Focus on Hair Care Digital Branding in Europe from L2

L2 released Hair Care & Color: EU Supplement, a supplement to its Digital IQ Index focusing on hair care and color. This supplement takes a deeper dive into industry trends and best practices in the EU 5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.) hair care and color market, assessing 53 global hair care and color brands' digital competence across site, digital marketing, social media and mobile initiatives.

The study found that recession, anemic brand loyalty, and heavy discounting have cast clouds across Europe's hair care and color industry. As business declines, brands may be too easily swayed by headline macro risk to invest in key channels, namely digital:

  • Just 12% of hair care and color brands' U.K. sites are mobile-optimized.
  • Spain's YouTube channels grew 62% over the last three months, faster than any other EU 5 country.
  • Hair care and color brands own 48% of Google organic search results in France, compared to 36% in the U.S.
  • Brands whose e-commerce strategies work in partnership with third-party retailers have varying degrees of data capture success.
  • Only 19% of the 53 brands in the study have French Facebook pages, despite the fact these communities are the largest and fastest growing among the EU 5 countries.

The study also notes that some brands are looking to lessen their dependence on the more traditional media channels for marketing, branding and advertising, including:

  • L’Oréal Paris has made a significant investment in video and leads in YouTube views across the EU 5 markets.
  • Estée Lauder has extended its already-robust U.S. direct-to-consumer e-commerce businesses for is Aveda, Bumble and bumble, and Ojon brands to select markets, disrupting traditional salon distribution.
  • Tresemmé has built fan loyalty through a Facebook app that incentivizes social sharing through product rewards.
  • P&G digital and mobile e-education portal provides professional resources and tutorials customized for each of the EU 5 markets and languages.

Learn more about the digital efforts and effectiveness of hair care and color brands in Europe by downloading an excerpt of this report, as well as obtaining the information to order the full report, here.

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