The Cosmetics Market Loreal Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

The market chosen is of that of cosmetic products which is a huge market in todays date having contrasting working attitudes and style, producing goods according to the local requirement in accordance to the wants of the customers and consumers. This assignment compares and contrasts the way in which two different companies, L'Oreal and Unilever carry out their international marketing. Initially this assignment revolves around the two mega cosmetic brand industry L'Oreal and Unilever and their marketing tactics and strategies around the globe in various countries.

The success of Brand L'Oreal lies in the fact that the company succeeded in reaching out to the customers of different countries of the world, across different income ranges and cultural patterns, giving them the appropriate product they are worthy of. The area of expertise of L'Oreal being that it succeeded almost in every country that it entered. The strategies of L'Oreal was varied enough to help it and stop itself from restricting itself in a single country. L'Oreal sold its product on the basis of customer demand and country want rather than keeping the product identical across the globe. It built ample number of brands or mammoth brands entrenched to the restricted culture and which appealed to a variety of segment of the universal market instead of generalising the brand and edible in innumerable culture. L'Oreal went on to being a local product in every international market. The brand extension of L'Oreal also came in the same sector or the same segment of market. L'Oreal believed in growing its expertise in the segment it is conscious of rather than going into a completely new sector of market..

L'Oreal had built a dozen or so mega brands rooted in the local culture and appealing to different segments of the global market. Instead of homogenizing the various brands and making them palatable in myriad cultures, Owen-Jones decided to embody their (the brands') country of origin, turning what many marketing gurus considered a narrowing factor into a marketing virtue.

As a senior L'Oreal manager put it, "You have to be local and as strong as the best locals but backed by an international image and strategy. We have made a conscious effort to diversify the cultural origins of our brands."...

Brand Extensions

L'Oreal realized the need for caution in case of brand extensions. The company extended its brands after doing a thorough research. When L'Oreal decided to enter the kids shampoo category in 1998, it debated whether to launch a new brand or go for an extension. The company realized the L'Oreal name, long associated with women's hair care, would capture instant credibility with moms. But Kids was really a child-oriented product. When L'Oreal first unveiled its L'Oreal Kids shampoo line early 1998, retailers were sceptical. "Retailers say the value isn't there. We say it is that the child establishes value. We were pretty tenacious." - mentioned Carol Hamilton, 45, senior VP-marketing for the L'Oreal retail division of Cosmair...

L'Oreal professionals mechanises with L'Oreal professional salons in order to not only promote their product but also to help hairdressers to have a vision, excel and accomplish.

L'Oreal have divided their product range in five different categories to focus its marketing activities exclusively designed for the targeted market audience.

Professional products

Consumer Products

Luxury Products

Cosmetics

Body Shop

The body shop was founded in 1976 in the United Kingdome well known for its strong product base of natural ingredients and having a network of over 2550 stores in 63 countries (is this the present situation?)

Unilever on the other hand, a British-Duch multinational company owning ample numer of consumer products in the food, beverage and the personal care product sector. Promising to give a consistent evolution in the sustainable living plan of the commoners. Inspiring billions of people to support them in order to give themselves a better life.

In a world of hype and stereotypes, the Dove Unilever provides a refreshing alternative for women who recognise that beauty isn't simply about how you look but it makes a genuine difference.

Dove Unilever is committed to widening the definition of beauty for women because it believe real beauty comes in all ages, shapes and sizes. To help enjoy your own brand of beauty, Dove provides an extensive range of cleansing and personal care products that make a genuine difference to the condition and feel of skin and hair.

Dove is the UK's top Bar Soap brand and 45% of the population bought a Dove product in 2010. In fact, 10.1 million women use Dove every week in the UK.

Unilever first launched its products in the US during the 1950s, and in 1957 the basic Dove bar formula was refined and developed into the "Original Dove Beauty bar". It was launched as a beauty soap that was clinically proven to be milder on dry and sensitive skins. Launched in the Uk in the late 1990s. The following years saw the launch of more bath time treats like beauty baths and moisturising body washes.

Unilever Dove then expanded its brand into antiperspirant deodorants and ProAge, a range of skin cream and hair care products specifically designed in accordance to the requirement of the local women. Unilever re-defined the definition of beauty for women. In 2010 Unilever Dove came out with another revolutionary product of Damage therapy which could be used by the consumers at home rather than spending a fortune on other beauty therapys to keep their hair strong damage free. In 2010 Unilever also diversifies its Dove products from the female sector to the male and hence the birth of a completely new brand of products in which unilever had never stepped its foot into, the Dove Men Care brand was formed offering deodrants and body washes specifically designed for the male skin.

L'Oreal entered India with the hair colour product, they changed the way consumers viewed the product. From being a product for the old-age to turn grey hair into shining black. L'Oreal targeted the young market for whome looking stylish and to the modern mark was really very important. It was a tough job for L'Oreal to change the mindsets of the people.

