How L’Oréal Became A Top Global Beauty Brand

L’Oréal is one of the world’s top beauty brands.

In fact, Forbes estimates that it’s worth $107.5 billion!

How does the brand maintain its seat at the top? In part, through innovations in technology, beauty and advertising.

1. Makeup.com - publishes great articles and social media posts

A quick look at L’Oréal’s Makeup.com reveals beauty tips, tricks and products that can empower women to reach their ideal level of beauty. Its articles have easy-to-follow step-by-step tutorials accompanied by detailed pictures and videos.

Makeup.com also posts advice from beauty experts and behind-the-scenes looks from famous beauty brands.

The site became popular through Youtube stars such as Michelle Phan and Eva Gutowski, who promoted the platform in their own channel. As a result, it now has 700,000 followers on Facebook, 31,000 followers on Twitter, and 38,000 followers on Instagram.

But it didn’t grow its following based on influencers alone.

The site regularly updates its social media channels with quality content that their audience will love, such as interviews with top influencers and articles on new beauty products and useful beauty hacks.

2. My UV Skin Patch - created a sticker that can measure UV exposure

L'Oréal La Roche Posay released My UV Patch—a sticker that can measure UV exposure and connect with a smartphone, to remind users to wear sunscreen.  Levels of UV exposure can be viewed through easy-to-understand charts and graphs. The patch also offers personalized skincare serums and sunscreen recommendations based on skin color, tone, and type.

The product marks L'Oréal's introduction to the technology industry. By accurately measuring UV exposure, the brand hopes that it can provide products that can address their customers' individual needs.

“There is an inherent disconnect between people and understanding really how much sun exposure they have,” said Guive Balooch, Global Vice President of L'Oréal Technology Incubator in an interview, “They just don’t know how much exposure they’re getting on a day-to-day basis, which by itself is going to be like an epiphany.”

While personalizing skincare is a great ambition, L'Oréal understood that it had to get its customers interested in wearables and skincare, first. As a result, the brand gave the patch to customers for free, upon its release.

But the patch is just one of many more products to come.

“We want to build a series of products in coming years that are the link between technology and beauty,” said Guive Balooch, Global Vice President of L'Oréal Technology Incubator “That’s not only around just wearables. It’s around personalizing, customizing cosmetics.”

3. L'Oréal Makeup Genius - enabled customers to virtually try on L'Oréal products

L'Oréal created the 1st virtual makeup tester app—Makeup Genius. The app enables women to try various makeup looks in real-time with the use of 300+ L'Oréal products.

Users could also opt to choose from the apps curated looks like the "Butterfly Look" or "Evening Smokey", and try the looks of L'Oréal's cover girls Freida Pinto, Julienne Moore, and a lot more!

By enabling users to virtually try-on curated looks and different L'Oréal products, users are a lot more motivated to frequent purchases.

4. Partnered with Marvel to Create a Branded Issue of Captain America

In 2013, L'Oréal's skincare brand Kiehl first forayed into anti-aging skin treatment for men. To appeal to its males, the brand partnered with Marvel Comic's to create a branded issue of Captain America. The comic was released alongside Kiehl's "Heavy Lifting" moisturizer.

"It's kind of hard to ignore what's happening out there with superhero movies," says Kiehl's president Chris Salgardo, "I have all my old Avengers and Defenders and X-Menand Conan comic books in their plastic, with their cardboard.

The story of the issue begins at a Kiehl store in Manhattan. The store is attacked by Cobra, a member of the Serpent Society. After that, Captain America battles Cobra to obtain the super-soldier serum. Kiehl's previous owner Aaron Morse, who was a WWII fighter pilot also made an appearance in the comic.

While its male audience doesn’t have superpowers, at least Kiehl would be able to help in the looks department.

"We're older than Steve Rogers," Salgrado says, "but we can keep you looking as young as Captain America looks today."

5. Partnered with Founders Factory to Support Promising Beauty Startups

L'Oréal partnered with Founders Factory to help first-class beauty startups succeed. So far, the lineup seems to be impressive.

It includes...

• InsitU, a startup that allows customers to customize their skincare products
• Tailify, a platform that connects users to influential beauty gurus
• Veleza, an app that directly links users to beauty experts
• Preemadonna, a high-tech app that uses a phone's camera to print nail art onto nails, and
• Cosmose, a marketing platform that reconnects retailers with shoppers.

Each of these startups are a part of L'Oréal's accelerator program. The program includes six months of meetings, lab access, marketing advice, consumer insights advice, and tech guidance from the Founders factory.

With its efforts to integrate technology into its products, L'Oréal is set to become even more relevant in the years to come!

Here’s a recap of what we’ve learned from L’Oreal’s success:

• Invest in promising startups
• Enable customers to virtually try-on products
• Provide detailed tutorials