Beauty giant targets North Asia market for innovation-driven growth

The North Asia market will harbor more innovative technologies and products from L'Oreal, and the French cosmetics and beauty giant will keep combining its global research and development experiences with in-depth insight into North Asian consumers to further implement its localization strategy in the region and come up with more targeted products, said Xavier Blin, head of the research and innovation department of L'Oreal China, during a hair health seminar.

Although the overall performance in North Asia during the first quarter fell behind other markets as a result of the evolution of the health situation in China at the very beginning of the year, L'Oreal's Professional Products division — including six global hairdressing brands and three local ones — grew 24 percent year-on-year in North Asia and 32 percent year-on-year in the China market alone in the first quarter, said the company in its 2023 Q1 report.

North Asia, especially China's market potential, is expected to be further unleashed and the gradual resumption of travel has allowed Hong Kong, Macao and Hainan province to welcome an increasing number of consumers for L'Oreal products, said the company.

Aiming for more growth in the promising hair sector in China, L'Oreal unveiled a new hair bond repair series on Monday with brand new self-developed technology that can help restore damaged hair to its original strength, the first of its kind using the innovative formula in the China market.

"China serves as the second-largest market for L'Oreal Group and our data has shown that its consumers are more vulnerable to hair damage due to natural reasons. The application of the new technology is expected to not only better meet the need of Chinese consumers, but also continue to lead and inspire the beauty market in North Asia and even the world," Blin said.

lijiaying@chinadaily.com.cn