Marketing Case Study Analysis: L'Oreal Paris's Integrated Strategies

This case study analyzes L'Oreal Paris's integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies within the competitive global cosmetics market. It highlights key issues such as maintaining a consistent brand image, the limited use of social media campaigns, and the absence of detailed product information in promotions. The analysis evaluates the effectiveness of brand ambassadors and the importance of storytelling in content marketing. The study examines L'Oreal's strengths in using various marketing channels and brand outlook but also identifies weaknesses related to product details and brand image adaptation. It concludes with recommendations for L'Oreal to enhance its competitive advantage by addressing these marketing issues. The case study also answers specific questions about L'Oreal's IMC strategy, the role of brand ambassadors, and the importance of storytelling in content marketing.

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CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
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Table of Contents
Case summary..................................................................................................................................2
Key marketing issues.......................................................................................................................2
Same brand image........................................................................................................................2
Lack of social media campaign...................................................................................................3
Absence of product details in promotion.....................................................................................3
Personal case analysis......................................................................................................................4
Case questions.................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
Reference.........................................................................................................................................6

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Case summary
L’Oreal Paris is one of the leading French cosmetics company that successfully doing its
business in the international market. As per the report, in the international market, L’Oreal Paris
is the largest cosmetics company by selling 50 products per second. One of the major factors
behind the success of L’Oreal Paris is its integrated marketing strategy and initiatives. The
company purposefully practices a social influence on the consumers so that it will be effective to
attract maximum number of customers. Therefore, women empowerment has become the core
marketing slogan for L’Oreal Paris since 1971. In addition to this, for more market capitalisation,
L’Oreal Paris decided to opt for the digital marketing initiatives by encouraging the employees to
participate in social media and interact with the customers positively.
Key marketing issues
There are some key marketing issues that L’Oreal Paris faces despite of having an unique
brand position in the competitive global cosmetics market.
Same brand image
L’Oreal Paris continues the same brand image and slogan that it used in 1971. There were
some alterations in the brand slogan in course of time but the overall structure and vibe of the
slogan is same. However, the current business market has become so dynamic and depends on
the consumer behaviour that the slogan of L’Oreal Paris is not enough to introduce an aggressive
marketing strategy. The competitiveness in the global market is also a pertinent aspect that
creates the urge to make a unique but effective marketing strategy (Finne & Grönroos, 2017).
Therefore, L’Oreal Paris must change its approach with time. The CEO of the organisation

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intends to keep the slogan intact that can be a challenge for L’Oreal Paris to utilise its full
potential to expand the business successfully.
Lack of social media campaign
The company introduced integrated marketing communication channels in 2010 under
the supervision of its first Chief Marketing Officer, Marc Speichert. As a result of that enough
efforts has been made to create strong market presence and promotion of the brand.
Subsequently, social media channels were also incorporated into the promotional techniques of
L’Oreal Paris. However, the use of social media is very limited in practice. According to the
research of Světlík (2017) social media marketing is the most effective measure in current
business practice due to its easy and simple approach towards the potential customers.
Companies often use social media campaigns for integrating more customers and create a
positive brand image. Nevertheless, in case of L’Oreal Paris, the social media marketing practice
is restricted to interaction with the consumers only. It definitely creates a challenge for L’Oreal
Paris in near future.
Absence of product details in promotion
As per the case study, L’Oreal Paris is highly focused on creating an optimistic brand
image in the international market. It is linked with the slogan of the organisation to empower
women. Henceforth, efforts are made in the form of providing beauty tips for women and
ensuring the brand’s strength and confidence. However, it requires more insights into the brand
by showing different products with the details. From the research of Porcu et al. (2019) it can be
argued that the modern consumers are highly interested in having a clear insights into the
product details apart from the popularity of the brand. As a result of that the absence of product
details can be a threat for L’Oreal Paris for its future business orientation.

