L'Oreal Expands in China

L’Oréal reaffirms its commitment to developing the luxury beauty market in China at a recent press conference in Shanghai. The company laid out its plans for attracting the next generation of Chinese luxury consumers, primarily via the launch of innovations like Clarisonic, in January 2013 and the highly anticipated opening of the new Yves Saint Laurent Beauté boutique next month.

“Chinese consumers are at the heart of L’Oréal’s focus and energies. A potential 250 million new Chinese consumers will be using L’Oréal’s products in the next 10 to 15 years, making China the number one contributor to our ambition of winning 1 billion new consumers and to our strategy of universalization," said Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and CEO, L’Oréal Group. "A significant portion of these consumers will be recruited by our Luxe brands, the segment where L’Oréal has historically led the market and where it will continue to influence the shape of its future.”

The launch of brands like Yves Saint Laurent Beauté further enhance the existing Luxe portfolio, allowing it to meet the needs of Chinese women and men across age, economic and lifestyle categories, according to L'Oréal. The luxury beauty shopper is able to choose from rich European heritage brands like Lanc?me and Giorgio Armani, disruptive American brands like Kiehl’s and Clarisonic as well as Asian gems like Shu Uemura or Yue Sai – the local brand that is based on high-tech extraction methods of traditional Chinese medicine and emblematic of “invented in China, for China.”

Behind the strength of its brands is L’Oréal’s devotion to gaining a profound understanding of the Chinese consumer and the specificities of Chinese skin and hair, according to the company. This insight is made possible by the group’s long-term investment in research and innovation, creating research hubs all over the world, like the one in Pudong, Shanghai, to be ever closer to its consumers. With the understanding of local needs, L’Oréal Luxe has been able to adapt its offering to the cultural habits, texture preferences and skin care routines of Chinese women and men, providing them with iconic, tailor-made premium products like Giorgio Armani’s Crema Nera Extrema and Helena Rubinstein’s Life Pearl Cellular. Chinese consumers’ penchant for ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine has also inspired L’Oréal’s formulations, as seen in the énergie de Vie range by Lanc?me which uses precious root extracts of rhodiola, gentian and wild yam.

L'Oréal Luxe has led the way for luxury beauty in China since it first introduced Lanc?me to Chinese consumers in 1993. L'Oréal Luxe pioneered the launch of international luxury beauty brands, the opening of counters across numerous cities, including tier 2 and 3 cities, and the development of leading-edge media and digital initiatives in order to reach and deeply engage a diversity of consumers. 20 years and 10 luxury brands later (and soon 11 with the upcoming launch of Yves Saint Laurent Beauté), this foresight has paid off – L'Oréal Luxe is the most dynamic of the major luxury cosmetics groups in China with a growth of 1.3 times the market.

China has, in turn, provided L'Oréal Luxe the opportunity to reinvent itself and redefine its brands to cater to the beauty needs of a new generation of Chinese consumers. The exigencies of the market have challenged and inspired each of L'Oréal’s Luxe brands to constantly raise the bar in terms of product offerings, distribution, retail and service excellence as well as creative communications campaigns.

More info: www.beautyin-luxeinchina.com

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