Digital Marketing in L'Oreal Company

Digital Marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Environmental analysis of L'Oreal digital presence, opportunities, challenges and impact
digital environment in cosmetic industry...............................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Critical assessment of business of L’Oreal by comparing digital presence to stores presence.
................................................................................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Plan for organisation of digital marketing activities for supporting initiatives of L’Oreal for
building multi channel capabilities in luxury and active cosmetics division.........................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
Key methods for evaluation, monitoring and measuring effectiveness of digital marketing.9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing refers to products or services marketing with usage of digital
technologies mainly internet, smart phones, advertisements and other digital mediums. It
includes promotion of brands or products with usage of different electronic mediums (Chaffey
and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). Digital marketers display things such as what is being seen, how
long it will take, conversions in sale, which content is working and which is not working and
many others. In this report, L'Oreal is taken into consideration. It is a French personal care
organisation which is headquartered in Clichy, France. It is a cosmetic industry which provides
services world-wide. They are magnifying their digital leadership in all dimensions which
includes marketing leadership, e-commerce leadership and beauty tech leadership to have
competitive edge. This report deals with opportunities, challenges and impact of digital
marketing on organisation, critical assessment of business with respect to digital and store
presence. A plan for organising digital marketing and at last methods is provided which are used
for evaluation of effectiveness.
TASK 1
Environmental analysis of L'Oreal digital presence, opportunities, challenges and impact digital
environment in cosmetic industry.
Digital marketing comprises of marketing efforts which uses internet or electronic
devices. Digital marketing can be characterized by usage of digital channels and tactics with
customers. There are different digital channels which includes social media, search engine, email
and websites by which organisation can connect with current and potential customers. These
tactics include search engine optimization (increase ranking of website), content marketing
(promotion and creation of content to generate traffic growth and brand awareness), social media
marketing (content is promoted on social media), pay-per-click (pay a publisher when they click
on ad) and there are many more (Chaffey and Patron, 2012). In context of L'Oreal, they have
opted to use digital marketing to increase their customer base and enhance their profitability. AS
in today's environment people have opted for digital environment. Environmental analysis of
L'Oreal can be analysed with usage of PESTLE analysis. It describes different political,
economic, social and various other factors which have influence on L'Oreal. They are discussed
below:
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PESTLE Analysis:
Political factors: L’Oreal needs to obey rules which are formulated by government of
different countries as they are providing services to people who are from different part of globe.
Messages which they will be spreading across digital mediums must be accurate and
organisation should not provide any wrong information which can lay impact on health and
safety of individual (Chaffey and Smith, 2013).
Economic factors: Cosmetic industry comprises of nearby 15% market share. But at one
moment of time L’Oreal was also impacted when there was fluctuation in prices of dollar and
various currencies where they are rendering their services.
Social factors: Culture includes attitude, belief and values of individuals. It is essential
for L’Oreal that information which they have provided on their digital medium do not hamper or
hurt sentiments of any individual. Information which has been provided by digital marketing
should be true.
Technological factors: As they are opting to expand their business by usage of digital
marketing, it is essential for them to acknowledge this factor. L’Oreal need to take into
consideration different ways by which they can use technological information in effective way.
Legal factors: As they are opting for innovation in their technology, they need to take
into consideration different laws which are associated with this factor. Furthermore, it is essential
for them to follow FPLA and FD&C to ensure that they have not used any harmful element
within their products; this is done to ensure safety of customers.
Environmental factors: As they (L’Oreal) are opting for digital marketing, this means
that they will carry out their operations digitally by which environment will not have impact.
Moreover, when delivery of services is taken into account then it is necessary that they should
pack their products within eco-friendly packaging so that environment does not have any effect
from that (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012).
It is essential that L’Oreal must take into account these factors, for formulating their
strategies and carrying out their operations in effective manner.
Opportunities in digital environment: L’Oreal have various opportunities, as it is one
of the leading cosmetics organisation. L’Oreal should focus on niche customers. They provide
their products for every section (adults, middle age and old aged or senior citizens). They should
focus on providing services to individual rather than focusing on entire population. This depicts
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that they lack focus but they have capability by which they can alter and influence people.
