L’ORÉAL BRANDSTORM NEWSLETTER

Brandstorm is L’Oréal’s signature marketing business competition that, since 1992, has been giving the

opportunity to students worldwide to explore the role of a real time marketing manager, driving decisions

which are based on sound analysis and a real understanding of the market situation.

The competition provides an ideal playground for students to unleash their creativity and to apply their

concepts while planning for the implementation of ground-breaking ideas on one of L’Oréal’s international

brands and its distribution channels.

The 2015 edition of L’Oréal Brandstorm has the honor of partnering up with the Travel Retail division, which

L’Oréal considers as a 6th continent due to the size of its market, a market in which beauty is the leading

segment. Students will have to take up the challenge of analyzing opportunities and proposing breakthrough

innovations which will aid this strategic channel for the development and leading greater visibility of one of

L’Oréal’s brands.

HAPPENINGS OF THE DAY

The Production team came early in the morning to start

preparation for the big day. By the time the event started the

lecture hall had transformed into a studio. The mood was created

by lights and showcasing ads of different L’Oréal brands. It was an

eventful day and our campus was buzzing with people discussing

about the upcoming

competition. L’Oréal

created a magnificent

atmosphere which

could bring out the best in the participants to make sure

Brandstorm 2015 was a wonderful experience for everyone

attending.

Many in the audience got a chance to win goodies during the

competition which were distributed on giving correct answers to

different marketing related questions, a challenge which the

participants participated in with great enthusiasm. Post competition, the team from L’Oréal did an extensive

coverage of the winners, the participants and the judges.

JUDGE’S PROFILE

Mr. Anurag Tyagi - Business Manager, Kiehl's India: Responsible

for driving the overall development of the brand following the

specific global business model of the brand- Retail operations,

KCR/BA education and development, Mystery Shopping, Distribution

expansion, PR, Digital, CRM, Merchandising & Retail excitement.

Responsible for growing the brand at least 3 times the market with a

strong focus on Like-For-Like growth and for achieving a leadership

position within the luxury division at L’Oréal India in a short span of 3

years.

Mr. Robert Khongwir – Head, Talent Acquisition: Leads, manages

and reviews the overall Resource Planning and Acquisition for

L'Oreal India; establishes recruiting strategy by analyzing job

descriptions and sourcing talent with a strong focus on digital

mediums; leads the campus hiring and provides strategic direction

to management on campus relations and The Management Trainee

Program.

Ms. Ojaswini Mishra, Campus Manager: Entry Level Talent

Acquisition, Integration and Talent Management & Employer

Branding. She has been helping L'Oreal scout the best talent from

top Business Schools in India, managing integration of campus

recruits into L'Oreal’s diverse divisions and driving its Employer

branding initiatives

WHAT THEY BROUGHT TO THE TABLE

THE WIZARDS: SCMHRD, PUNE

The Wizards envisioned the airports of future and

suggested a virtual wall which would allow customers

to try the different products on an image of their actual

face.

They recommended specialized packing customized

according to geographical location and a beauty

consultant at every Lancôme travel retail store.

consultant at the airports along with a mobile app

LUMOS: SJMSOM, IIT BOMBAY

Team Lumos kicked off with enacting a scene where

a participant had visited the Lancôme travel retail

store and what she felt was distinctive there. The

team demonstrated the working of the proposed

travel retail app which would be available in

multiple languages.

Along with the customized catalogue according to

travel destination. They recommended “One World

One Lancôme”, a social initiative to build schools

across the world.

CORPORATE HONCHOS: JBIMS The Corporate Honchos defined a “Trinity model” that

could be implemented with partnership between duty

free shops, airports and Brands to highlight the

importance of specificities of Travel retail of different

countries.

They proposed an integrated campaign which would

encompass different platforms including online, mobile

and travel retail stores in one and give the customer an

satisfying experience

WINNERS BY CHOICE: IIM INDORE

Team Winners By Choice put up an engrossing show

with everything in the mix: drama and visual

elements and it kept everyone engaged throughout.

The team enacted a few scenes to bring out some of

the characteristics of travel retail sector and what

differentiates Lancôme from its competitors sector.

They proposed a universalization & hybridisation

strategy based on their research.

BRANDED FOR LIFE: IIM AHMEDABAD

The team started their presentation with a riveting

short video that emphasized on connectivity in the

modern age.

They proposed that Lancôme should cover all

consumer touch-points by introducing gift coupons,

exclusive men’s range of products and special edition

of products to be sold at airports.

FYI: MICA, AHMEDABAD

Team FYI started by detailing Travel Retail’s evolution over the years and history of Lancôme and its relationship with the customers since1950’s. The team stressed on utilization of the social media trends and the CDI/BDI of different countries.

They delivered the concept of 5 buckets of travelers. and explored the prospects of travel retail with Rio Olympics 2016 in Brazil.