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Personal case analysis
From the report, I learnt that the integrated marketing communication in L’Oreal Paris is
very effective and strategically designed in support of the values and objectives of the
organisation. However, there are some pertinent aspects that the organisation must follow in
terms of incorporating more product details in the promotions so that it will create a confidence
among the customers about the transparency and diversity of products that L’Oreal Paris offers. I
also presume that the slogan of the organisation is good but some additional slogans should be
used by L’Oreal Paris so that it will clearly reach out to all the targeted customers across the
globe.
Case questions
1. Describe L'Oreal's integrated marketing strategy. What are the strengths? Weaknesses?
The integrated marketing strategy of L’Oreal Paris is associated with bot the online and offline
marketing strategies. Apart from the promotions in television and print media, L’Oreal Paris also
emphasises on SEO techniques and incorporates an effective social media marketing strategy. As
a result of that more customers can be attracted globally. The strengths of the IMC of L’Oreal
Paris are its use of different marketing channels and major emphasis on the brand outlook.
However, there are some drawbacks of the existing IMC practice of L’Oreal Paris such as lack of
product details restricts the number of customers as they do not know about all the products of
L’Oreal Paris. Moreover, using the same brand image obstructs the healthy market capitalisation
of L’Oreal Paris with the changing needs of the consumers.
2. Describe the function and effectiveness of brand ambassadors. What are some risks associated
with choosing a brand ambassador?

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The brand ambassadors are responsible to protect the reputation of the brand by their presence.
Moreover, publicize the networks are also considered to be an important role for the brand
ambassadors (Smith et al., 2018). The word of mouth of the brand ambassadors provides enough
opportunity for the business company to initiate an effective public relationship strategy.
However, there are still some risks for choosing the brand ambassadors. For instance, the culture
of the local market and the needs of the local customers have to be aligned with choosing the
brand ambassador (Hafilah, Chaer & Usman, 2019). In fact, as the brand ambassador is recruited
from outside therefore they do not have any idea about the mission and vision of the organisation
(Lee & Watkins 2016). Therefore, it can be a failure to attract the customers positively.
3. Why is it important to have a story to tell when developing content marketing?
The primary objective of the content marketing is to convince the customers through its write
ups and content development (Ahmad, Musa & Harun, 2016). Therefore, an inspiration factor is
always required in order to influence the customers (Du Plessis, 2017). The story telling will
help to develop a background of the company and facilitates better understanding of the positive
intent of the organisation.
Conclusion
The above discussion is trying to analyse the integrated marketing communication
practice of L’Oreal Paris and investigates its efficacy in the current market scenario. Despite of
having an effective integrated market practice there are some issues in the marketing initiatives
of L’Oreal Paris such as changing its brand image with time and needs of the customers and
mentioning the product details in promotion that can attract more customers. Therefore, it can be

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concluded that L’Oreal Paris can gain more competitive advantage by mitigating those issues
effectively.
Reference
Ahmad, N. S., Musa, R., & Harun, M. H. M. (2016). The impact of social media content
marketing (SMCM) towards brand health. Procedia Economics and Finance, 37(16),
331-336.
Du Plessis, C. (2017). The role of content marketing in social media content communities. South
African Journal of Information Management, 19(1), 1-7.
Finne, Å., & Grönroos, C. (2017). Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing
communication. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), 445-463.
Hafilah, E., Chaer, V., & Usman, O. (2019). The Effect of Brand Ambassador, Brand Image,
Product Quality, and Price on Purchase Decisions Samsung Smartphones. Brand Image,
Product Quality, and Price on Purchase Decisions Samsung Smartphones (January 11,
2019).
Lee, J. E., & Watkins, B. (2016). YouTube vloggers' influence on consumer luxury brand
perceptions and intentions. Journal of Business Research, 69(12), 5753-5760.
Porcu, L., del Barrio-García, S., Alcántara-Pilar, J. M., & Crespo-Almendros, E. (2019).
Analyzing the influence of firm-wide integrated marketing communication on market
performance in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 80, 13-24.

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Smith, B. G., Kendall, M. C., Knighton, D., & Wright, T. (2018). Rise of the brand ambassador:
Social stake, corporate social responsibility and influence among the social media
influencers. Communication Management Review, 3(01), 6-29.
Světlík, J. (2017). Integrating online advertising into integrated marketing
communications. Marketing Identity, 5(1/1), 206-215.