L’Oreal is a large CPG company and has built, maintained and adjusted its marketing capabilities over time. Students are to examine the top capabilities of L’Oreal, probing why and how these strengths emerged. Think about potential tradeoffs that come with those choices. Think about comparison firms (i.e., Proctor & Gamble (P&G)) and executing different strategies or capabilities, as well as potential competitor reactions. Also think about the blend of efforts and investments needed to build capability, including time, metrics, and monetary investment.

 (1) What are the cornerstones of L’Oreal’s marketing?

(2)  How is L’Oreal executing the strategy?

(3)  What are the tradeoffs?

(4) What are the trends in Consume Packaged Goods (CPG) marketing?

(5) What type of marketing (performance driven or emotional) is more effective? 

(6)  How are CPG companies doing in experimenting with digital advertising?

(7) Compare L’Oreal to another CPG firm in terms of each firm’s marketing capabilities. How does the role of marketing and the firm’s marketing capabilities drive innovations, strategy and determine differentiating characteristics of a product?

(8) What happens if competitors imitate L’Oreal’s marketing? How should, they react?