Strategic Marketing Communication Plan for L'Oreal Hair Care Shampoo

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of L'Oreal's marketing communication strategies. It begins with an introduction to marketing communication and a brief overview of L'Oreal, its products, and market position. The main body delves into a detailed evaluation of L'Oreal's marketing tools, including advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling, and public relations, critically assessing their effectiveness. The report then applies the STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) theory and communication theory to understand how L'Oreal reaches its target audience. Furthermore, it outlines a strategic marketing communication plan for L'Oreal Hair Care Shampoo, utilizing the SOSTAC framework and discussing push/pull/profile strategies. The analysis covers situation analysis, objectives, strategy, and tactics, providing insights into how L'Oreal plans and implements its marketing communications. The report concludes with a summary of findings and a list of references.

Marketing
communications

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
(A) Brief description of company it's product range and their analysis ................................3
(B) Critical evaluation of marketing tools used by the Loreal and their effectiveness..........4
(C) Strategic marketing communication plan with marketing theory and concept................7
(D) Marketing communicating strategies with their effectiveness and development of plans12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
Marketing communication refers to the procedure of communicating about company's
goods and services to the consumers. The main purpose of this activity is to persuade people
about the existence of products that an organization is offering (Marketing Communication,
2019). As there are variety of brands competing in the market this strategy is adopted to
differentiate one's product from the other. It can be considered as means of communication
that provides information regarding specific brand and attract large number of customers. It
consist of tools such as advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing and public relation. These
are used by the company to help them in building a positive image in the eyes of customers.
The organisation which has been chosen in the report is Loreal which was founded in the year
1909 by Eugene Schueller and it's headquarters is situated in Clichy, France (Bacik, Gavurova
and Fedorko, 2015).
In the following report topics which has been covered are brief description about the
company and it's product's ranges, characteristics and the effectiveness of marketing
communication tools afterwards marketing plan and strategy has also been discussed within
the context of organisation.
MAIN BODY
(A) Brief description of company it's product range and their analysis
Loreal is a famous French cosmetics brand whose founder was Eugene paul a french
chemist it was established in the year 1990 and offers wide range of products in hair and skin
care. For example in hair colour category variety of shades such as nude, burgundy, blonde,
grey and many more are being introduced. This even provides different types of foundation
concealer lipsticks etc in order to fulfil the requirement of customers. The company has
successfully able to satisfy various sections of market. Even though the main target of this
brand is women but it has developed products for men and kids as well. By satisfying the
demands of consumers it has able to build a niche for itself in the market (Barker, 2012). Loreal
has become an international brand as it operates in almost every country. It invest heavily in

research and development sector in order to keep up with the changing taste and preferences
of customers.
(B) Critical evaluation of marketing tools used by the Loreal and their effectiveness
Marketing tools comprises of advertising, sales promotion, direct selling, public relation
etc. These are the means of promoting brand for the purpose of inducing customers to buy the
products. It plays major role in increasing the awareness about the company's products in the
minds of customers. The way organisation uses different strategy for the promotion impacts
how people perceives the brand. Therefore it is important to adopt effective tools in an
appropriate manner. Different types of marketing tools are discussed below in detail:-
Advertising- It is a very common tool used by the companies to attract wide number of
people. This is the fastest means of reaching large audience through different channels such as
television, newspapers, radio, magazines and hoardings. Loreal created effective advertising for
the promotion of brand using emotions rather than too much communication (Conway and
Leighton, 2012).
Sales promotion- As the name suggest this tool is used to promote the sales of products
and services. This helps in maximising the sales of goods and services through providing
discounts, coupons, memberships to the customers. Loreal started loyalty programmes to
enhance customers experiences with the brand. This strategy turns out effective as it leads to
increased loyalty and commitment from buyers.
Direct marketing- This tool helps in communicating directly with the buyers.
Organisation uses text messages, brochures, catalogues etc. Loreal provides information to the
customers related to new discounts and other offers through e mails and messages.
Personal selling- It is also one of marketing tool in which direct face to face
communication between the buyers and seller happens. It is used for the purpose of
strengthening relationship with the customers. Loreal has built positive image of the brand
through it's effective customer relationship management.
Public relation- This tool is emerging with as strong requirement for the growth of
organisation. Informing public about brand's new openings through organising events, press
release, public appearances etc. It helps in building strong image about the brand in the minds