STORMRIDERS: SIBM, PUNE

The team started by defining the global shopper of today and their expectations which can be fulfilled with the help of “Internet of Things” paradigm Airports and Brands come together was highlighted

The team envisioned a unique travel retail experience like in store experience with the use of gadgets that would enable virtual make-up, and holograms. They proposed a tailor-made retail experience for every customer through a palette of connected devices.

VICTORIOUS SECRET: NITIE, MUMBAI

The team started by enacting in-flight attendants and

predict ted the future of travel retail to be dominated

by dynamic shops and hi-tech products.

They gave the “5 Es” of travel retail: experience,

engagement, execution, ease and emergency. They

proposed that giving special attention to first time

customers and installing multiple kiosks between

check-in point and boarding gate will help increase

Lancôme’s brand awareness and sales.

CAYENNE: NMIMS, MUMBAI

The team enacted the roles of three different types of

customers: the gifter, the globe trotter & the shopper,

along with visual elements that engaged the

audience from the start.

They recommended utilizing all the touch points at

the airport according to the stress level that a typical

passenger has at the time. They proposed Joli, an app

for global shoppers and a magical Lancôme Walkway

and a Lancôme Forever campaign for the loyal, aged

Lancôme consumers.

SANDWICH: SPJIMR, MUMBAI

Classified people into following target segment –

inspirational seekers, self-indulgers, promotion

swayed, high spenders and gift buyers and defined

the global shopper as successful & sophisticated.

A proposed inspiring a new ‘French revolution’ which

would be delivered to the consumer as an end – to –

end experience that starts before they reach the

airport.

JUDGES’ OPINION

Before the competition began, the judges were

requested to come up to the podium and encourage

the participants. They expressed their satisfaction

with the preparation of the event with SJMSOM, IIT

Bombay as the hosts & thanked us for being such a

good host.

Mr. Anurag then spoke about what they were

looking for in this competition i.e. a more formidable

team. They spoke about the opportunities ahead and

that the national winners will get to compete with 40

teams from across the globe.

Ms. Ojaswini elaborated on how they use Brandstorm as a platform to scout young talent for their

Management Trainee program & their excitement about the fact that some of the participants may join L’Oréal

as management trainees.

During the course of the presentations, they asked some really challenging, deep questions to the participants

that gave the participants an opportunity to think from

the seat of the brand manager of Lancôme. They

gauged every aspect of the recommendations given by

participants.

At the end when all the presentations were over, the

judges mentioned that they appreciated the immense

effort that all the participants had put in. They spoke

about how the given case was unique and interesting

and that they got some really intriguing

recommendations from each team.

WINNING TEAMS SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS…

NMIMS, MUMBAI Q. Now that you are the L’Oréal Brandstorm winners, how do you feel?

It feels amazing. Lot of work has gone in to the preparation for this event. We have really worked hard and are extremely happy with the results

Q. How was your overall experience with L’Oréal Brand-storm?

It’s been a great journey so far. From the beginning of being the college winners to going up to national level now, we have come a long way. It was neither easy here nor at the college level, we had tough competition at the intra –college level as well.

Q, How did you go about preparing for Brandstorm? Since all of us are in marketing, we always had an inclination towards it and the case study provided by L’Oréal needed us to use the concepts studied in marketing course. We literary had to brainstorm a lot about the brands and ways to promote “Travel Retail” which in itself was a learning experience.

Q. Would you like to add something, about the event co-ordination?

The event was wonderfully organized. SJMSOM did a great job at hosting the Brandstorm 2015. We were

taken care from the start of the event till the end. The volunteers did a great job and kudos to the Marketing

team.

SJMSOM, IIT BOMBAY

Q. Now that you are the L’Oréal Brandstorm

winners, How do you feel?

It feels amazing. There were plenty of amazing

colleges participating here and Brandstorm is one of

the biggest competitions in the world so winning in

the west zone is definitely an honour. Having said

that we are not going to sit back after this, we are

going to focus on the nationals and with a bit of

luck hopefully go all the way at the finals in Paris.

Q. How was your overall experience with L’Oréal

Brandstorm?

Amazing. Not sure what else to say. It's so completely different from any other corporate competition. You

really get a feel of the amazing creative culture L'Oreal promotes. Even though I have been in the auditorium

many times before, when I entered today I really got a feel of the scale of the competition. It was pretty epic.

Q, How did you go about preparing for Brandstorm?

I think it’s really important to start by digging through piles of data to analyze the key areas where a luxury

brand like Lancôme could improve. Travel retail is really growing and evolving as a market so we needed to

really think carefully about how all our strategies would come together. Finally when it came to strategizing, it

was all about being creative and classy, two characteristics which Lancôme ad L'Oreal as a whole really

embody.

Q. Would you like to add something, about the event co-

ordination?

I thought everyone at SJMSOM did an amazing job. There

were no technical difficulties and the hosts really ensured

that all the contestants were looked after. Special thanks

to Marktrix and the Corporate Relations team. Pulling off

an event of this scale without a single glitch showed how

well organized everyone at SJMSOM was and how well

they coordinated with the wonderful people from L'Oreal.

Source: L’Oréal Careers Facebook Page