L’Oreal looks to ramp up geo-location marketing
L’Oreal is planning to ramp up its use of geo-location apps as part of a strategy to target time poor baby boomers.
The cosmetic firm, which owns brands including Garnier and Maybelline NY, is targeting people born after WWII with much of its app development because it believes they are the generation that want to make the most of their leisure time.
L’Oreal hopes to use digital to transform the way consumers shop for its products by providing information via mobile apps and freeing up shopping time for leisure by making it easy to access information and create online shopping lists. Its Instant Beauty app in France allows users to scan L’Oreal products to get information, consumer reviews and friend’s recommendations and add products to a shopping list.
Speaking to Marketing Week at the Forrester Marketing & Strategy Forum EMEA 2011, Georges-Edouard Dias, senior vice president of L’Oreal’s digital business, says: “If we can give them the information in their hand it simplifies their life, it saves them time. Free time is a luxury and if you can tap into that, it is great and we can do it.
“The big transformation in the retail market is that more and more people believe in proximity. So if you combine the power of technology with proximity you start have a powerful tool,” he says.
He adds that digital is a strong enabler for L’Oreal’s brands and will help it grow into new markets.
L’Oreal promoted former vice-president of digital and CRM for its luxury cosmetic brand Lancôme as its first digital director to oversee its luxury brands including Georgio Armani fragrance, back in March.
To read more about how marketers can tap into the baby boomer market, pick up the 1 December issue of Marketing Week.
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