Consumer Behaviour LOral Male Grooming Range - Assignment Example

? Understanding consumer behaviour has become essential for today’s marketing. Consumers today are more aware and rely on their understanding and experiences for purchasing decisions to be made. Conditioning and grooming of consumers mind can be done only through effective marketing strategies. L’Oreal implemented a few strategies while planning their marketing campaign for men grooming range. In the essay that follows we are going to cover significant factors impacting consume behaviour and his buying decision Understanding consumer behaviour theories with reference to L’Oreal Today world of cosmetics has advanced rapidly. From a simple moisturiser to anti-ageing emoluments to hair colours and lipsticks and all the range that is available for a consumer to consider is stupendous. Also, the numbers of companies who make these cosmetics enjoy a worldwide market for their products. One such leading name in cosmetics and beauty market is that of L’Oreal. The company was founded in France and was started in the year 1907. It started its production line by making simple basic dyes or hair colours. This small activity later branched out in many cosmetic products and continued to expand across the globe. Today the company makes a variety of products such as, make up, hair colours, hair care, skin care, etc. World over L’Oreal enjoys trust and faith of its millions of customers. Brand image of L’Oreal in the mind of a consumer L’Oreal has successfully integrated its values in the brand image they have built. It incorporated innovation, performance, style and value for money keeping in mind the environmental concerns and corporate responsibility it has towards people and consumers. L’Oreal has managed to build trust in the minds of consumers by consistently delivering quality products which ensure value for money. Consumer decision making usually involves following path: Problem recognition- search-alternative evaluation- choice – post acquisition process1 L’Oreal has successfully managed to build a brand image in all these steps of decision making process. Especially when it comes to alternative evaluation, choice and post-acquisition process L’Oreal has excelled its image building efforts. For a customer there is a wide variety to choose from over the counter. The choice becomes easy as the consumer is aware of the product and is comfortable using it. Post-acquisition or usage issues are solved by educating consumer properly. 1. Ensure that all our publicity and all our promotional material are based on proven results and scientific data. 2. Provide a true, reliable and accurate description of our products and their effects. 3. Do everything in our power to ensure our consumers and customers can readily understand the purpose and correct usage of our products.2 These are some of L’Oreal Code of Business Ethics that are followed when the company assures that it is into responsible marketing and advertising promoting sustainable consumption. This ensures three significant perspectives the company undertakes when it markets for its products and services. 1. Creating a brand image that is instantly recalled by the customer for its trustworthiness and values 2. Having transparency established in consumer and manufacturer relationship 3. Creating awareness of its own products and its usage. All these add to various dimensions of the brand L’Oreal and give it an instant recall with values, ethics and trust. L’Oreal offers products in the range from luxury to consumer. Having various established brand names such as Diesel, Stella McCartney series, Maybelline. Fructis, L’Oreal offers a range to choose from. From Body care to exclusive perfumes L’Oreal has it all, which gives a very comprehensive choice to the consumer. The fact that L’Oreal has been able to come up with such wide quality choice for the consumer is because of the company’s dedication to research and innovation in the interest of beauty. Some of the products are: L’Oreal Products – Vichy, Lancome and Maybelline The earlier tagline for L’Oreal was “I am worth it” which later changed to “You are worth it” and now it is advancing towards “We are worth it”, so much so that when to company launched its kids range of products the same tagline was extended as “We are worth it too”. This tagline created a powerful impact in conveying the message of the company powerfully to the consumer. It simply meant that ‘you deserve the best and you are worth it and we are here to provide and do whatever that is best for you’. Changing it from ‘I’ to ‘You’ and finally ‘We’ shows the change of attitude from the company’s side. It indicates that the company is interested in involving the consumers more and more in the functioning and brand building of the company. The change in tagline has given a powerful platform of trust and faith to the customer relationship building at L’Oreal. While the company enjoys tremendous brand loyalty and recall, it took a step further to launch products in the men’s grooming. Cosmetics and grooming products industry traditionally concentrated on women as their prime customers. Considering the fact that woman always strived to look younger and better and better the industry thrived. Cosmetics were a no-no for men, who often thought it to be an insult to their masculinity. However the trend started reversing in recent times. The change was evident in men accepting the fact that they need to groom themselves to look better and most importantly feel better and confident. To start with, it was easy to sneak into mother’s or wife’s or sister’s cupboard and borrow her cosmetics and creams. However it soon became apparent that the requirements of men differed greatly from that of women. The skin texture and tone of men demanded creams and cosmetics specially designed for them. This became the starting point of men’s cosmetic industry. Men today have travelled from being metrosexual to retrosexual who believe in the values of masculinity based on old fashioned values of masculinity unashamedly incorporating use of cosmetics to maintain their sexuality and looks as a sign of pride and confidence. This typical trait was further explored by introducing variety of cosmetics for men such as moisturisers, shampoos, creams, anti-tans, skin emoluments which go beyond the traditional range of shaving cream, after shave and