L'Oreal can expand their product line by providing their customers with new products through
this they will be able to have a complete expansion of product mix. Along with this, as there
been ban in usage of animal and Peta, this has lead to increased demand in organic cosmetics,
this will be acting as an affirmative sign for L'Oreal as they are being making use of organic
products from itself. This means that they have strong market potential.
Challenges faced in digital environment: L'Oreal can opt for big data solutions which
will assist them to organise their information related with products, services, employees and
customers. They can use Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft's big data solution, Oracle Big data
solution and many others (Kannan, 2017). Challenges which are faced by L'Oreal while
magnifying digital marketing are mentioned below:
 Finding right team: When L'Oreal has opted for digital marketing alteration then they
need expertise with respect to digital sphere to manage and lead changes in
organisational perspectives. These alterations can be in form of adoption of virtual and
augmented realities, artificial intelligence, IOT and other technologies. Team of L’Oreal
is using traditional marketing from long and they do not possess significant knowledge
with respect to digital transformation.
 Understanding behaviour of digital customer: As at present time customers are open to
digital environment, they expect that companies offer them enhanced services. This
factor motivates L'Oreal to have more innovative ideas and approaches which will lead
them to go out of requirements of their customer's.
 Overcome Digital marketing paradox: Top management consider digital marketing
transformation imperative. Paradox in this is that it is important till then only if it is able
to generate high revenue otherwise there is no emergency to opt it at particular moment
of time. To avoid loss of market share it is necessary for L’Oreal to work on this aspect
and have transparent vision to carry out digital marketing alteration.
 Shifting to mobile: People are more influenced by technologies which are provided by
mobile and they are in pace of development. This improvement leads to acceleration in
digital customers. It is necessary that applications and websites which only run on
system are increasing (Kaufman and Horton, 2014). For L’Oreal it is necessary to
transform into digital market as it is one of the most chosen cosmetic brand.
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Impact of digital environment: Digital marketing can create affirmative impact on
cosmetic industry. The marketing of services or products by the usage of digital technologies, i.e.
internet, advertisements, mobile phones and other mediums is referred to as digital marketing. It
involves marketing efforts in which electronic devices are being utilised for connecting with
prospective and current customers. It can be understood with the help of following points:
 Word of mouth: Glassybox provides cosmetics products with subscription for a month,
around 80% of acquisitions are done by word of mouth. They have not used this as an
additional tool but it is considered as important part of strategy. When L’Oreal will opt
for digital marketing then they will provide space for their customers where they can find
out and create a discussion on new products, feedback from customers can be taken and
when word of mouth comes there are relevant recommendations or suggestions or
demand from customers (Kingsnorth, 2016). This will provide L’Oreal with options for
improvement.
 New Platforms: There are number of social media platforms like Pinterest, Twitter,
Instagram, Facebook and many others but it is critical for brands to find out on which
they should focus more. Brands should utilise the platform which provides them medium
by which they can work for brand and people who are associated with them.
 Power of influencer: Social media personalities create heavy impact on minds of people.
They promote products offered by organisations. Support and partnership with creators
provide high positive result. But this does not mean that success will come automatically.
L’Oreal needs to choose appropriate influencer whose words can capture mind and heart
of audiences.
Offline marketing refers to advertising strategies which are published as well as released
outside the internet. They are basically advertised via radio, banners, television and various other
methods. On the other hand, online or digital marketing makes use of internet for delivering
advertisements, carrying out promotions as well as soliciting attention of their target audiences.
Key benefits of digital marketing are:
 Global reach: Through websites new markets can be identified as well as trade can be
carried out globally for smaller investments.
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 Lower cost: Via well targeted and appropriately planned digital marketing campaigns
will lead to reach suitable customers at lower cost as compared to traditional methods of
marketing.
By having effective involvement with social media as well as managing that effectively
will lead to formulation of customer loyalty as well as reputation for being engaging with them
easily. This denotes that customer insight is crucial for development of digital marketing
activities. It also leads to rise within customer base as digital marketing provides options for an
individuals to know about products which are being delivered by them. There are diverse brands
as well as suppliers but as L'Oreal is a reputed brand people hardly shift to others as organic
products are being provided by them.
TASK 2
Critical assessment of business of L’Oreal by comparing digital presence to stores presence.
