Empirical Research
L’Oreal Marketing Strategies in Promoting Beauty Care Products in Malaysia The world’s No. 1 beauty company, L’Oreal, sees opportunities in Malaysia’s multi-ethnicity and thus taking the advantage of this unique feature, despite the small population of 28 million. L’Oreal executive vice-president for Asia Pacific, Jochen Zaumseil said that Malaysia is an important market for L’Oreal, as the multi-ethnicity background in Malaysia offers them opportunity to test its products and hence developing new ideas to cater the demand of the diverse market. Malaysia is the country in Asia-Pacific where L’Oreal has the highest share of the men’s market. L’Oreal Men Expert and Garnier for Men roughly have 45% market share in Malaysia. The executive vice president further explain that they are not producing a product/brand under L’Oreal specifically for a particular group, instead they worked more on pricing strategy so that they could attract more market segment and consequently achieve higher market share of from all groups of ethnicity. The managing director for L’Oreal Malaysia, Andrew Stanleick listed three ways of attracting billion customers under the group’s global strategy. The first one is to meet customer needs which can be achieved by adapting international products to Malaysian market.
For example, Garnier Men which was first introduced in Western market, but was launched in 2010 to Malaysian market, where the formula was specifically developed for the climate in Southeast Asia men. It quickly became the No 1 range of the men’s skincare market with an increase of 26% in the market share. The next strategy is to introduce new and relevant products to the customers. This includes the introduction of newly generated Garnier BB Cream, a beauty cream which was developed according to Malaysian market, where the colour tones are wider (from people with light beige skin tone, to the dark brown skin tone.) This indicates that L’Oreal is very concern on Asian’s skin
For example, Garnier Men which was first introduced in Western market, but was launched in 2010 to Malaysian market, where the formula was specifically developed for the climate in Southeast Asia men. It quickly became the No 1 range of the men’s skincare market with an increase of 26% in the market share. The next strategy is to introduce new and relevant products to the customers. This includes the introduction of newly generated Garnier BB Cream, a beauty cream which was developed according to Malaysian market, where the colour tones are wider (from people with light beige skin tone, to the dark brown skin tone.) This indicates that L’Oreal is very concern on Asian’s skin
References: 1. CIA World Factbook Website. “The World Factbook-Malaysia.” Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). December 14, 2012. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/my.html> (Retrieved on January 1, 2013) 2. Chatterjee, Purvita. “ L’Oreal Woos Aam Aadmi with Dual Pricing Strategy” .The Hindu Business Line Website. July 2, 2012. < http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/marketing/article3595101.ece> (Retrieved on January 1, 2013) 3. Ng, Jenny. “L’Oreal Sees Opportunity in Malaysia’s Multi-ethnicity.” The Edge Financial Daily. September 27, 2012. <http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/business-news/221381-loreal-sees-opportunity-in-malaysias-multi-ethnicity.html> (Retrieved on January 1, 2013)