1. Introduction 2
2. Culture 2 2.1 L’Oréal in China: Product line 2.1.1 Product line: Facial Skin Care………………………………………………………….2 2.1.2 Product line: Skin Whitening……………………………………………....................3 2.2 L’Oréal in the USA: Product line 2.2.1 Product line: Eyes Makeup……………………………………………………………..4 2.2.2 Product line: Skin Tanned……………………………………………………………....5 2.3 Comparison and analysis………………………………………………………………………..6 2.4 Improvements and recommendations…………………………………………………….8
3. Perception…………………………………………………………………………………………………..9 3.1 TV advertisement in China: New L’Oréal Paris shampoo……………………….10 3.2 Perceptions of customers 3.2.1 Vision Perception…………………………………………………………………………13 3.2.2 Sound Perception…………………………………………………………………………14 3.3 Improvements and recommendations…………………………………………………..14
4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………...15 References………………………………………………………………………………………………...16
1. Introduction
L’Oréal, which started as a hair coloring business by a French chemist, Eugène Schueller, was established in 1909. By following the guideline, “innovation in the field of beauty ”, L’Oréal has now perceived by worldwide as a multidimensional brand in terms of beauty products. Aside from hair coloring products, the company stretches its product range to make up, skin care, hair care and fragrances. Nowadays, L’Oréal sells its products in approximate 130 countries across five continents (Braizaz, 2014). Cultural learning and product adaptation have become the priorities for the company to successfully earn its brand recognition in the global market. Moreover, the perception of customers is another influencing issue that affects consumer behavior, which is worthy to be discussed.
This report will firstly focus on L’Oréal’s marketing activities through product variety between China and the USA. It is then followed by how the perception of customers influences the TV advertisement of L’Oréal in China. Both of the sections will contain the analysis and recommendations to make improvements.
2. Culture
“Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior.” (Kotler and Keller, 2013, p.173) Since, culture differences influence people to display a variety of preference. Product variety is one of the marketing mix, which offers customers to have various choices to fit their preference. According to Fisher et al. (1994, cited in Bowman and Kogut, 1995), a company with a wide variety of products can pull customers compared to those rivals with narrower product lines. This section will discuss how culture variation affects L’Oréal to launch distinct product lines in different countries.
2.1 L’Oréal in China: Product line
2.1.1 Product line: Facial skincare
Yue Sai, a local Chinese skincare brand, has been a successful brand with its traditional Chinese medicine skincare products in Chinese beauty market. In order to effectively adapt into China, L’Oréal chose to acquire Yue Sai when it first expanded to China in 2004. In order to practice its motto, innovation in “all kinds of beauty”, L’Oréal has been increasing its research on the ingredients and Chinese skin (L’Oréal, 2014). The company established Shanghai Research and Innovation Centre to combines traditional Chinese medicine and western technical skills to produce the unique skincare products, which are tailored for the skin types of Chinese (L’Oréal, 2014). (Figure 1)
Figure 1: The product line of facial skincare in Yue Sai focuses on the special ingredients, traditional Chinese medicine, to fit the skin types of Chinese.
(Adapted from Yue Sai Website, 2014)
2.1.2 Product line: Skin Whitening
L’Oréal creates a particular product line of skin whitening in Asian market, called “White Perfect” (Mire, 2010) (Figure 2) The company promotes the products with slogans such as, “White skin gives you confidence." "Be a white bright star, people will focus on you!" "White Sensation." The usage of the language