Many organisations have opted for usage of digital marketing and they have seen growth in
their services. Digital media provides people with medium where they can share their viewpoint
and give their opinions. Moreover, they can also give recommendations related with how they
can improvise their services or extend their list of products (Kotler, Kartajaya and Setiawan,
2016). This cannot be attained in case of offline services at that moment they feel switching to
other brands. In context of cosmetic industry like L’Oreal they need to take vantage of digital
marketing. By this they can understand viewpoint of people in effective manner as when face to
face interaction takes place then they may hesitate to point out weaknesses of others. There are
number of differences in between traditional and digital marketing. Some of them are illustrated
below:
Basis Digital Marketing Traditional Marketing
Relieve of
dimension
It can be easily measured as
compared to traditional marketing.
With usage of digital marketing
L’Oreal can analyse number of
times message or ad of L’Oreal has
been appeared on system of
customer; how many times that
With this, it is not easy to measure
marketing performance. As it cannot
be determined how many people
listened to advertisements which
were played on TV, radio, magazines
or newspaper. These activities
cannot be calculated.
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message was clicked by user, what
all products and services they have
seen. This also helps them to
identify number of times specific
user has visited their site.
Efficiency for
development of
brand
It is a great channel by which brand
can be developed. It is essential for
every business to be on internet, it
does not matter whether they
provides their services online or
not. By this they can be searched on
internet and people can look for
what they want before going to
store for buying it. This will assist
them to conduct research on
services which L’Oreal is providing
and products which Lakme is
offering (Miller, 2012).
With respect to digital market, it do
not creates effective brand image
within market, reason behind this is
not that, services provided them are
not good but fact is people are less
aware about these brands. This
means that for some these brands
exist and those who do not know
them, for them they do not exist
within market.
Potential for
growth
In this case there is possibility of
exposure. Hand crafted messages
related with marketing can be sent
to digital devices which are
assessable by local people. With
usage of these messages they can
reach any number of people and
can tell them about their brand.
L’Oreal by opting for digital
marketing can create brand
awareness among people and tell
them about their services (Royle
and Laing, 2014).
Hardly something happens within
market which flies or spreads like a
fire within market. If it is concerned
with negative impact then it can fly
but if it is in positive manner then it
do not. But in case of Digital
marketing, it is heard almost every
day.
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Cost With respect to traditional
marketing methods, it is cheap.
This is due to the reason that they
(organisations) hardly give
advertisements on any medium like
newspaper or TV. They do it either
once a month or within few months.
These organisations need not to put
any extra effort when they are using
digital marketing. In comparison to
traditional marketing, it can be said
that digital marketing requires less
investment but gives enhanced
results.
In this case marketing is done by
advertisements on newspapers,
magazines, pamphlets, Television,
radio or any other sources. Cost
involved in this is high as these are
not cheap and when it is necessary to
give advertisement on consequent
days then it becomes very expensive.
It is also not possible to go on
doorstep of every customer to tell
them about services and products
which are being provided by
L’Oreal.
From above, it can be analysed online or digital marketing uses social media and website
of organisation to present their services in effectual manner. At present scenario, it is mandatory
for cosmetic industry like L’Oreal to be active on digital medium even if they do not want to sell
their products online (Royle and Laing, 2014). They should have their online presence so that
customers can compare what they provides which is different from their competitors. By opting
for this, it is possible to reach large number of people within short interval of time and will less
budget.
TASK 3
Plan for organisation of digital marketing activities for supporting initiatives of L’Oreal for
building multi channel capabilities in luxury and active cosmetics division.
Digital Marketing plan:
L’Oreal marketing plan with respect to active and luxury cosmetic products has been
made. By analysing performance of L’Oreal over past some years, they want to incorporate
digital marketing in their working strategies as this is the factor which is mostly considered in
this present scenario. For this management and marketing team of L’Oreal has formulated plan
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for opting for marketing by digital media. This is done to gain competitive edge within market as
their competitors are also adopting these strategies.
Business initiative
L’Oreal has maintained their brand image within market with passage of time and there
are present within market from longer period of time. Therefore, it is essential for them to make
certain changes in their functionalities which they are carrying out. They were using traditional
marketing strategies, but at present time, it is necessary to present on digital media by which they
can influence their possible customers (Ryan, 2016). This is the reason L’Oreal has opted for
digital marketing.
Situational analysis
Strength: Idea behind digital marketing is enhancement and advancement in technology.
