Q] L’Oréal Paris has launched a new collection ‘La Vie En Rose’ and with that a new TVC. Tell us about the campaign and the thought behind it.
The brand stands first and foremost for diversity, both in beauty and expression. Each of our brand ambassadors stands for something unique. Every year, for the past three years, we find a new trend and launch exclusive collections. In 2015, it was ‘Pure Reds’ and both Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor were part of the campaign. This year, we have launched ‘Pinks’, as it beautifully complements the Indian skin tone. It’s great to have all our global ambassadors representing the range.
Q] What was your marketing mix for the campaign?
Every year, the marketing mix keeps changing because media is evolving. But this year has been interesting because we have done a lot of new things on digital, including Instagram advertising. We rolled out a creative featuring all the international spokespersons and the shades of pink. In about 3-4 days, we got around 30,000 likes and 700 comments. Anyone following Instagram advertising would know that getting such numbers in such a small timespan is difficult. This year, we also tried ‘programmatic buying’ that targets the right consumer in many ways on digital and follows the consumer journey on where the consumer is going on digital. It then targets the right media accordingly, which is more efficient.
Q] L’Oréal uses multiple ambassadors to endorse the same brand at times. How does it help the brand?
L’Oréal as a company has a lot of brand ambassadors. For Garnier India, we have John Abraham and Alia Bhatt. For Maybelline, we again have Alia and Athiya Shetty now. For L’Oréal Paris, we have Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. Since we are in the beauty business, having ambassadors is pretty much a given. But, each of our ambassadors stands for something. They have certain values that are synergistic with the brands they work on. Our USP is, we don’t just sign up ambassadors but look for the values that the ambassador has and how that goes with the brand. That’s how we manage to make it work across all brands.
Q] You recently tied up with NDTV for the ‘Women of Worth’ awards. What kind of reception has it received?
‘Women of Worth’ is a big part of our brand presence in India, and it’s something very close to our hearts. Started in 2012, the initiative was aimed at encouraging women who work for the empowerment of a lot of other women, mostly at the grass root level and people who have a larger scale of impact. The thought is to encourage them and get more such women to know who these women are. Every year, we have progressed and built the programme, enlarging its scale with time. Our initial partner was Femina, as they are India’s number one women-centric magazine. This year, we wanted to make the programme a lot bigger, to reach out to more people in various parts of India. That’s why the association with NDTV because even they have been supporting a lot of women-centric issues. In the last few weeks of our engagement, we have been extremely happy with the response we got because we had a fabulous jury.
Q] How does L’Oréal Paris use innovations to drive brand salience?
We are a company of innovations. I think we are the biggest innovator in the beauty business. Today, we don’t only innovate on products but also on media, on PR, across any kind of marketing mix. In terms of product innovation, L’Oréal was the first company to launch eye roll-on. Internationally, we also have an app called the ‘Make-up Genius’ that gives personalized make-up education. We consistently try and find new opportunities to stand out.
Q] What is the USP of L’Oréal as a brand vis-à-vis the competition?
We stand for bringing in superior science, because we think that every consumer has a beauty dream, and a lot of times when you look into the mirror, you have a dream of how you want to appear. What L’Oréal Paris does is, it gives you the best quality of products to help you make that dream come true.
Q] How does the brand approach smaller markets?
Any FMCG company uses a standard mix to go to smaller markets. The Indian consumer is all about seeking value for money. She wants the best quality at the best price. One strategy we use is the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) size. It does not specifically target different markets but it does target different consumer needs. Secondly, we also focus on the price. However, on the whole, our brands are mostly urban-driven, so we are still present in urban India and in the top cities.
Q] What are some of the emerging trends for marketing in the beauty and fashion industry?
One prominent trend is that digital is bringing the brands a lot closer to the consumer. Today, the consumer is not only looking for advertising online because that is a little passé. How to consume brand content online is a trend and all brands are working on it, irrespective of beauty or non-beauty. Every brand is trying to get closer to the consumer. It’s become more interactive. Today, marketing is changing because brands have to be more responsive and creative. Nobody wants to see the same ad over and over again on different media formats. The consumer attention span is also becoming very low, so different ways to engage the consumer is something that is a challenge to marketers and everyone is trying different things. For example, the Make-up Genius app works because the consumer doesn’t only want to see make-up ads but also wants to know how she will look in it, which brings about another trend, that of personalized content. Thirdly, it is the overall consciousness. Today, consumers are very conscious about the impact the brand has on the environment, about CSR, etc. This brings a lot of responsibility to the brand because consumers expect communication and transparency from you.
Q] Which media utilizes a major chunk of your advertising spends?
We are a typical consumer products company and use all channels. But, what makes us different is that we have different strategies for different brands. For instance, our consumer brands use every channel but our luxury brands might use only one medium. Some brand may only be using digital. There are various mixes that operate in L’Oréal as a whole.
Q] What is L’Oréal’s market-share?
We have different shares across categories. The consumer division plays in four categories - hair colour, hair care, skin care and make-up. In hair colour, we are pretty much the leaders. We started the category in India with Godrej which was into dyes, but L’Oréal started the crème hair colour business here. In hair care, we are extremely fast growing, so we hope to make it big. In the skin care segment too, we are amongst the top brands. We also have two make-up brands that are growing well. We are doing quite well in almost all these categories.
Q] Can you give us a rough estimate of your marketing and advertising spends? How has it changed over the years?
I cannot give you estimates as that is confidential information. However, TV has retained the biggest chunk. For all consumer product manufacturers, TV has been pretty much the mainstay. The only change that has happened is that digital has increased as a percentage of spends. But the main spend is still on TV.
By SAMARPITA BANERJEE
