L'Oreal's Global Branding Strategy

L'Oreal had built a dozen or so mega brands rooted in the local culture and appealing to different segments of the global market. Instead of homogenizing the various brands and making them palatable in myriad cultures, Owen-Jones decided to embody their (the brands') country of origin, turning what many marketing gurus considered a narrowing factor into a marketing virtue. As a senior L'Oreal manager put it, "You have to be local and as strong as the best locals but backed by an international image and strategy. We have made a conscious effort to diversify the cultural origins of our brands."...

L'Oreal backed its product innovations with the twelfth-largest media budget in the world. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, "external charges", which included L'Oreal's advertising and promotions expenditure jumped from 37% to 47% of sales. L'Oreal increased its global ad spending to $1.25 billion in 1998, putting it almost on par with Coca-Cola. L'Oreal had a unique promotion policy for all its brands. A brand, which sold in mass-market outlets, advertised and promoted itself in a way similar to brands sold in department stores...