of customers (Esposito, 2013). Loreal using digital marketing such as blogging along with
celebrities of different origin as brand ambassador to gain acceptance in the domestic as well as
international markets.
Effectiveness of marketing communication tools using STP theory:
Segmentation, targeting and positioning theory is an approach that helps in
communicating with right audience in an appropriate manner.
Segmentation- Based on this framework segmentation refers to dividing customers based on
different criteria such as demographic, lifestyles, psycho graphic belief and values (Chang and
Cheng, 2015).
 Demographic- According to this approach customers are divided on the basis on age,
gender, occupation and income of customers.
 Psycho graphic- This is used in diving customers based on the their personality, taste
and behaviour.
 Behavioural- This element is concerned with what values and belief does people from
particular region hold. As behaviours of individuals differs from place to place.
 Geographic- Under this aspect marketing techniques differ as per country, area, region
and climate.
As Loreal is global brand has to understand the core values of different countries before
marketing it's products. The brand has segmented it's products based on demographic factors
along with professional and non professional category.
Targeting- This aspect of marketing is related to brand's targetting specific group of
people in the market. It helps in focusing on particular audience and effectively satisfying their
demands by creating products and services according to the needs of target market. Main
target Loreal is women as they demands goods cosmetics products to secure their skin and hair.
It is considered as large market which helps in providing huge profits to the company
(Fortenberry Jr and McGoldrick, 2016).
Product positioning- It is the third element that concerned with how people perceive
the brand. Before adopting this strategy marketers understand the needs of customers and
then uses marketing communication tools such as advertisement and public relations to

communicate about the products in the market. Loreal has been positioned as beauty care
company which performs business in an ethical manner(Dahl, Eagle and Low, 2015). It also uses
various celebrities from different region as brand ambassadors.
Communication theory- It refers to the framework that evaluates the process of
information that passes from organisation to customers. Loreal apply this model to
communicate effectively with buyers and the main objects of this theory are as follows:-
 Source- This element is associated with producing an effective message for the buyers
that needed to be communicated.
 Sender- It acts as transmitter that transfers information from one place to the other.
Under marketing this role is played by the organisation. It is the responsibility of every
business entity to spread knowledge about product and it's uses to potential buyers.
 Channel- Message can only be passed through certain medium therefore effective
channels should be chosen by the organisation for delivering information about
product's existence to the customers (Fill and Turnbull, 2016).
 Receiver- This element receives the information and performs the job of reconstructing
message.
 Destination- It is the person for whom message was created. Organisation main
destination is reaching wide range of customers.
 Message- It the information, concept and statement that needed to be delivered to the
recipient. This can be in the form of written, oral, or visual. Advertisement of
organisation should creative effective message for customers (Harris and McGrath,
2012).
 Feedback- This aspect relates to customers response towards the organisation.
Loreal uses this theory in order to understand the minds of customers to increase their
satisfaction level which helps in achieving higher growth and profitability.
(C) Strategic marketing communication plan with marketing theory and concept
Strategic marketing communication plan helps in preparing strategies for engaging the
audiences towards the products or services. It is an idea which helps in communicating all the
messages of an organisation to its targetted customer audiences. Proper strategies are

formulated after analysing the market demand and implemented in effective manner. Such
plan is a component of the overall marketing plan as well as acts like the blueprint for specific
situations. The strategic marketing communication plan of product of Loreal such as Loreal Hair
Care Shampoo is formulated after considering various factors which are relevant to particular
situations along with overall marketing approach (Järvinen and Karjaluoto, 2015). These plans
helps in taking better decisions to solve the distinct problems related by passing the message to
its targetted audiences. The managers of selected entity uses SOSTAC model and push/ pull/
profile strategies to formulate the marketing communication plan for the selected product. The
description of such model is as following:
SOSTAC Framework: It is a marketing model evolved by PR Smith in the year 1990. Such
framework focuses on important elements such as situation, objective, strategy, tactics, action
and control. These elements helps in preparing the marketing plan for the Loreal Hair Care
Shampoo. This model helps in solving various commercial situations. The experts adopt such
model to specific situations, such as direct marketing, electronic marketing, developing internet
security systems and business plans for the company. Step by step formulation of marketing
communication plan by the selected entity are as follows:
 Step 1: Situation analysis: Any enterprise starts its planning by identifying the situations
at the current moment of the business. Further they analyse the industry to determine
their strengths, services, weaknesses and available resources. The situation analysis
helps in identifying the key areas where improvements are required to strengthen them.
The analysis of different situations helps the managers of Loreal to provide an overview
related to who they are, what they do, how they interact with customers, how they
perform online trading and various factors which influence the business operations
(Kuksov, Shachar and Wang, 2013). The situation analysis helps in identifying the
problems related to the usage of selected product by analysing the situations.
 Step 2: Objectives: objectives plays a crucial function as they determine where the
organisation want to go or what they want to achieve. Objectives are the set goals and
targets to be achieved within the limited time period. Different objectives are set for
different stages of work performed. These must be specific, actionable, time related,