deodorant. Today men would like to spend on cosmetics range which is designed for them. Although the pace for growth in men’s grooming products is increasing it is not growing as fast as the women’s range of products and cosmetics. The potential for the market is vast and the revenues run into millions but at the same time the penetration in the market is slow and low. We have to understand the consumer’s psyche to plan and execute marketing strategies effectively for more capturing of men’s grooming market. When it comes to creating awareness L’Oreal has been using various strategies effectively. Appointing of Hugh Laurie as a brand ambassador was a wise move which created awareness of the company’s products. Laurie said: "At first I thought it was a mistake but then I realised that L’Oreal wasn't looking for models, but real people with strong personalities, who are worth it ... and who aren't afraid to proclaim that using cosmetics can be a very masculine decision after all."3 Now let us understand what are attitudes, beliefs and perception and how do these form a part of cognitive process of a consumer and finally impacts his or her behaviour. To understand the cognitive process of the consumer let us first understand what constitutes the cognitive process of buying behaviour. Attitude is defined as settled way of thinking about someone or somebody that affects the behaviour of a person. Attitudes could be favourable, unfavourable or neutral. Judgement of a person is affected by attitude of a person. Ex: It took quite some time for the men to understand and acknowledge the essentiality of using skin care or cosmetic products. By and large men ignored the need of the same because of set way of thinking that it will portray them in a non-masculine way. The negative attitude towards the product prevents the consumer from buying the product. Belief is the foundational premises a person holds. It could be correct or incorrect. More than often it is observed that people are not ready to let go off their beliefs even when they are proven incorrect on the basis of sound evidence. There are chances of consumer filling the gaps in his own set of belief because he receives incomplete information from the product manufacturer. The most common belief a consumer can get mixed up with is the quality and price tag of the product. It is usually believed that higher the price better the quality of the product. Ex: Male grooming is often believed to be a time consuming activity. Men do not like to give time the product may require because they think that getting pampered is the privilege of a woman. Hence this belief gives rise to the demand that male grooming products should be extremely effective and that too fast!! Perception is the interpretation of information received through senses from the surrounding environment. Ex: The packaging of the product takes importance from this concept. If the packaging is made in the feminine colours, chances are the product is perceived to be not for men. Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension, including thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problem-solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and encompass language, imagination, perception and planning.4 Ex: Cognition dominates the behaviour of the person considerably. Processing of the information through senses and relying on self-experience helps the consumer decide about purchase of the product. By and large cognition decides the repurchasing decisions. The process of cognition explains the buying decision process as well. After identifying a problem such as an after shave rash a consumer analyses the problem. After analysis he comes to a conclusion that the rash is also an outcome of dry skin due to heavy exposure to sun and heat. Further this has also resulted into wrinkling of the skin. He would then turn to a product which can help him cure both the problems that is dryness due to sunrays and wrinkling of the skin. He would choose a product from available range and buy the same. Cognition also influences attitude towards the product. Ex: As discussed in the example above the consumer thinks and decides to buy a product. He uses the skin cream or emolument to find it good and effective. He actually likes the experience of having a rash free smooth skin by using the product and is happy about it. He will always revert to the same skin cream and continue buying it. This will result in cognitive based brand loyalty. Now let us understand if only single attitude dominates the consumer behaviour. If attitude is a set pattern of thinking then there would be so many pre-formed concepts that would make or not make a consumer buy a product. In case of men’s grooming range examples of multiple attitudes could be as follows: 1. Men want a product that works rather than a product that promises pampering. They think pampering is essentially a feminine prerogative. 2. The products that require a lot of process involved are a complete no-no. Although they want to look good they do not have or want to waste time in looking good. Hence the attitude developed is personal care is time consuming and hence negatively viewed. 3. If I can have a product which combines and packages everything in it, then it is most welcome. Too many jars and bottles tend to create confusion in usage and maintenance 4. The negative attitude such as these products have to be expensive restricts men from purchasing it as looking good is essentially not seen as a priority. One or all of these could dominate the buying decision of the consumer. L’Oreal while planning their marketing strategy needs to take the male consumer behaviour into consideration. The male consumer behaviour roots primarily from being unaware. What L’Oreal needs to do in case of male grooming market is to create awareness of the products it is offering in the male grooming range. Creating awareness should be done on the basis of creating need for the product. We are not talking about only product awareness here. The consumer needs to be aware that he really needs to use this product and subsequently the product is to be presented. For women the desire to look good comes naturally. For men looking good is secondary. Men traditionally believe that confidence makes them feel better and work better. In such case it needs to be emphasised that to use grooming products one need not be good