L’Oréal harnesses the power of its innovation to continually enhance the performance of its products and services.
Innovation has always been the core of the L’Oréal model:the Group was born from a breakthrough innovation – safe hair dye invented by its founder Eugène Schueller. Cosmetics is an offer business: beauty is an ideal and an ongoing quest. Consumers always want to try new products, and they are willing to pay more for innovations that offer superb performance, quality and benefits. Because L’Oréal records a significant share of its sales with new products every year, the Group has a duty to be the champion of cosmetics innovation.
Given the acceleration of scientific and technological progress, and the growing demands of consumers, L’Oréal is able to innovate and lead in all areas: formulation, packaging, products, services, point-of-sale and online experience, personalisation, brand image and reputation, etc. The beauty of the future will be fuelled and nurtured by Green Sciences(1), this new research frontier that brings together efficacy, naturalness and sustainability to give the Group’s products anew competitive advantage.
Because the future of beauty is limitless, it is the Group’s responsibility to offer maximum creativity and inventiveness through all its brands to surprise and satisfy consumers.
The cosmetics market is becoming increasingly digital and competitive, with the arrival of new players from new markets and other industries such as fashion, luxury and e-commerce.
In this context, the superior marketing of the Group’s brands and products is a key and differentiating factor. The creation and development of major brands prized by consumers around the world, the launch of new or innovative franchises, the design of new products and services, including in the e‑commerce sphere, will all be essential and fundamental assets for the next decade.
L’Oréal relies on a single strategy – Glocalization – meaning the globalisation of its brands with a detailed understanding and respect for local differences. Since beauty lies at the crossroads of contemporary and future civilisational issues, the Glocalization strategy is more relevant than ever, timeless and evolutionary. The goal of the Glocalization strategy is to offer bespoke and inclusive beauty by responding to the specific aspirations of consumers in every region of the world. In contrast to standardisation, it is based on careful attention to consumers and a deep respect for the differences in their needs, lifestyles, desires and traditions.
L’Oréal has set the goal of attracting hundreds of millions of new consumers in the coming years, particularly in emerging countries. Over the next decade, North Asia and the SAPMENA-SSA zone will be the key areas in the battle for global leadership and will represent a particularly significant source of growth in the beauty market. Although L’Oréal is already the leader in this region, the potential here is still enormous, since the Group’s market share remains limited. Consumption from Chinese customers should continue to rise sharply due to the increase in their living standards and their growing appetite for beauty.
At the same time, L’Oréal also aims to accelerate its presence in Africa, which is the Group’s “next frontier” and to continue its expansion in other regions of the world.
Technology, particularly Beauty Tech, is the future of beauty because of the phenomenal breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, etc., which make it possible to expand L’Oréal’s offering and satisfy all consumer expectations.
Digital has radically transformed the Group, and today is fully integrated in the business, brands, and jobs, in all countries, and relies on a solid network of over 3,000 digital experts and close to 52,000 employees trained and a wealth of in-house know-how. Digital has boosted L’Oréal’s strengths tenfold and represents a tremendous booster of opportunities and growth. It enhances the power of brands and products, enriches the connection with consumers and creates experiences, new services and personalisation.
L’Oréal, which is already a digital-first company, decided to be the pioneer, champion and leader of Beauty Tech in all its areas of application. By building up state-of-the-art and secure IT, its leadership in Beauty Tech, its expertise in artificial intelligence and data will enable L’Oréal to be a data-driven company for all its activities and business lines.
Beauty Tech will ensure that beauty for all evolves into beauty for each person. To achieve this, L’Oréal has a unique strength: being the only company that can combine more than 110 years of scientific beauty expertise and knowledge of our consumers with cutting-edge digital excellence.