measurable and relevant. The executives of chosen firm set the objectives which focus
on achieving the specific challenges by improving the actions to be achieved on certain
limited time period. They must be measurable by qualitative and quantitative analysis
as well as are relevant to address the issues. They set objectives to diversify the usage of
Loreal Hair Care Shampoo in distinct segments of market.
 Step 3: Strategy: Strategy is an action plans for achieving the objectives. It involves the
information for solving the situations to achieve the objectives. These also helps in
identifying different segments of the targetted market with the help of plan. Strategy
helps to focus on distinct segments, delivering the effective services with proper method
to various customers at the same time, preparing plans to achieve the objectives as well
as formulating programmes to stand against the rivals or competitors. Various strategies
are selected such as pull strategy, push strategy to provide the information of the
chosen product to the customers. All these are planned to determine the future position
of the selected product by understanding the current scenario (Lea-Greenwood, 2013).
 Step 4: Tactics: Tactics are the actions which are carefully planned after considering all
the forces to achieve the end results. These are the micro strategies which provides
advantages of developing the techniques to face and conquer the business situations.
Tactics are quick as well as actionable plans which helps in supporting the overall
strategies in the firm. The managers of respective company formulate distinct tactics to
implement the strategies for targeting the audience to communicate various messages
with different channels related to the Loreal Hair Care Shampoo. Such element helps the
entity to acquire a position in the competitive market to sustain their growth strategies.
The managers formulate some tactics related to chosen product such as attractive
packaging, providing sachets of the product and many more to achieve the end results.
 Step 5: Action planning: At this stage, all the strategies and tactics are put into actions.
This includes the implementation of all the planning into actions to achieve the
measurable results. It helps in providing satisfaction by clearing all the confusion by
accomplishment and success. The action planning helps the administrators of selected
enterprise to getting all the relevant information related to the requirements of

resources to reach the goals, preparing the timeline for completing specific tasks. These
acts as a supervisory function to provide the directions and managing the goals. A
proper action plan leads to strengthen the confidence of team to achieve all the
objectives.
 Step 6: Controlling: Controlling is a important function in any company as it helps in
determining the behaviour of the action plan. It helps in monitoring all the stages to get
the advantageous results. It is a process which ensures that all the activities performed
are according to the set targets. The analyst of the selected hair care shampoo carefully
monitors, evaluates and measures the performance by preparing the reports based on
the activities formulated. The actual performance is compared with the standard
objectives and if any deviations are there, they are corrected with corrective actions to
accomplishing the goals with out any hurdles (Lekhanya, 2014).
Thus, the management of selected business formulated the marketing strategy plan for
the selected product by adopting the SOSTAC Framework to engage the audiences towards the
products. The enterprise analyses the situations carefully to set the objectives. Various
strategies along with tactics are formulated to put the plans into action and controlling is done
to achieve the interest of the targetted audiences as well as potential customers after
communicating them the informations related to product for achieving a sustainable position in
the competitive market of UK.
Push/ Pull/ Profile strategies: The push, pull and profile strategies are the strategies of
marketing communication. The organisations uses such strategies to communicate with the
targeted customers. These strategies are helpful in promoting the product in the market. The
managers of Loreal uses such concept to build an effective relationship with its customers by
providing information related to the chosen hair care shampoo. The description of each such
strategies are the following:
 Push strategy: this strategy helps in forcing the products towards the customers. By
using such strategy, a firm promotes its products or services with the help of retailers
an wholesalers by forcing them to the distribution channels. The management of

