NEW YORK — Coty has introduced the first at-home hair color Action for the Google Assistant on Google Home smart speakers and smartphones. The ‘Clairol Color Expert’ gives consumers a hands-free voice activated guide to the entire at-home hair color process – from finding the right shade at the shelf to applying color, re-application and aftercare at home. This step-by-step service is designed for first-time and repeat colorists.

The Clairol Color Expert utilizes Coty’s digital innovation strategy, which focuses on insight driven, consumer-first and category level solutions to consumer problems through emerging technology and new platforms.

“In beauty, service is the new product, and for consumers, the real value of a product is not just what’s in the box, but the expertise and service that comes with it,” said Fred Gerantabee, Coty’s vice president of digital innovation. “We worked with Google, who helped us identify insights around known category challenges combined with how (and where) beauty consumers are using voice assistants. By delivering Clairol expertise through the unique Google Assistant ecosystem we are able to transform the at home hair color experience and truly help Clairol consumers feel confident that they will get better results with a lifeline and expert at every step of their journey.”

The Google Assistant is part of the growing voice market, available on more than 500 million devices, across Android phones, iPhones, smart TVs, Chromebooks, and on smart speakers such as Google Home and a new category of devices called Smart Displays. It serves as a platform for a beauty assistant given its depth of reach, especially among 18 to 34-year-old women who buy at home color. The ability for millions of women to be able to access a personalized hair color assistant across different touchpoints and devices — whether at the shelf via their smartphone or in the home on their smart display or speaker — is an important advancement for the at home hair color category.