Case Study:

L'Oral sells cosmetics and toiletries to consumers around the world. One market that has certainly been booming lately is that for hair care products. Brands such as Elvive, Lancme, Helena Rubenstein and Krastase, part of the L'Oral stable, are capitalizing on this trend. In one sense, L'Oral's hair care products - shampoo, conditioners, styling agents - are no more

than careful mixtures of chemicals with different smells and colors. But L'Oral knows that when it sells shampoos and conditioners, it sells much more than a bottle of colored or fragrant soapy fluids - it sells what the fluids can do for the women who use them.

Many hair care products are promoted using alluring chat-up lines: 'Your hair is instantly shinier, stronger, healthier, and getting better and better and . . .'. Who would believe that shampoos and conditioners that are designed to rinse away can have any lasting benefits? But

women do not see shampoos and conditioners that way. Many things beyond the ingredients add to a shampoo's allure. While hair is dead, it is organic, so will respond to some care and attention. Many consumers believe that their favorite shampoo does more than wash away the grit in their hair; it makes them feel good about themselves. Thanks to recent scientific breakthroughs, many hair care products can make a difference. The L'Oral laboratories in Paris, employing 2,500 employees, dedicate over 180 million a year to R&D. This investment pays. For example, Krastase, part of the L'Oral group, developed Ceramide F - a synthetic copy of naturally occurring hair ceramides - which reconstructs the hair's internal structure. Sounds farfetched? But consumers say it works. Krastase Forcintense revitalizes hair that is severely damaged through colouring, overstyling or perming. Other L'Oral product innovations include color and conditioning agents - Majirel, Majirouge and Majiblond - for treating fading hair colors due to washing or sunlight, and special formulations - Majimches - for blondes. All these functional benefits enable L'Oral to promote the brand's superior performance benefits to consumers.

The wash-in, wash-out nature of hair care suggests that product performance alone may be sufficient to satisfy users. Hairstylist Sam McKnight says that it is an emotionally charged marketplace: a bad hair day means an unhappy woman. There is also a limit to what all the scientific breakthroughs in hair care can do for how a woman feels when she has had a hair wash. McKnight argues that scents and colours must be chosen carefully to match women's desires, moods and lifestyles. His new range of products eschew science and concentrate on the smell. Called 'Sexy', they are expensive, exclusive and smell like no other shampoo has ever smelled before.

Additionally, hair care brands have done well because of the advertising spends that have gone in to promote shampooing as a pleasurable pastime rather than an activity akin to doing a load of washing. L'Oral and rival firms know just how important this is. Brands such as Elvive, Pantene (by Procter & Gamble) and Organics (by Elida/Lever Faberg) have advertising spends that will make a girl's hair curl. L'Oral's leading brand Elvive also tries to capture the essence of pleasure using advertisements that sound tempting: 'Because I'm worth it', says L'Oral. Companies also have to play on the shampoo's name, an important product attribute. Names such as Sexy, Dream Hair Sensational and Frizz-Ease suggest that the shampoos and conditioners will do something more than just wash your hair. L'Oral must also package its hair care products carefully. To consumers, the bottle and package are the most tangible symbols of the product's image. Bottles must feel comfortable, be easy to handle and help to differentiate the product from other brands on the shelf. So, when a woman buys hair shampoos and conditioners, she buys much, much more than simply soapy fluids. The product's image, its promises, its feel, its name and package, even the company that makes it, all become a part of the total product. Hope in a bottle or just so much hype? The answer: it's up to each of us to decide whether we're worth it.

Questions:-

1. Distinguish between the core, tangible and augmented product that L'Oral sells.

2. A hair care product's name is a central product attribute.

3.What are the key branding decisions that L'Oral's marketing managers have to make?