It is essential for L’Oreal to move ahead with market to remain sustainable for longer run of
time. People can easily find out about their products and services by one click.
Weakness: Funds will be required to provide training to marketing team with repect to
digital marketing as till now they were working traditional methods of working and will not be
easy for them to work on something which they may hardly know (Taken Smith, 2012).
Opportunity: By introducing this concept, they can attract more number of customers, as
presence on internet will have significant impact on this. Moreover people can compare their
products with services offered by their competitors.
Threat: L’Oreal has threat from other cosmetic industries who have opted for this
technology like Lakme, Nivea and many others.
Target market and Target audience:
Headquarter of L’Oreal is in France but they are providing their services worldwide from
many years. Their customers are spread across the globe. They have opted to use digital
marketing as, traditional methods of marketing are time consuming and even they are costly.
Moreover, these methods are also not able to attract large number of people. Reason behind this
can be, in present era people hardly read anything; they read only when it is on their smart phone
or devices. L’Oreal do not have target market as they are operating worldwide and they will
continue same, it is just that they will make alteration in their strategies. There target customers
are young and middle aged women. They provide them with cosmetics and beauty products.
Budget
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For carrying out digital marketing they do not need to have high budget, it is a nominal
price which they have to pay. Experts must be hired who have significant knowledge about
digital marketing (Tapp, A., 2014). Moreover, it is mandatory to provide training and
development session for employees who are part of marketing team. For this they need budget of
around £25000.
Market Strategy
L’Oreal will use penetrative pricing technique so that they can attract large number of
customers all over the world. These customers will be provided with both active and luxury
cosmetics products as per their demands and what suits them the most. In this strategy they will
set their prices lower than those of their competitors, but still then they will have profit margin.
This will enable them have more customers and this will enhance their market share.
Marketing Channels
They will use digital mediums and celebrity endorsements. Digital mediums include,
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus, to establish effectual relationship with their potential
customers (Thomas, 2014). Social medium can be considered as a source of digital marketing.
Like L’Oreal can upload information about their products and services on social mediums and
also on their own website. By this they will be also able to attain information regarding different
perspectives like what their customers expect from them, what improvements can be made in
their services and many others.
TASK 4
Key methods for evaluation, monitoring and measuring effectiveness of digital marketing.
There are different methods to evaluate, monitor and measure effectiveness of digital
market within L’Oreal in terms of both its active and luxury cosmetics division. These methods
are presented below:
Evaluation of effectiveness of digital marketing: These strategies must be formulated by L’Oreal.
It is essential to assess ways in which formulated strategies are formulated. With respect to
cosmetic industry, it can be carried out in following ways:
 Identify goals of L’Oreal’s digital marketing: It is initial step to identify goals for which
these strategies have been devised (Yasmin, Tasneem and Fatema, 2015). It is complete
analysis of the goals. Digital marketing goals of L’Oreal are
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 Number of shares on their luxury and active products, on blog posts has received.
 Number of customers who are following them (L’Oreal) on social networking
websites.
 Amount of positive reviews which are left about L’Oreal on websites such as
Yelp and Google Reviews.
If goals are already set, then it is essential for L’Oreal to analyse whether they have achieved
their target. Moreover, L’Oreal with respect to both active and luxury products needs to identify
those goals which were set in past makes any sense for them on basis of their present goals. If it
is necessary then revise goals by which they can accumulate new objectives.
Re-examine profile of target customers: It is essential that digital marketing plans are founded or
created on the basis of series of well-constructed profiles customers which will outline
that what kind of people must be reached by L’Oreal for both active and luxury products.
Before carrying out any digital campaign it is essential to evaluate who are the target
customers, they can be on the basis of web activities, interests and demographics
(Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). Suppose L’Oreal considers target customers as
women on Facebook but they may find that maximum number of likes is from middle
aged women. In this case L’Oreal must re-evaluate all elements which they have
considered for marketing campaigns.
 Take into consideration digital presence: When target customers are re-examined then it
is essential for L’Oreal to find out that whether they are participating on appropriate
digital properties or not. Consider an example to understand this, L’Oreal target women
of ages in between 18 to 30 for their active cosmetic products. If this campaign has been
schedules without posting it on social networking site then they would fail to attain
required number of traffic. It is essential for L’Oreal to remain active on those sites which
people mostly visits.
