ANALYSIS 13
Luxury is booming but mass- market holding their own
n Piers Lindsay-Taylor - Kantar Millward Brown, UK
Luxury personal care brands have grown their value at five times the rate of their mass-market peers over the last 12 years, according to the latest BrandZ™ Most Valuable Global Brands study. The research shows that consumers perceive luxury brands as different, sexy and desirable. However, mass-market names like Dove and Nivea also possess qualities that customers greatly appreciate, and are successfully playing to their own particular strengths.
In the face of category disruption, luxury brands have tapped into trends with innovations that resonate with customers. Inherently differentiated, they continuously reinvent themselves, which allows them to command a price premium. They meet the increasing demand for prestige products from the ‘selfie generation’, and markets that are becoming more wealthy and sophisticated. Premium brands also excel at creating the unique experiences that get customers coming back for more, both online and instore.
Four luxury brands have increased their
value more than 20% in the last year alone: Shiseido (42%), Estée Lauder (29%), Lancôme (20%) and Clinique (20%). Renowned for its functional excellence and Japanese provenance, Shiseido has successfully combined premiumisation with scale. In recent months it has focused on developing its digital strength and its image in China, while the acquisition of start-up MatchCo allowed it to offer customers the opportunity to customise their makeup using a mobile device. Estée Lauder also strengthened its brand in Asia, particularly China. Its novel use of technology included installing augmented reality (AR) mirrors in some stores, while online how-to videos hosted by influencers helped draw in more young people.
In a collaboration with YouCam Makeup, Lancôme hosted live-streaming AR make up demonstrations in the run-up to Halloween 2017. It also ran a successful purpose-led social media campaign dedicated to fighting illiteracy among
September 2018
women, Write Her Future, which involved brand ambassadors Penélope Cruz, Julia Roberts and Kate Winslet. Clinique’s personalised communications emphasised the purity of its ingredients, while it attempted to increase frequency of use with an innovative marketing event that compared the skin care routine with the oral care routine. Adapting to changing habits, the brand launched a line of makeup designed to remain intact during workouts. Known for its innovation, L’Oréal
explored the application of new technologies to enhance the customer experience, which led to the purchase of Modiface, a developer of AR beauty apps. The brand’s Beauty Squad of influencers, meanwhile, enable it to talk credibly to consumers and create a community around the brand in the UK.
While luxury brands are currently outstripping the mass-market segment in terms of brand value growth, consumers consider brands at the less premium end of the market to be more meaningful, caring and straightforward. By building on these strengths they can boost their relevance even further, providing high quality products with on-trend features and ingredients at competitive prices, and using digital technologies to enhance communications as well as the customer experience.
Pushing purpose Dove has outperformed the luxury brands in the personal care category, growing its brand value 267% over 12 years compared with 201% for the luxury segment. Its consistently high performance is driven by a
PERSONAL CARE EUROPE
© danielsbfoto/Fotolia
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