Client Name

L'Oréal Pakistan

Faculty Advisor

Mr. Atif Murtaza

SBS Thought Leadership Areas

Behavioural Studies

SBS Thought Leadership Area Justification

This ELP project is classified within the domain of Behavioral Studies area of thought leadership that falls under the School of Business Studies at IBA Karachi. The project is grounded in understanding the different consumer behaviors that result from the intersection of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and digital information-rich platforms. There were different consumer archetypes identified as a result of this research, which exemplify how starkly different the behavior of individuals is in this category, even when some of them may seem to share common demographics.

Aligned SDGs

GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being

Aligned SDGs Justification

This research will enable understanding consumer behavior in the skincare category, subsequently, brands can take into account dermatological health access, skincare behavior, product formulation, and unmet needs of consumers to better serve consumers and improve their quality of life. This research will assist mass market brands, like L’Oréal and Garnier, to better understand how mass market brands can improve lives of consumers by communicating and offering to them the value of effective and accessible personal care products.

NDA

No

Abstract

This Experiential Learning Project (ELP) report, titled Winning in Skin: A Strategic Roadmap for L’Oréal Pakistan in the Era of the Enlightened Consumer, was entrusted to us by L’Oréal Pakistan within the bounds of the Experiential Learning Project IBA Karachi requires final year business students to undertake. The overarching objective of this project was to generate consumer insights that would translate into actionable insights that would inform product development, communications, and go to market strategies for the Gen Z and Millennial consumer segment in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. The study’s research design was mixed method to capture all sorts of data, employed in multiple stages, Phases 1-3. Phase 1 consisted of gathering secondary data on global and local skincare trends, market dynamics, consumer behavior and dermatological behavior. Phase 2 was qualitative research, consisting of two elements; retail visits and consumer conversations (focus groups and in-depth interviews). Phase 3 was quantitative research, which built upon the insights of the previous phases through an online survey filled by 125 respondents. The key findings of the research indicate that Pakistani skincare consumers, particularly female, are increasingly more actively involved in their skincare decision journeys, empowered by the easily accessible knowledge online, and perceive it as a part of their self-identity. There were mainly 5 structural signals that emerged across all research phases; rising but structurally varied ingredient literacy, price sensitivity is not an attitude but rather a structure, the sunscreen category is under-solved and has a lot of room for market penetration and development, trust is the ultimate purchase driver, and the male segment has a lot of white spaces that can be reached if approached appropriately. The report ultimately recommends pivoting from selling beauty products to providing solutions that are made for the climate of the urban cities of Pakistan, and tapping into the whitespace that exists at the juncture of clinical luxury and unverified traditional gestures. Specific strategies are to mainly formulate SPF products that hold up against humidity, building dermatological access programs, leveraging opinion leader consumers as product ambassadors, refining language around male products for anti-tanning outcomes, and making sure distribution ensures physical availability.

Document Type

Restricted Access

Document Name for Citation

Experiential Learning Project

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