International Marketing Study Program 2000
L'Oreal, Paris
19 January 2000
The group began with a tour of the L'Oreal factory. Marie and Nicole were the two tour leaders who showed us a short video about the products and the outlook of the company. Subsequently, they brought us into the factory to visit and explained the manufacturing process in detail.
This particular factory manufactures products like hair spray and dyes and facial products. After the interesting tour, we were presented with gifts of L'Oreal FuturE and hair spray products. We, in turn showed our appreciation by giving a bottle of Australian red wine to each of them.
After the factory tour, we moved to the L'Oreal head office nearby. We got a seminar from three wonderful speakers, each from different sectors of the company like Human Resource, Marketing and Top Management. The seminar covered topics including the basic company structure of L'Oreal, how to brand products and how to distribute the products globally.
The structure of L'Oreal is simple. There are two main divisions: operational and functional divisions. In order to brand their products, they keep modifying the packaging, labeling and as well as using advertising. The worldwide distribution network is mainly through the departmental store and supermarkets. As the environments in different markets are not the same, the distribution strategy is slightly different. E.g. In India, products are usually sold in the streets rather than in the supermarkets or departmental stores. This is due to the Indian culture and lifestyle that consumers like to buy products from the street.
Written by Desmond Wan & King Chi Wong
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