L'Oreal Strategy For Nederland
...his improved hair dye Auréole. With that, the history of L'Oréal began. Eugène Schueller formulated and manufactured his own products, which he then sold to Parisian hairdressers.
In 1909, Schueller registered his company, the Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux ("Safe Hair Dye Company of France"), the future L'Oréal. The guiding principles of the company that would become L'Oréal were put into place from the start: research and innovation in the interest of beauty.
In 1920, the small company employed three chemists. By 1950, the research teams were 100 strong; that number reached 1,000 by 1984 and is nearly 2,000 today.
L'Oréal got its start in the hair-color business, but the company soon branched out into other cleansing and beauty products. L'Oréal now markets over 500 brands and many thousands of individual products in all sectors of the beauty business: hair color, permanents, styling aids, body and skin care, cleansers and fragrances. They are found in all distribution channels, from hair salons and perfumeries to hyper - and supermarkets, health/beauty outlets, pharmacies and direct mail.
L'Oreal's strengths include the fact that it is the largest seller of hair care and beauty products in the world. It is the market leader, concentrating on 12 core brands which account for 90% of its sales. Some of these products are diversified by price, and some by cultural image. The company has taken advantage of economies of scale in packaging and advertising, enabling improvements in profit margins. Its net profit has doubled every 5 years during the last decade.
L'Oreal provides significant funding to research and development, uses and develops leading-edge technology, and regularly and successfully introduces new products onto the market. L'Oréal has five worldwide research and development centers: two in France: Aulnay and Chevilly;...
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