LES MERVEILLEUSES by LADURÉE — The Hidden Face Of Macaroon !
Since 1862, the French patisserie brand “Ladurée” is well known for its macaroons. The small round cake is indeed the star product of the house and has a solid international reputation.
But what if I told you that Ladurée is not only the legendary salon de thé, but that it also sells … Cosmetics !
Yes Iris, I know, it gives you a shock !
Les Merveilleuses — translate « marvelous » in English — is a makeup line launched in 2012 by Ladurée in partnership with the Japanese cosmetic group Albion.
According to Ladurée, Les Merveilleuses were:
“Especially created for women who enjoy being women, and who value something that enchants them not reasonably but intrinsically.
Les Merveilleuses Ladurée proposes “unexpected” beauty beyond the ordinary concept of cosmetics to women who pursue new forms of beauty.”
Les Merveilleuses Ladurée’s products are quite diversified since you can find : body and skin care products, blush, lipstick, eye shadows, foundation, powders and accessories.
The makeup line has its own website, apart from the Ladurée’s official and general website (a clickable link is available on the latter in order to go directly to Les Merveilleuses’ website).
The Merveilleuses Ladurée’s website is available in three different languages : English, French and Japanese. Strangely, all have different contents :
· the Japanese website is more focus on social media with a direct access to Facebook or Twitter interactions,
· the English website gives already access to the new 2016 Autumn Collection while insisting on the definition and vision of the brand,
· and the French website doesn’t have any links leading to the existing social media platforms. Plus, the brand story webpage is not available yet, and there are no add for their new collection (obviously not available in France).
It may, therefore, be concluded that the consumers’ experience is really different depending on the country they are from.
The same phenomenon occurs at the Social Media level.
Here is a graph comparing the number of followers of the main brand Ladurée and the number of the followers of Les Merveilleuses makeup line.
Instagram is the most followed social media for both brands. It makes sense since the content is clearly professional, artistic and interesting. Even some celebrities like Iris Apfel, the actress Blake Lively, or Chiara Ferragni -the Italian blogger and fashion designer- appear on Ladurée’s photos, enjoying a macaroon.
It leads to a lot of engagement from the followers (likes, comments, shares).
The disorder comes with the large number of Facebook pages you can find for Les Merveilleuses Ladurée.
I couldn’t find one official Facebook page because you can actually find one page for Les Merveilleuses Ladurée — Hong Kong (27K fans), — Taiwan (43K fans) or — Japan (44K fans) written in the appropriate language (the graph is made of the addition of the three pages followers*).
Concerning Twitter, Les Merveilleuses Ladurée page is only available in Japanese** (hard to understand the content for the consumer who doesn’t speak the language).
Pinterest is the less followed network. There is only one page for the main house Ladurée with a specific board concerning « Les Merveilleuses Ladurée », created for the makeup products launch in the Sephora Champs-Elysées boutique in Paris (***).
Les Merveilleuses is also present on YouTube because a lot of fashion bloggers and influencers try their products and comment on them.
For instance, the American makeup blogger Tati (more than 2 million followers) talked positively about the blush in a video 6 months ago (already more than 2 million views).
Another interesting thing is that, when you search on google with the keywords “Ladurée makeup”, the first link concerns the brand L’OREAL.
L’Oréal is one of the most well-known and recognizable brands in the world. The group has a presence in more than 130 countries and its social media presence is, as you would expect, impressive :
- more than 23 million fans on Facebook with more than a thousand likes on average per post,
- 394K followers on twitter,
- more than 2 million followers on the L’Oréal makeup Instagram,
- almost 27K followers on Pinterest,
- 69,5K followers of their YouTube channel,
- and more than 900K followers on LinkedIn.
Les Merveilleuses by Ladurée is only well-known in Asia — and more particularly in Japan — for now. Thus, a major part of their social media is focused on these countries (e.g. Facebook, Twitter).
However, if Les Merveilleuses Ladurée wants to gain other market shares (as seems to be happening in the US, and maybe Europe?), the brand will have to improve its social media presence with clear and official international pages.
This post was created as part of the Global Luxury Management Program at the NC State Poole School of Management. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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