L'Oreal and the Globalization of American Beauty
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.
If we look at the over 100-year history of L’Oreal we see how much that company changed and became the biggest global cosmetic company. They expanded and acquire many other companies in the world especially in USA and France.
They faced some challenges on the way to that title. Some of the challenges are: high rivalry in the industry, marketing problems with sustaining a consistent brand positioning of the products in some markets, and the cultural differences they faced in many countries.
However they also possessed specific capabilities that helped on the way to become the world’s largest beauty company. L’Oreal has a strong commitment to research and development; for example they spent $600 million in 2003 on the development of new products and at the same time working on reduction of production costs.
Under Owen-Jones L’Oreal experienced a big growth and in my opinion acquisitions have played a big role in L'Oreal's performance and growth together with L’Oreal expertise in product development and marketing. With each acquisition the L’Oreal team applied their expertise and technology to improve products, marketing, and brand image in order to increase market share and sales respectively. They really focused on each brand to be very precisely defined and occupied a very distinct market position without overlapping the other segments and products from other brand they had.
Kiehl’s brand presented some global opportunities and limits too, which included plans to increase the brand's presence in the world while sustaining their integrity as an alternative brand with a cult following.
1. How did L’Oréal become the world’s largest beauty company? What challenges did they face in building a global beauty business? What specific capabilities did L’Oréal have (or develop) to become the world’s largest beauty company?
If we look at the history of L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics company, from its origins in France in 1907,
If we look at the over 100-year history of L’Oreal we see how much that company changed and became the biggest global cosmetic company. They expanded and acquire many other companies in the world especially in USA and France.
They faced some challenges on the way to that title. Some of the challenges are: high rivalry in the industry, marketing problems with sustaining a consistent brand positioning of the products in some markets, and the cultural differences they faced in many countries.
However they also possessed specific capabilities that helped on the way to become the world’s largest beauty company. L’Oreal has a strong commitment to research and development; for example they spent $600 million in 2003 on the development of new products and at the same time working on reduction of production costs.
Under Owen-Jones L’Oreal experienced a big growth and in my opinion acquisitions have played a big role in L'Oreal's performance and growth together with L’Oreal expertise in product development and marketing. With each acquisition the L’Oreal team applied their expertise and technology to improve products, marketing, and brand image in order to increase market share and sales respectively. They really focused on each brand to be very precisely defined and occupied a very distinct market position without overlapping the other segments and products from other brand they had.
Kiehl’s brand presented some global opportunities and limits too, which included plans to increase the brand's presence in the world while sustaining their integrity as an alternative brand with a cult following.
1. How did L’Oréal become the world’s largest beauty company? What challenges did they face in building a global beauty business? What specific capabilities did L’Oréal have (or develop) to become the world’s largest beauty company?
If we look at the history of L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics company, from its origins in France in 1907,