Marketing and Communications in Digital World: L'Oreal Report

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis for the launch of L'Oreal's new hair straightener. It begins with a product description and market analysis, considering factors such as demand, hair damage, and regional insights. The report then delves into the segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies for the product, focusing on urban areas, middle-aged women, and the brand's premium image. Finally, it examines the marketing mix, including product features, pricing strategies, distribution, and promotional activities. The analysis highlights the competitive landscape, emphasizing the need for effective strategies to attract customers and increase market share in the hair care industry. The report also considers the importance of digital marketing and social media to promote the product.

Principles of marketing &
communications in a digital
world

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Description of the new product .......................................................................................................1
Analysis of the market for Hair straightener by L'Oreal.................................................................3
Strategy for the segmentation, targeting and positioning of the product.........................................5
Segmentation ..............................................................................................................................5
Targeting ....................................................................................................................................5
Positioning .................................................................................................................................6
Marketing Mix for this product .......................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The present business environment is highly competitive and demanding, due to increase
in number of customers, organisations and products within the global market. In order to increase
sales, market share and profitability organisation or companies focus on entering into new
market as well as launching a new product (Pedersen, P and et.al 2017). The present report is in
context to L'Oreal Paris, which is the biggest beauty and cosmetics products company in the
world. The company offers a wide range of hair care products such as Shampoo, Hair cream,
Colours etc in the global market. The report will include a brief description about a new product
which the company will launch within the market to attract more customers and increase their
profit. The report will also include a market analysis to identify various factors that can affect
launch of new product.
Description of the new product
The Loreal is a leading company can manufactures a wide range of beauty and hair care
products and offer these products all around the world. The company is planning to introduce a
new product within its global market to increase its sales and profit. The product is a hair
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Illustration 1: L'Oreal Brand Image
(source): L'Oreal Brand , 2017

straightener which can be used with various other products of the company such as hair
straightener lotions and creams by L'Oreal Paris (Quinton and Simkin, 2017). The product will
be a part of existing hair care products offered by the company. The hair care products are those
which assist in controlling behaviour and properties of hairs that supports its maintenance in a
desired and controlled manner. The company has various existing products that supports hair
care such as hair sprays, hair conditioners, shampoos etc. For bringing an innovation in the
product line and to tract more customers L'Oreal needs to launch a new product – Hair
straightener by L'Oreal. It is a product that helps in making hair straight and soften tightly curled
hairs. The straightener also have a property of making curls loose. The Hair straightener is
developed to use safely with suitable hair care products such as heat dry creams or lotions. The
Hair straightener needs to be used with care as it may cause eye and scalp irritation due to other
creams needed along with it. L'Oreal provides provide proper guidelines to use this product
safely (McCreanor and Goodwin, 2017). The product is checked under Quality assurance and
good manufacturing practices. The company is launching this product for customers who needs
to make their curly hairs straight, the major benefit of this product is highly efficient and fast.
The company also develop the Hair straightener with easy to use properties. The customers can
easily use this product at their homes to make their hair looks good and attractive. The
organisation also considered its price by minimising cost of production as the hair straightener is
produced by using most of the resources which are used within the manufacturing of other
products by L'Oreal.
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Analysis of the market for Hair straightener by L'Oreal
Hair care products assist in protecting and nourishing the hair as well as reducing hair
damage. They help in keeping hair healthy by improving the quality and texture of it, people
especially women are very concerned with respect to their hairs (Juska, J.M and et.al 2017).
This concern influence to buy various kinds of hair care products offered by different brands in
the market globally. Due to increase in customers many new organisations are entering into the
hair-care industry or sector. This has increased competition level within the market forcing
companies to bring innovation in their product, price and services. There are many variations in
the product line offered by companies in beauty and hair care industry. There are various top
leaders in the beauty and haircare industry such as -
1. Colgate-Palmolive
2. Henkel AG & Co KGaA
3. L’Oreal S.A.
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Illustration 2: Hair Straightener by L'Oreal