selected entity uses this strategy to provide such product in the hands of customers
with the helps of personal selling and trade shows.
 Pull strategy: this strategy helps in attracting the final customer with the help of
various promotional tools. Such strategy is used for encouraging the communication for
understanding as well as supplying the products which are demanded by the
customers. The executives of chosen business adopts such strategy to satisfy the
customer demands for achieving organisational goals with the help of many marketing
tools. Such strategy requires huge investments on promotional campaigns to
understand and satisfy the end consumer demands for the respective product (Martin
and Murphy, 2017).
 Profile strategies: such strategy is used for building perceptions, reputations,
awareness along with attitudes by using the marketing tools such as public relations
and corporate advertising. These are the strategies which are helpful in satisfying the
corporate promotional objectives of any business operation. The respective
organisation uses such strategy for the product to make effective relationships with its
stakeholders. This helps in providing the directions for achieving the plans.
Thus, push, pull and profile strategies are used by the management of Loreal to attract the
potential as well as targeted customer of UK by communicating the information related to
product with the help of effective marketing channel for building relationships along with
achieving the objectives for the purpose of maintaining the market position.
(D) Marketing communicating strategies with their effectiveness and development of plans
Marketing communication strategies are used by the business firms to reach the
potential customers or market with the helps of various communication tools. Such strategy is
used by the businesses to communicate with the customers by sending messages at the right
time with right medium. Different organisations formulate different strategies for
communicating the information related to the products to different customers or markets. The
marketers of Loreal prepares the strategies for the product with the help of following steps to
communicate the relevant information in the international market:

 Step 1: Understanding the target audience: before formulating any plan, it is very
important to understand the audience which are targeted. The plans are only
prepared for specific audiences. This will help the marketers to identify the distinct
locations of various audiences in the international scenario (McDonagh and Prothero,
2014). The marketers analyses the diversified environment of international market for
understanding the targeted audience for the purpose of communicating the required
message at right time to right people in the international market.
 Step 2: Defining unique selling prepositions: it is related to the unique point of selling
the products in the global market to increase the sales. All the organisation has some
unique way to offer the products in the market. The marketers of Loreal also defines
various tactics to provide distinct products to different customers. With the use of
effective communication channel, the managers of selected firm defines the unique
ways to sell their products across the boundaries of any country.
 Step 3: Determine marketing communication mix: Marketing communication mix are
the channels which are used to reach the potential customers. With the use of recent
advancements of marketing, there are various methods to communicate the audience
such as online advertising, sponsorships, corporate communications, content
marketing and many more. The marketers of selected entity should determine the
combinations of marketing mix to promote its products in the international market.
Effective decisions will help in managing the successful marketing mix across the
boundaries of a nation. The marketing mix used in the communication channels
influences the perception of potential people in the international market (Meyers
Martin, 2012).
 Step 4: Defining the elements of brands: Branding plays an important role in
marketing communication. The brand name, packaging styles, logo and slogan are
defined. These all helps in creating different identity or image other than the
competitors. The analysts defines the packaging styles, logo, slogans which are used
for promoting the product ranges in the international market which are different from

the competitors or other companies. Effective strategies for branding leads to provide
a competitive advantage in the worldwide market.
 Step 5: Defining success metrics: when all the marketing mix, branding elements and
communication plans are prepared then success metrics for effective communication
channels are defined. For measuring the success of the marketing tools, it is important
to define the techniques or tools for measuring them. The marketers helps the
management of chosen organisation to carefully define the measurement tools for
successfully determining the objective achievements in the multinational market.
Effective measurement tool helps in bringing the accountability of the marketing
communication mix in the worldwide market.
 Step 6: Execution: when the strategies or plans for marketing communication are
clearly defined, then it's time to put the plans into action. At this stage all the
marketing strategies are executed, the results are measures and various modifications
or changes are done to attract many consumers in the international market. The
marketers of Loreal will implement its formulated strategies into actions to achieve
the sustainable position in the international market (Möller, 2013).
Effectiveness of marketing communication channels and strategies in the international or
multinational organisations.
Loreal provides products and services in the international market with the help of
marketing communication channels. By using the channels effectively, they are able to manage
their operations in the competitive market with advantageous positions. The selected company
has achieved remarkable growth along with success with the help of efficient skills used in the
marketing mix for communicating the information in the international market. Effective
strategies helps in achieving the sales as well as changing the customer perceptions towards
the organisation. The communication channels and strategies are also effectively used by all
other multinational organisations to change the market trends and circumstances for
strengthen their brand image and providing information by implementing various marketing
strategies to achieve the results (Yeshin, 2012).
The way in which product life cycle management plan is being set