In China,L’Oreal and its competitors have an opportunity to educate women about cosmetics, whith were banned prior to 1982. Each year, L’Oreal observes and films 6,000 Chinese Women applying and removing makeup. Says, “In China, the number of products used in the morning and the evening is 2.2.”At its Shanghai Innovation Centre, L’Oreal is also studying how to incorporate traditional Chinese medicine into new product Lines.
L’Oreal and Procter & Gamble offer a wide range of products in China, including both mass-market and premium brands. By contrast Estee Lauder’s focus is on expensive prestige brands.such as Estee Lauder, Clinique, and MAC that are sold through upmarket department deparment stores. One research analyst cautions that Estee Lauder’s targeting and positioning may be too narrow for China.According to Access Asia, positioning may be too narrow for China. According to Access Asia,Estee Lauder “is in danger of becoming too exclusively placed at the top end of the market and it may have to reposition itself more in the mass market to compete for a larget part of the Chinese market.”
Estee Lauder’s Carol Shen disagrees with that assessment. She views her company’s brands as aspirational. “Chinese consumers are price sensitive but at the same time are willing to invest in products that are relatively expensive versus their income levels because they are so confident about the future, “ she says. CEO William Lauder echoes those thoughts. As heEXPLAINS, “The estee Lauder echoes those thoughts. Ashe explains, “The Estee Lauder brand in China is exploding right now because it represents aspirational luxury but at a price that’s much more affordable than Louis Vuitton.”