L’Oréal Paris is the world’s ‘most valuable care brand’ for the fifth year running, according to a report by research company Kantar Millward Brown and advertising company and brand equity database BrandZ.
Despite Lancôme and Shiseido being the fastest growing brands, both increasing their value by 10% to $9.4bn and $2.7bn respectively, the L’Oréal Group brand maintained the top spot and is now worth $23.9bn.
The report noted that L’Oréal Paris increased its value by 2% as the brand became ‘more customer-centric’.
However, in the study, the top 15 personal care brands only increased by 1% in the last year.
Doreen Wang, Global Head of BrandZ, said the overall cosmetics industry must foster brand loyalty to maintain growth.
“Growing as a brand in today’s crowded and diverse personal care marketplace means understanding your position in the sector, and who your consumers are,” she said.
“All brands can foster loyalty by using data and technology to communicate the right message at exactly the right time, for example contacting consumers with incentives to buy again when they’re about to run out of a product.”
Top 15 personal care brands by ‘value’ ($M)
- L’Oréal Paris - 23,899
- Colgate - 17,740
- Gillette - 16,278
- Lancôme - 9,401
- Nivea - 6,799
- Garnier - 6,461
- Clinique - 5,969
- Dove - 5,792
- Estée Lauder - 4,215
- Pantene Pro-V - 4,090
- Olay - 3,752
- Crest - 3,341
- Shiseido - 2,691
- Oral-B - 2,670
- Head & Shoulders - 2,423
But Wang said both luxury and mass beauty brands must innovate to retain relevance.
“Luxury brands need to find innovative ways to emphasize their difference, which consumers value highly, to build connections,” she added. “Mass brands should create affinity by focusing innovation around their ability to meet needs and make consumers’ lives better.”
Elsewhere in the list, this year Head & Shoulders moved into the top 15 brands and Gillette was the only male grooming brand to make it into the list.
The also report urged conglomerates to be wary of threats from niche start-ups, such as Too Faces, and local brands, such as Boots No.7 (UK), Wardah (India), Avene (France), Fair and Lovely (India) and O Boticário (Brazil).
