L’Oréal picks Italian chief for Lancôme

Beauty products giant L’Oréal has appointed its Italian luxury products chief Claudio Collarile to head its Lancôme business in the UK.

Beauty products giant L’Oréal has appointed its Italian luxury products chief Claudio Collarile to head its Lancôme business in the UK.

Collarile’s appointment follows the promotion of previous Lancôme general manager Thierry Cheval to director for international development for Lancôme. Cheval will be based in Paris.

Collarile will oversee the marketing and sales duties for the Lancôme brand in the UK, where it is positioned as a premium competitor for the company. Collarile is already an experienced marketer for L’Oréal’s premium products, having overseen the luxury products division for L’Oréal in Italy as general manager. Collarile will start in the UK next week.

Last year, L’Oréal invested a media spend of more than £4m behind the Lancôme brand. Ad agencies on the L’Oréal roster include Publicis and McCann Erickson. Universal McCann handles media duties for L’Oréal, although a recent foray into advertiser-funded programming for Lancôme was overseen by Zenith Optimedia’s sponsorship arm Alliance. An ITV1 documentary is to showcase highlights and backstage interviews from the Lancôme Colour Design Awards as part of the brand’s promotional support this year (MW March 11).

Last year, L’Oréal successfully extended the Lancôme range with a raft of male products under the Lancôme Homme banner to tap into the growing men’s grooming sector (MW July 3, 2003).