4. The Procter & Gamble Company
5. Unilever PLC
These companies compete at a high level in order to gain competitive advantages in the
market and increase their sales as well as profitability. There are companies which have already
introduced hair straighteners for attracting more customers but were not much successful due to
lack of brand recognition and other factors (Carvalhosa and Machado, 2017). There are many
factors which can affect the new product within its marketplace.
 Needs and demand – In UK there are more than 80,000 salons among which around
4,000 are barber shops and 76, 000 are beauty salons. This clearly shows that the demand
of hair care and products within the market is increasing at a very high level. This
growing demands is also increasing the competition, there are many other brands which
are offering Hair Straighteners in the global market. L'Oreal needs to ensure that the
product should be highly effective and competitive in terms of quality, price and results
so that it can attract more customers by meeting their demands.
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Illustration 3: Top leaders in the industry
(Source : Top Five Global Hair Care Product Manufacturers, 2017

 Increased hair damage – Due to various environmental factors such as air pollution, water
pollution and low quality resources people are facing a lot of issues with their body and
hair (Villeneuve and Pasquier, 2017). The hair damage is a major issue faced by
individuals nowadays, therefore they get attracted towards products which can help them
to prevent the hair damage effectively. L'Oreal hair straightener can assist customers to
straighten their hairs without applying any harmful chemicals which can damage their
skin or develop irritation in scalp. The market can easily adapt new hair straightener with
a popular and recognized name L'Oreal.
 Regional Insights – UK hair care accounted for 30% for the marketplace globally in the
year 2016 and its is one of the largest region. The various small and big multinational
organizations are focusing on one or more products for example conditioners, styling
products, shampoo and colour. Each and every company is working hard to offer
premium quality products at reasonable prices to their customers for retaining them as
well as attracting new ones. The companies are using effective strategies in order to
promote their products in the market such as social media marketing, online marketing
and so on. The L'Oreal is already a popular brand though it needs to focus on the
promotion strategy of the new Hair straightener so that it can attract more and more
customers in the market.
 Increased competition – The overall beauty and hair product industry is growing with a
high pace. The competition level is rapidly increasing influencing the companies to use
different techniques and method to retain their exiting customers as well as attracting new
customers to use their products and series (Smilansky, S and et.al 2017). There are many
brands or companies which are offering same product which is going to be launched by
L'Oreal which develops high risk. The market is full of substitutes products thus
customers can change their preferences or switch to any other brand easily.
Strategy for the segmentation, targeting and positioning of the product
Segmentation
This strategy refers to dividing a market into different group that has general
requirements and also respond equally to a marketing operation or activity. Segmentation can be
carried out with regards to different factors such as demography, geographic, gender, psycho-
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graphic etc. There are commonly three categories which can be utilised for identifying various
market segments such as -
 Distinction – different and unique form other groups
 Reaction – Equal or similar response to market
 Homogeneity – Common requirements or needs in the segment
The Hair straightener is aimed at mostly urban areas as it is expensive products used by
people which have high living standards. L'Oreal will focus on middle and young aged women in
order to increase its sales. The straightener is mostly used by women as they have long hairs
which are required to be straighten. The product will be designed and priced according to higher
class customers which can afford the product.
Targeting
Targeting refers to direct each and every activity, energy and campaigns towards a
particular market segment or group of people (Zerr and Forster, 2017). It is an essential strategy
which is needed while launching any new product as it decides the target market which can be
most significant for the success of the product. There are various types of market targeting as
mentioned below -
 Mass targeting marketing
 Individual Target marketing
 Product specialised marketing
 Niche target marketing
 Market specialised marketing
 Differentiated target marketing
At initial stage, the target market for L'Oreal Hair straightener needs to be females of
middle and young age group who are mostly concerned about their hairs and hairstyles.
However, the product can be used by men having long hairs as well. The company may et
maximum benefit by targeting global market and countries with large population such as India,
China etc.
Positioning
Positioning is another effective strategy which is used in order to gain success, increased
sales and profit within the market. This strategy helps a product or brand to achieve a unique or
different position among its competitors, it supports a product to differentiate itself form other
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brands among the customer's perception. The brands or companies implement this strategy by
developing a suitable image such as premium, luxurious etc by advertising and promotion or by
adding some unique features within their products or brands. The L'Oreal is already a popular
brand in terms of beauty and hair care products in the global market. It has a great brand and
positive image among the people (Mishra, A and et.al 2017). Therefore, it is easy for the Hair
straightener to create a high demand in the marketplace and attract more customer by using
brand value of the company. The brand is known for its high quality and satisfactory products
which helped it to be the top company in the industry. L'Oreal has many competitors in the
industry but its products always acquires high value and demand due to its brand value and
recognition in the global market.
Marketing Mix for this product
L'Oreal is a leading cosmetic, beauty and hair products company which is offering a wide
range of products to its customers. The product line includes shampoo, conditioners, hair creams
and many other cosmetics products, it is famous for the high quality products it offers I the
market. In order to attract and increase its market share the company is going to launch a new
Hair Straightener for curly hairs in the global market. It is important to understand the various
concepts of marketing for making the product highly popular so that it can attract large number
of customers all around the world. In this context Marketing mix tool can be used to understand
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Illus
tration 4: Segmentation, Target market and Positioning