Dove entered India in the late 1993. Dove-known to be a custodian to promise gave products to woment to satisfy them all over the world. In India Dove became the fastest growing hair care shampoo product in fifteen month of its launch.

ADVERTISING

'L'Oreal-because you are worth it', gives a kind of a fulfilment to the consumer that the kind of product the consumer was looking for, this is it.

L'Oreal started its advertising campaign in the late 1920 via posters and other such medims. It first time appeared onscreen in 1950s in movies. In today's date L'Oreal got celebrity of all ages to promote their product. The strategy that L'Oreal used here is to use local celebrities to whom the common man relate to rather than having just one celebrity to promote their product globally. For example in India L'Oreal used ex Miss world Aishwariya Rai to promote their product where as in the K they used Penelope Cruz to promote their product. This got L'Oreal the image of 'Traditional Beauty'.L'Oreal knew that the best way to attract customers was to bestow the customers with the image that they could become as beautiful as their favourite celebrities. Resulting into more the sales of the product that would take place

Dove on the other hand used the tactic of complementing their customers giving them a profound positive vibe by giving a positive line of 'you are beautiful' resulting into her buying the product.

Dove uses various creative marketing strategies like recently dove is using Facebook which is a social commerce networking site to promote its product. Dove has made its products available to the customers on the social website. Dove believes that it makes complete sense to move from a social networking website to a purchase worthwhile at the same place. On the later research when found that email results into more selling rather than social website, the focus of the company changed into sending more personalised emails to the prospective customers. Dove also launched a competitive advertisement in competition with L'Oreal with the tag line 'Dove is No.1 Shampoo' sending customers emails with such adverts and making customer believe that it is the best the customer can get.

Given the image of real women Dove never used or endorced their products through celebrities like in the case of Unilever. Instead Unilever built a new strategy for Dove. Given the cote of being "Real Women" Dove used a corporate advertising strategy by various culture of women and projecting an image of self-satisfaction for the Unilever brand.s

Consumers will soon be able to buy Dove products through Facebook, with Unilever unveiling the new ecommerce offering shortly

Marshall Manson, Europe Middle East and Africa managing director of digital at Unilever's PR agency Edelman, said: "It makes sense to allow users to move directly from a social word-of-mouth recommendation, or from information a brand has shared, to purchase."

"He also said that the move makes it easier for Dove to connect social activity with business values and measure their effectiveness.

The news comes just days after a study by Foresee found that consumers prefer email marketing messages than social media interactions with retailer websites in the UK.

Larry Freed, president and chief executive officer of ForeSee Results, said brands need to be aware of how their target markets are influenced by promotional emails, advertising on Facebook or word-of-mouth recommendations.

SALES PROMOTION

In India L'Oreal brought the international style by transforming the looks in the form of amenities to its customers. L'Oreal marked its products through hair salons in India. Today L'Oreal owns over 2000 saloons over 36 cities in India.

L'Oreal and Unilever competed on getting positioned in the shelf-space in the United States to be in the eye of the customers.

Dove on the other hand promoted its product by positioning itself the best that is as the number one product and also with the help of dove the seven day challenge, where dove promised healthy hair or money back guarantee.

In the United States Dove bought about the "half-faced" challenge. Dove asked the American customers to use the product on half of their face and feel the difference.

L'Oreal on the other hand promised a reduction in the hair fall or in the healthy hair or a complete money back guarantee. L'Oreal carried out its sales promotion having a wide assortment with varying range of products for premium and the middle class. Though L'Oreal's prmium product were at low demand, L'Oreal kept on reinforcing them through promoting their premium brand as a look of necessity.

WEBSITE

The L'Oreal website not only gives a brief introduction of its varied product features but it also gives information about the company history and also about the various product ranges for women in the market supplementing it with a little extra of "for women" categorising it specifically for them.

L'Oreal in China launched a website in mandarin to help customers easy accessibility and making it easy for them to use the website.

Dove maintains its simplicity in its website also but to it dove also adds up a space for testimonials and various offers and promotions that Dove have, to offer at that minute. To that Dove had also added up an interactive session and video to show how dove has helped people's hair.

Unilever on the other hand used specimens of local commoner beauty to endorse the Dove beauty product on their website. They also came up with advertisement of the websites specific to that part of the region.

For example the Indian website had adverts of Dove moisture riser to have soft skin where as in the United Kingdome the website had advertisements on moisturiser on cold cream to protect them from the cols.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

A market channel is one of the most important factors in the marketing of a product. It closures the period, space and hole in the market between the consumers and the product manufacturers. In India to distribute its product Dove Unilever uses three approaches, indirect coverage, and direct coverage and Streamline method. Dove Unilever looked out for short supply-chain for distribution to meet its customer's needs and to reach out to a huge population. In India Unilever elected sub-stockist that covered up the mass part of the marketing areas in India where as in the Unites Kingdome Unilever were in direct contact with the retailers to sell out their products.

Over 180 million units are produced in the United Kingdome every year. Most of it, around 65% of it is exported overseas.