Brands that have reached the pinnacle evolve in two stages. The first stage is to declare one’s existence so that at least one person is aware of it. This is accomplished by launching a new project. The secondary stage is the company’s expansion and establishment in the trading niche.
To establish a monopoly on manufactured goods, innovation must be developed and made available to the general public.
The secret of the success
There has never been a single brand in marketing history that has achieved stunning success through a single advertisement that indicated the only argument – the mere fact of existence. If you want your company to be a global success, you must present consumers with an invention that will be on their lips for a long time.
Consider the Gillette safety razor, Nike sneakers with rubberized soles, or GEOX shoes with breathable mesh uppers. When these novelties first appeared on the market, they caused a revolution, allowing them to gain widespread popularity. Brands have strengthened their market position by utilizing advertising media.
There are also brands that have emerged as a result of the incorporation of new technologies into manufacturing. For them, the aforementioned stages occur concurrently because, in the absence of innovations, it is impossible to consolidate their positions even with the help of advertising.
L’Oreal innovative solutions
This is a company that is currently growing, capitalizing on innovation, and was revolutionary in its early stages of success. Eugene Schuler, a talented chemist living in Paris on his own, was in charge.
He created the first artificial hair dye in 1907. A year later, he founded his own company to distribute and sell the invention. The company was originally known as a “French company for the manufacture of harmless hair dyes,” but a year later it was renamed L’Oreal.
Eugene Schuler worked in the laboratory at night and went to Parisian beauty salons during the day, trying to sell his products. As a result, the inventor informed potential customers about the existence of the products. This proposal was extremely popular among the general public. There is still a lot of room to grow and consolidate market positions.
He obtains a small loan from a poor accountant and rents a larger building in 1909 when he hires his first employees. Furthermore, he places advertisements in the specialized magazine La Coiffure de Paris, which is dedicated to fashionable hairstyles.
L’Oreal was already so powerful in 1934 that it purchased the French company Monzaron. Eugene was able to release the next equally important invention as a result of this – a shampoo that does not contain alkaline components (this distinguished him from soap). The shampoo was not given the L’Oreal brand name for some reason, as the developers felt the name Dop was more appropriate.
It was an example of how to fill the market with innovative products from other categories, resulting in the creation of new brands. In the 1960s, the company acquired Gamier and Lancome, resulting in the creation of the Guy Laroche perfume line. It is currently inferior to world-famous perfume companies such as Lancome, Ralph Lauren, and Giorgio Armani.
By the way, many perfume companies provide their products to draught fragrance points of sale in order to expand their business. However, L’Oreal remains the market leader in cosmetics, acquiring Maybelline brands. This enables you to broaden and diversify your product offering.
What is the success formula? L’Oreal maintains its exclusivity and individuality in everything it creates. Maybelline, for example, is associated with the vivacious nature of New Yorkers, but the brand is owned by a French company. This company is known as the “World Organization for Beauty” all over the world due to the wide variety of companies and their uniqueness.
According to Business Week magazine, the company’s activities are as follows: “The secret of L’Oreal lies in its ability to embody the individual characteristics of many cultures in its products.” Selling French sophistication, Italian elegance, or New York freshness, it captivates with its luxury, which translates into high profits, as well as the highest cultural level, which manifests itself in the quality of the goods sold, which is not typical of any competitor’s products. This is what distinguishes L’Oreal from Coca-Cola and other single-brand manufacturers.”
“We have made great efforts to diversify as much as possible, but at the same time preserve the cultural flavor of the brands we have developed,” says Lindsey Owen-Jones, one of the company’s current owners. When L’Oreal paid $786 million for Maybelline in 1996, it took special care not to destroy the cultural flavor of its newly acquired American counterpart.
To accomplish this, she aired a commercial in Manhattan under the name Maybelline Miami Chill. This strategy has yielded positive results. Until 2003, Maybelline sales more than doubled, and following the merger, the brand gained popularity even outside the United States.
L’Oreal demonstrated to the world through a unique policy that national identity does not interfere with the success of the brands that have entered the company, but rather that their preservation results in positive changes.
Success Secrets
• Creativity. Becoming begins with some kind of invention, and it is only after that that you can begin advertising new products. L’Oreal believes in this principle. In the same way, the world’s largest electronics company, Samsung, grew.
• Uniqueness. In order to gain a position in the market for goods and services, the company employs a variety of brands. She does not try to invent anything new, nor does she remake the world to suit her own needs, but instead makes proper use of what has already been created a long time ago. This is her one-of-a-kind and inimitable image. Consumers, understandably, welcome innovation. SONY’s success, for example, is based on inventive inventions and risky marketing decisions.
Use of acquired brands’ national features. Most large corporations are attempting to remove signs indicating their origin and nationality in order to avoid brand rejection in other countries. L’Oreal works in the opposite direction, emphasizing the brand’s regional or national affiliation to the buyer, emphasizing it, and constantly mentioning it in the name. L’Oreal Paris and Maybelline New York both had similar examples.
• The right of the individual to exist. For its market hegemony, L’Oreal is a conglomeration of various brands. It does not deprive them of their right to exist in the form in which they were previously (before the merger). The originality of the beginning established during the appearance of a particular brand on the market is not lost. This distinguishes L’Oreal from other companies that, when smaller brands are merged, lose their identity. He never attempts to create new brands because it is far more profitable to capitalize on existing ones that are already interested in her. As a result, the company has always met its objectives.