 Evaluation of messaging strategies: Now L’Oreal needs to take into consideration
messages they have sent to release digital marketing campaigns. These messages are
designed to determine:
 What kind of messages are doing well with audiences like posts on blog, text
messages, podcasts, videos, etc.
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 How frequently marketing materials of L’Oreal are shared virally among
audiences.
 Check digital marketing ROI: Last step is to evaluate performance of digital marketing in
terms of complete return of interest (ROI). It is difficult to to calculate returns but data
will be worth all the efforts which are made by L’Oreal. For this two different variables
must be analysed (Chaffey and Patron, 2012).
 Amount invested in digital marketing campaigns by L’Oreal both in terms of time
and financial investments.
 Financial benefits of conversions which are being tracked.
Monitoring effectiveness of Digital Marketing: There are different ways which can be used by
L’Oreal for monitoring performance in context to digital marketing of luxury and active
cosmetic products. They are mentioned below:
 Is L’Oreal able to engage their customers: Marketing do not means that someone has
shout on crowded streets or market, it deals with activeness and participation of
customers, maintaining healthy relationship and serving them (Chaffey and Smith, 2013).
This can be attained by social media; it will assist L’Oreal to formulate alliances to
reflect their activeness, responsiveness and their engagement.
 Are you providing value to conversation: Content which has been created by marketing
manager must be in form of ways what people want and which they can share with
someone else? It is essential for L’Oreal to bring value for their customers by enhancing
engagement and reinforcement of their brand image.
 Do L’Oreal follow 20-to-1 rule: This rule means give and you will have it. Example can
be taken, video was posted by someone on social media related with experience of using
any specific product. Individual was not selling the product but it was just that someone
can get benefits by using specific product. It is generosity when individual suggest
something then followers will respond (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012).
Measuring effectiveness of Digital Marketing: In context of L’Oreal effectiveness can be
measured by using different methods, they are shown below:
 Total visits on site: This will give L’Oreal with rough idea about impact which their
campaigns have created drive traffic. This number must grow but if there is decline then
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some improvements are required in strategies and try to find out problem with current
strategies.
 Traffic by channels: It segments traffic on basis of individuals who are under and over
performing in marketing campaign of L’Oreal They should be divided into:
 Direct visitors: These are individuals who are aware of L’Oreal and their services.
They reach site by typing URL into web browser.
 Search: They are individuals who are sent by browser when some queries were
entered by individual (Kannan, 2017).
 Referrals: These are the individuals who were seeing some other website but by
clicking on some link given in that site, they entered into website of L’Oreal.
 Social media: If L’Oreal will have social media presence and want to measure
number of visitors at site of L’Oreal. Social traffic depicts effectiveness of
marketing content on the whole and digital marketing campaigns.
 Bounce rate: It depicts number of people who have visited site but returns back without
carrying out any meaningful action. If bounce rate is high it reflects that there are large
number of flaws in digital marketing due to irrelevant traffic source, poor campaigns,
weak landing pages and many other (Kaufman and Horton, 2014).
CONCLUSION
From above, it can be concluded that digital marketing plays crucial role in enhancement
of services of organisation. With help of digital means firms can communicate with large
number of people within few minutes and no matter whatever is the distance. This aids firms
to increase their services and profitability. PESTLE analysis have been presented to analyse
impact of external factors on organisation, SWOT has been done to identify strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats which are addressed by L’Oreal, challenges with
respect to digital marketing are analysed, they include evaluation of behaviour of digital
customer, formulation of new team who have knowledge to work on digital platform and
many others. Comparison has been made between traditional and digital marketing, it has
been evaluated that there is more scope of growth with digital marketing. With usage of
traditional market, it will become hard to survive within market. Furthermore marketing plan
has been analysed with respect to luxury and active cosmetic products. Apart from this,
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effectiveness of digital marketing has been evaluated, monitored and measured. For this
different methods are used.
REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012. Principles and practice of marketing (No. 7th).
McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
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Kannan, P. K., 2017. Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International
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Kingsnorth, S., 2016. Digital marketing strategy: an integrated approach to online marketing.
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Yasmin, A., Tasneem, S. and Fatema, K., 2015. Effectiveness of digital marketing in the
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Business Administration. 1(5). pp.69-80.
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