Our consumers expect purpose

Before going on holiday, I wanted to share with you some learnings from the past few unprecedented months, about what consumers expect from their favorite brands. Indeed, in the post-Covid era, the conviction that I have is that the strength of brands will be based more than ever on their ‘purpose’.

Now, it’s true that this has already been the case for several years: but the health, economic and social crisis we are going through has greatly accelerated this trend.

For decades, consumers did not pay much attention to a company’s values. What used to make a company attractive was its power, its efficiency and its performance. To thrive and be seen as strong, companies had to be ever-present and create a wide range of exciting product offerings. For customers, the act of consumption was not an act of commitment: it served first and foremost to meet a need or an aspiration.

But, in today’s world this is no longer enough. Consumers are expecting society to change and they consider that companies, just like governments, have a responsibility to make this change happen. This is true for economic growth, employment, preservation of the environment as well as innovation.

My belief is that this gives even more power to consumers. They can vote every day for brands and companies, simply by buying their products. In other words, consumers feel they too can make societal change happen through their choices of brand and companies.

This is why they want products that correspond to them, that serve the values that they share and defend.

As a result, the relationship between businesses and consumers has changed. According to a survey conducted in April, 43% of consumers walk away when disappointed by a brand’s words or actions on a social issue. (Source: Accenture Report “A brand new purpose navigating the Human and Business impact of COVID19” April 2020.)

The relationship and conversations between brands and consumers is no longer top-down. It is now being built, thanks to the Internet and social networks, through dialogue. For companies, dialogue is a great way for them to better understand their customers and meet their new needs! For consumers, dialogue is, notably, a means to express a simple expectation: they want their favorite brands to get involved!

In this historic transformation, the beauty sector has been at the forefront. Indeed, every time I talk to our customers and partners around the world, I realize they all express strong expectations in at least three areas.

The first area is openness and inclusion. Consumers no longer want brands to impose standards that are contrary to their lifestyle and aspirations. They no longer want uniformity. And, they are right! At L’Oréal, we are convinced that there is no single and unique model of beauty, but that it can come in an infinite diversity of forms (linked to cultures, history and personalities).

This is why L’Oréal has built a portfolio of brands, embodying the plurality of beauty. Together, they enable us to meet the different needs and aspirations of all types of consumers, and cultures everywhere. However, we can go further and do even better in this endeavor as well driving the embodiment of diversity in the teams behind our brands. Diversity needs to be reflected at all levels of the company, including its leadership, as consumers expect the Group to include people of different walks of life.

Inclusivity is about celebrating all kinds of beauty in relation to gender, ethnicity or age. A good example is given by the NON – ISSUE that L'Oréal Paris created: an 80-page print campaign in the form of an actual Vogue magazine that made age a "Non-Issue."

The second area in which consumers want L'Oréal to commit is gender equality. Why is that? Because our bond with women has always been strong and singular (women make us the majority of our consumers and represent 63% of our top positions). And, because we have continually been on the front line in seeing how women are victims of unbearable inequalities. In this area more than any other, our responsibility is to help to make concrete changes and provide tangible answers.

This is why, in 1998, the Fondation L’Oréal and UNESCO started working together to empower more women scientists to achieve scientific excellence in the For Women in Science programme, and participate equally in solving the great challenges facing humanity such as climate change and resource scarcity.

And, this is also why the L’Oréal Group announced one month ago the funding of €50 million to the support of highly vulnerable women.

But that's not all! One of the amazing initiatives I would like to highlight is the cause supported by L’Oréal Paris called ‘Stand Up’, which fights against street harassment. Our ambition is huge: in around ten countries, L’Oréal Paris aims to drive awareness of street harassment with a call-to-action on a global scale. From schools to public transport to festivals to online spaces; Stand Up will grow a global community of 1 million ‘up-standers’. 

The third area in which consumers want L'Oréal to commit is sustainability. They continue to remind us that the fight against global warming is one of the biggest challenges of our time, in addition to the struggle against inequality and destitution. L'Oréal has been highly engaged in taking responsibility for its own environmental impact, and we have extended the improvement of our ecological footprint to our suppliers. Very early on, L’Oréal became aware of the urgent need to address the challenges arising from the global environmental crisis. As an industrial company, we decided that tackling the environmental impact of our factories and distribution centers was an important priority and a necessary first step to begin our transformation. In 2019, we improved the environmental or social profile of 85% of our new or renovated products.

On this front, the program ‘L’Oréal for the Future’, which was announced last month by Jean-Paul Agon and Alexandra Palt, will allow us to dedicate €100 million to environmental impact investing. By 2030, 100% of the plastics used in our packaging will be either from recycled or bio-based sources (we will reach 50% by 2025). Furthermore, by 2025, 100% of our plastic packaging will be refillable, reusable, recyclable or compostable.

Garnier is our champion brand in this area. The brand is about to launch the first generation of tubes that include cardboard, which results in 49 % less plastic. Its purpose is ‘Green beauty for all of us’.

I want to be very clear: for L'Oréal, the purpose of each of our brands lies at the core of our day-to-day conversation with our customers and our whole ecosystem. The Covid Crisis has accelerated this trend. Consumers not only want the most efficient products. They want, and in fact deserve, the most meaningful ones.

Today, the role of our brands is no longer to be role models, points of reference or heroes. Our real role is to support our consumers in their life choices, in their daily decisions, and in their commitments, in fact acting as ‘coaches’ for our consumers.

Like humans, companies are also looking for meaning and a sense of purpose. For L’Oréal, our purpose drives the Group and all of our employees around the world to seek excellence and creativity.

L’Oréal’s purpose is to “Create the beauty that moves the world” and we believe that it fits perfectly to this new world, and to the renewed expectations of our consumers worldwide. The past few months have taught us that all brands and companies need to keep questioning, adapting and improving.

L’Oréal’s brands and divisions have already started on this journey a number of years ago, driven by the encouragement and expectations of our consumers. I’m very proud of what we’ve already accomplished together, humbled by the immense scale of what’s left to be done, and looking forward to the journey ahead.