looking. Hence appointing Hugh Laurie as brand ambassador of the male grooming products makes tremendous sense for L’Oreal. Hugh Laurie justifies being the brand ambassador of the company by being just the image today’s retrosexual man wants to project. His appointment came as a surprise since he doesn’t fit into conventional image of a brand ambassador which is truly glamorous and fits into being a brand ambassador of cosmetic giant. Incorporating the cosmetics into the daily routine of today’s man is the trick to reach the vast male consumer market. The advertising will automatically target the ‘need’ factor through this activity. In Canada L’Oreal distributed 61000 free samples of its men expert hydra power an anti-fatigue hydrating cream in a single day campaign. The campaign was attractively designed by putting people on the road and distributing free samples to the people walking by. Almost all the men who received a free sample on the day promised to try it. The campaign was a huge success in creating awareness of the product in the market. This is one of many ways to create awareness about the product.5 Another important factor is to clear the negative attitude towards use of cosmetics from the male consumer’s mind. It is necessary to create a ‘cool’ image of man using cosmetics and skin care products. The message should essentially convey that usage of skin care or male grooming range does not mean that he is compromising on his masculinity. The latest concern amongst men is the wrinkling due to stress and economic crisis in the external environment. Catering to the same L’Oreal can aggressively market its anti-fatigue moisturiser range. In fact this demand for anti-fatigue is an indication of change of male consumer’s attitude and understanding about skin care and grooming products. This shows that the traditional thinking is going beyond shaving cream and after shave. The packaging of L’Oreal male grooming range is done in a bright orange hue which is definitely not a girl colour packaging. If we consider the typical male consumer purchasing behaviour, we observe that men usually do not like to waste time in shopping. The perception of shopping is ‘time consuming activity’. If this has to be taken into account then, the shopping experience for these products have to be easy and quick. Also men do not like to be seen buying these products. If both these factors are taken into consideration then availability of these products should be easy on internet shopping and also display on shelf should be accordingly. Small quantity packaged attractively could be put up at point of purchase locations in malls. This will increase the purchasing frequency of the customer. Also in strategic positioning of the products these could be put up near the oft visited counters by men. Most importantly L’Oreal has to use the consumer attitude and cognitive learning of a customer in building brand loyalty for the product. The usage of the product should ensure the principles L’Oreal has always maintained in sustainable consumption. The product has to deliver what it commits and only then it will incur loyalty in the men’s segment. Women like to switch from one brand to another if they are not happy with the results of a particular brand. Men’s grooming market is opening up and the first mover advantage will ensure cognitive brand loyalty from the chosen customer base. It is at this particular time there exists a danger or a pitfall wherein the consumer may just simply switch off the idea of using the grooming range product at all. To capture him psychologically and incur loyalty from him the company has to ensure that results are delivered as promised and if there is a process involved in getting best results then the process should be a part of cognitive understanding of the consumer. Opening of grooming spas could be one option to look at but unlike women men do not appreciate visiting spas and spending time there, so spa has to be incorporated in his daily routine and he should be educated about it. This education will help erase previous negative attitudes and perceptions and help creating new positive ones. The organisation also needs to catch on the tagline of ‘We are worth it’ and extend it to the men’s grooming range as well. the idea of ‘worth’ should emphasise that ‘you have to take care of yourself because you are going to feel more confident if you do and achieve new heights of success’. This is a ‘feel good’ factor the company should add in the campaigning. This will boost creating of positive attitude in the mind of the consumer and also gives a good feeling of care to the campaign. Cognitive brand loyalty can come only after careful analysis of consumer’s attitudes, perceptions and understanding which affects his experience of using the product and even purchasing decisions. Hence providing a fruitful cognitive experience helps a customer to take a snap decision regarding purchase of the product. This should be the aim at this point in time for L’Oreal because it will help in creating a steady, solid consumer base for years to come for the organisation. References 1. Ramaswamy V S and Namakumari S (2010) Marketing Management. Macmillan Publishers India Limited 2. Cravens D W and Piercy N F (2009) Strategic Marketing. Tata McGraw - Hill Edition 3. Peter Rix (2011) Marketing – A Practical Approach. Tata McGraw – Hill Edition 4. Introduction to Organisational Behaviour (2003) ICFAI Center for Management Research 5. Consumer Decision Making - http://www.sykronix.com/tsoc/courses/cb/cb_dec.htm [Accessed 21/03/2012] 6. Responsible marketing and advertising promoting sustainable consumption - http://www.sustainabledevelopment.loreal.com/pdf/topics/MktgAndAdvert.pdf [Accessed 23/03/2012] 7. Rob Hastings, Wednesday 06 July 2011, L'Oreal makes Hugh Laurie the face of male cosmetics, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/lor233al-makes-hugh-laurie-the-face-of-male-cosmetics-2307532.html [Accessed 24/03/2012] 8. Kendra Cherry, What Is Cognition? About.com Guide, http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/g/def_cognition.htm[Accessed 24/03/2012] 9. Case Study L’Oreal Men Expert http://www.pixman.hu/CaseStudy_L’Ore’al_en.pdf [Accessed 24/03/2012] 10. Payne J W (1976) Heuristic Search Processes in Decision Making, http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/display.asp?id=9285 [Accessed 24/03/2012] Read More