Ethnic PR: the French exception: L’Oreal, a French ethnic marketing’s typical example

Saturday 5 January 2008

L’Oreal, a French ethnic marketing’s typical example

In the USA, ethnic cosmetic have started to be promoted for a while: society's image of beauty is no longer reserved for the all-American blond-haired, blue-eyed bombshell. Exotic, ethnic women like Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce Knowles have caught America's eye, as well as the eye of cosmetics manufacturers, as many ethnic women show no fear of experimenting with color.

In 2003, L’Oreal opened an ethnic beauty research centre in Chicago, focusing on hair and skin. While much of the lab's efforts focused on skin and hair care needs of people of African descent, research expanded to cover the Asian, Hispanic and Caucasian populations. "You can't understand one group without comparing it to another ethnic group, said Dr. Victoria Holloway, director of the institute and assistant vice president of research and development for L'Oreal USA. In the USA, ethnic consumers account for 51 percent of all hair care sales and spend double the percentage of their annual income on hair care products, when compared with Caucasians…

I guess

the French market must offer the same kind of potential. That explains why L’Oreal created new cosmetic products -for all its markets- adapted to all types of skin and hair: for exampleTrue Match, a foundation available in 24 shades that promises to match any skin tone precisely, or "Color Riche Accords Naturels" also called "Nude Colours" lipsticks, made for revealing each type of skin’s beauty.

As L’Oreal is one of the biggest French brands, maybe this will light the way to other companies? Anyway the adverts have been smart enough to convey a very positive message about ethnic differences; maybe that’s easier as it isn’t targeted to one specific ethnic group but to all women, so it displays an obvious tolerance message…

Source:
BNET Research Center

4 comments:

Laura said...: It is true that in America most of our ads feature Caucasians with blue eyes. However L'Oreal and Cover Girl now feature all ethnic groups to represent our diverse population. You will ALWAYS see 3 ethnic models in their ads, there will be the African American, Cauasian, and Latina or Asian. It is however good that companies want to represent all ethnic groups because there is a diverse population and it should be reflected in ads.; 7 January 2008 at 06:56
Nathalie Bellanger said...: I agree with you, ads should reflect all the diversity of a population, and I think l'Oreal has good ads that are totally accepted in France because it obviously shows an equality between all the different "ethnic models". But the ads targeted to one specific ethnic group are much more difficult to produce as in this country they can very easily seen as discrimination.; 7 January 2008 at 11:58
Unknown said...: Unided colors of Benetton did the same 15 years or more ago; 9 January 2008 at 02:28
Unknown said...: A good blog always comes-up with new and exciting information and while reading I felt that this blog has good quality content that qualifies a blog to be a good one. Your Info about
Ethnic marketing and diversity marketing
really helped me in my research.; 13 February 2015 at 11:24

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Why this blog...

In France, 1 person out of 4 has at least one foreigner grand parent. According to an opinion poll of 2006, 75% of French people think that the French’s wide diversity of origins is a positive thing. But maybe the only way to make this work in one country is to have strong common values and identity: that is what the French Republic's principles are about: all French people equally share one nationality, and shouldn't be differentiated according to their ethnic origin, race or religion.

Therefore, ethnic PR can't work as naturally as it does in the USA or the UK... With this blog, I want to raise the question of segmenting the French community according to its different ethnic groups, for communication and commercial purposes: will this threaten France’s unity, already fragile in some areas, or will this just give a new voice to some groups who will then feel more accepted?

Let’s start debating, give me your opinion! Be sincere, be critic, be naughty… Just express yourself !

Books

Ethnic marketing: accepting the challenge of cultural diversity, by Guilherme D. Pires and P. John Stanton. Publisher: Thomson, London 2005. 274 pages
Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural Perspective, by Felipe Korzenny and Betty Ann Korzenny. Publisher: Elsevier, 2005. 352 pages
Race, Class, and Culture: A Study in Afro-American Mass Opinion, by Robert Charles Smith and Richard Seltzer. Publisher: SUNY Press, 1992. 203 pages
Ethnik ! Le Marketing de la différence, by Anne Senges. Publisher: Autrement, 2003. 170 pages

Book review: Anne Senges and ethnic marketing in France

Anne Senges is an independent journalist who lives in San Francisco. She’s correspondent in the USA for the magazine CB News, the weekly magazine of communication and business.

In her book “Ethnik! Le marketing de la difference”, she compares American and French approach to ethnic communities. About France, she lists all the brakes on developing ethnic marketing: refusing to segment the population into different ethnic communities in the name of the Republic “one and not divisible”, the absence of statistics about ethnic markets, lack of ethnic minorities in adverts and medias in general…

However, she says that the French are aware that their “integration model” is in crisis and needs to be modernised and adapted to new social realities; but they don’t want to question the French “universalistic philosophy”. Therefore, they prefer using the “multicultural marketing”, a “mixing marketing”, rather than targeting specific ethnic communities.

She also highlights the great potential for ethnic marketing in France: these families usually have a lot of children and a huge consuming power even if they are often affected by unemployment. Therefore, some discreetly do ethnic marketing: Bridel with Laban milk, Mecca-cola (against coke, against America…) or suburbs’ supermarkets develop casher or halal departments. But advertising stays a "white" universe, even with some exceptions showing some stars (Zidane is the most famous one).

Anne Senges concludes her book with talking about the USA’s approach: being American today is sharing a culture and consuming habits more than a skin colour or an ethnic origin. Therefore, France’s challenge is to display its multi cultural country with pride without becoming too politically correct.

Some history

Ethnic Marketing and PR is born in the USA with Mrs C. J. Walker, a black beautician. She noticed that black women of her time wanted to be better integrated in the white dominated American society. She had the idea to launch a heated comb able to straighten frizzy hair. With no socio demographic data or marketing surveys, she intuitively adapted her “marketing mix” (“4 Ps”) to her potential consumers: advertising in black districts, price adapted…
Later on, in 1956, is created the first Marketing agency specialised for Afro Americans, and then for Latinos in 1962.
So ethnic PR and Marketing come from the USA, where supposed expectations of each community, Black, Latino, Chinese, Indian…, are gone over with a fine-tooth comb, and advertising messages are adapted to each one. This is not surprising knowing that within a semi century, Black, Asian and Latinos will be majority; this is already the case in 48 of the 100 biggest cities in the USA.

Ethnic PR: the French exception

Saturday 5 January 2008

L’Oreal, a French ethnic marketing’s typical example

4 comments:

Why this blog...

About Me

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Links (English)

Links (French)

Books

Book review: Anne Senges and ethnic marketing in France

Some history