L’Oréal Luxe wins over Millennials
Thanks to its portfolio of complementary brands, L’Oréal – global beauty leader – addresses the aspirations of young consumers, whose desires and expectations are forged on social networks.
Influencers, tutorials, reviews and comments, social networks, videos and more. Thanks to the Internet, young people have an entire ecosystem of information about beauty products at their fingertips. This is a real challenge for brands, who must constantly renew their communication codes to deliver messages in formats that appeal to these consumers.
A portfolio of complementary brands
With brands as respected as they are varied, L’Oréal Luxe has a host of assets to help it reach all consumer groups. Millennials are particularly interested in couture labels like Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, and Valentino, with whom L’Oréal signed a licence agreement in 2018. The lip makeup segment is also a favourite among young consumers, especially in Asia. For this generation, which is particularly concerned with the ingredients used in beauty products, brands like Kiehl’s also meet their expectations in terms of naturalness, especially in Europe and North America.
Vérane de Marffy, Senior Vice-President, Yves Saint Laurent Beauté in the United States, talks about the brand, which is very popular with Millennials:
Vérane de Marffy
Senior Vice-President, Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, L’Oréal USA
Digital media: where young consumers engage
Young consumers also engage with brands on social networks. Tools allowing them to virtually try out beauty products, like ModiFace technology, are particularly popular with young consumers. Recommendations play a crucial role in their purchasing decisions, especially if they come from influencers – beauty experts and opinion leaders on social networks – who recommend products and impact their followers’ purchases. The success of the partnership between Shu Uemura and Naomi Watanabe is a perfect example of this.
Digital media is also the ideal platform for promoting special events or exclusive product launches, especially for holidays like 11/11 and Mother’s Day. Customisable and limited editions, which are impulse buys and objects of desire, have met with remarkable success with young consumers. In Asia, My Armani To Go Cushion and the customisable lipstick Rouge Pur Couture by Yves Saint Laurent have been amazing hits.
Inclusive messages
Young consumers, who live in a multicultural world that is both real and virtual, are firmly committed to the values of diversity and inclusion. These principles are fully in line with the ethos of certain brands, such as Urban Decay or IT Cosmetics. This brand is committed to incorporating beauty in all shapes and sizes into its “before/after” communications and has expanded its range of shades even further. Giorgio Armani chose three spokeswomen representing different types of beauty for its Sì Passione campaign, which revamped the fragrance’s image, particularly with American audiences.
