional marketing channels like email and social media. But most consumers simply appreciate that the brand is always optimizing its formulas. Others never even catch on to the process. NIOD, pronounced nee-odd, launched in 2015 as the second brand from Deciem, the beauty incubator behind The Ordinary. Deciem was purchased by Estée Lauder Companies in 2017 for a total investment of $1.7 billion. As previously reported by Glossy, NIOD is positioned as a science-meets-longevity skin-care brand and serves a burgeoning cohort of biohacking wellness enthusiasts. The brand was early to the copper peptide skin-care trend that’s growing today and, like The Ordinary, prices the entire line competitively. NIOD’s products range from $26-$93. Bi has been with Deciem for five years. Her CV includes nearly seven years at Nike, her last role being global brand director of women’s lifestyle. NIOD still launches new products; its cadence is simply slower. “We're not constantly on this new product launch cycle that so much of the industry is on,” Bi said. “ We're actually just focused on maintaining our key SKUs, our key products, and then upgrading them when we see that there's exciting technology that serves the same benefit, or there's a way that we can improve the texture, the efficacy, anything to do with the product itself.” Of course, that doesn’t mean every consumer loves saying goodbye to older versions, so the company has mastered a slow process of phasing out older iterations, similar to how Apple slowly discontinues older iPhone models. Bi sat down with Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack to walk through the benefits, the challenges, and advantages of an iterative approach to new product development.