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The Beauty of Brand Loyalty : – a case study of how marketers view Millennials' brand loyalty in the beauty industryKulle, Julia, Hellsten, Julia January 2017 (has links)
The generation of Millennials is becoming a very important segment in today's beauty market, because of their large size, purchasing power and engagement on social media. The Millennial consumers are heavy buyers of beauty products, but heavy buyers are not always loyal to the beauty brands. The concept of what is considered beautiful constantly changes, and there is an aspect of trendiness to the use of cosmetic products. Brands launch new products on a regular basis to follow fashion and because the product lifecycle often is short, and purchasing what is trendy right now might not leave much room for loyalty, as other brands or products are soon trendier. There are constricting views on whether it is possible to achieve brand loyalty among Millennials. Many question the possibility of gaining brand loyalty among this generation, others state that while they could possibly be loyal, this usually only lasts for a short period of time. Although several attempts to establish whether Millennials are in fact brand loyal have been made, few have looked at how marketers view brand loyalty when marketing to Millennials. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to add understanding of how companies in the beauty industry can work to create brand loyalty among Millennials, through a case study of the world leading beauty company, L'Oréal. This exploratory study takes on an inductive research approach, as it aims to add understanding in the field of brand loyalty among the generation Millennials. In order to answer the research questions, five semi-structured interviews were conducted on marketers who are experts in the field of marketing towards Millennials. The results of this study showed that the generation Millennials is an important target group in the beauty industry of today, due to their large size and strong power of choice. There is a congruence between the Millennial self-image and brand image, which proves the importance of a positive brand image. The findings also showed that it is important for companies to speak the language of Millennials but still keep a coherent balance among brands. Offering an experience to Millennials makes them more perceptible to brand loyalty, if the experience is positive, and co-creating brand personalities can help in this endeavor as well. Other valuable findings showed the importance of authenticity and credibility together with of a full range brand portfolio, due to lower incentives to switch between brands. This study contributes with understanding to how marketers in the beauty industry can work towards achieving brand loyalty among the generation Millennials, by giving examples of how five experienced marketers at L’Oréal works with this challenge. Furthermore, the results of this study contribute to the research gap and are applicable in the research area of brand loyalty in the beauty industry. The study uncovered that digital marketing works without paid media, but paid media without digital marketing is not an option. Therefore, one of our recommendations to companies in the beauty industry is to always use digital media while marketing towards the generation Millennials.
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