various factors which can affect the marketing strategy for the Hair straightener. There are seven
P's in marketing mix as described below -
1. Product – L'Oreal needs to launch a new product which is the Hair straightener, there are
huge number of substitute products in the market therefore the company needs to focus
various aspects of the product such as design, price, quality and features. The Hair
straightener by L'Oreal has a special quality or feature which uses steam for straightening
hard curly hairs. The product can be very useful for women having
2. Price – The another essential factor to consider is the price of the product, there are
various other brands or substitutes in the market which offers similar products and
features to the customers. L'Oreal needs to focus using effective pricing strategy so that
people gets attracted to buy the product among many competitors in the market (Truax
and Brennan, 2017). The customers are highly attracted towards products with reasonable
or low prices.
3. Place – L'Oreal products are available in almost every country in the world, it is the
biggest brand in the industry trading beauty and hair products. The company has a huge
of suppliers and retail stores in various countries which helps in making their products
available for the customers easily. The Hair straightener can be launched and introduced
to each and every retail stores of the company so that it can attract customers all around
the world.
4. Promotion – L'Oreal is highly active in their promotional activities, the company started
its advertisement on television a long time back. The company can develop effective
advertisement to promote the new product in the market, various other activities such as
Social media platforms, banners, discounts to initial customers etc can be used to increase
the visibility and popularity in the market.
5. Physical evidence – The product can be tangible or intangible for which consumer pays
to the company. The Hairs straightener is designed with hard plastic and durable material
which can be used for a longer period without getting damaged.
6. People – The main backbone for planning, designing and developing each and every
product is the workforce of a company or organisation, the product is developed by
experts and professionals of the company mainly for middle aged and young women.
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7. Process – The process refers to delivery of goods and services to the customers, L'Oreal
is highly responsible to their customers and it focuses on offering high quality products to
their customers. The company also have an online websites and various other suppliers
which helps to supply its products to various countries all over the world. The Hair
straightener can be easily purchase online as well as retail stores, the sales person can
also provide a demo to its customers (Truax and Brennan, 2017). The company will also
offer after sales services to their customers for developing positive brand image and
increased profitability within the global market.
CONCLUSION
The above report briefly explained various factors that needs to be considered while
launching a new product in the market. The report was in context to L'Oreal, the top company in
the beauty and hair products industry. Main aim of this report was to understand the concept of
lancing a new product. A Hair straightener is selected to be launched in the market, the report
included a complete description of the product. Furthermore, analysis of market was also
included his report such as needs, competition level etc. In addition to this segmentation, tare
getting and positioning was also determined along with marketing mix for the new product.
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Online
Top Five Global Hair Care Product Manufacturers, 2017 [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.lucintel.com/top-five-hair-care-product-manufactures-2013.aspx>
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