About Maybelline

From a small, family-owned business to the number one cosmetics company in America,
Maybelline New York takes trends from the catwalk to the sidewalk, empowering women to
make a statement, explore new looks, and flaunt their own creativity and individuality. Inspired
by confident, accomplished women, Maybelline gives you scientifically-advanced formulas,
revolutionary textures and up-to-the-minute, trendsetting shades effortlessly, affordably,
beautifully.

Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.

INTRODUCTION

November 2, 1998 was a rewarding day for Feoff Skingsley. Mr. Skingsley, the managing
director of L’Oreal’s Indelor unit, had worked tirelessly to bring L’Oreal’s wholly owned
subsidiary. Maybelline to India. Mr. Skingsley said “India is the last major piece in the
Asian jigsaw for us because the Maybelline brand has been in virtually every Asian country
and India was the big gap in that puzzle.” Furthermore, Mr.Skingsley recalled the long, hard
road to get to this point, acknowledging. “Maybelline was a long development process.”
Maybelline faced a difficult situation upon its entry into India, a country already endowed
with an established leader in the cosmetics field, Lakme Lever(a subsidiary of the Unilever
corporation).

MAYBELLIN’S GLOBAL STRATEGY AND POSITIONING:

Maybelline’s is a brand under L’Oreal Corporation. L’Oreal’s Goal was to make

Maybelline a leading global mass-market brand. Its international business contributes
to over 45 percent of total sales represented in about 90 countries worldwide.
Maybelline’s is positioned as the leader of mass-market cosmetics targeted at women
between the ages of 15-49 at a reasonable price. It is globally branded with the “Urban
Amerrican Chic Image.” Maybelline has since achieved a third position in the india
market with this position. It offers various products like lipsticks, nail enamel, Face
Make-Up, eye product. They offer those product at optimal pricing. Lakme Lever
commands a 45 percent marker share and Modi Revlon is third with about 10 percent.
Maybelline’s leadership position is significantly attributed to its global branding approach,
allowing it to speed market growth in the mature consumer products industry. It has made
every effort to position and promote its product lines under trendy “New York” Maybelline
brand image. Globally, Maybelline has been heavily promoting its trendy New York image. The
company has effectively aligned its strategy with that of its parent L’Oreal in conveying the
appeal of different cultures through its products. Instead of taking a homogenous brand
approach to making the products acceptable across international markets, the company has
stressed the importance of embodying their country of origin. With Maybelline,upon its
acquisition. L’Oreal began a complete makeover including moving the headquarters from
Memphis, TN, to New York city in an effort to stamp the “urban American chic” image all over
Maybelline products to promote their U.S origins. Maybelline has been making efforts to reach
a bigger target audience across a broader range of income and cultures.

The American image in India was found to have a positive effect. Maybelline has continued with
the same global branding in India using supermodel Christy Turlington and Sarah Michelle
Gellar to promote its products. Ads were printed in Indian editions of Elle, Cosmopolitan, and
Femina and TV spots were conducted on Star Plus.

Culture of India:

India, with a population of over a billion people, is a country of contrasts. This population can
be divided into two major subgroups: Urban and Rural. India's languages, religions, dance,
music, architecture, food and customs differ from place to place within the country, but
nevertheless possess a commonality. The culture of India is an amalgamation of these diverse
sub-cultures spread all over the Indian subcontinent and traditions that are several millennia
old.[1]

Regarded by some historians as the "oldest living civilization of Earth", the Indian tradition
dates back to 8000 BC[2] and has a continuous recorded history for over 2,500 years.[3] Several
elements of India's diverse culture — such as Indian religions, yóga and Indian cuisine — have
had a profound impact across the world. Culture of India
About pricing

Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for
its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition,
market condition, and quality of product. Pricing is also a key variable in
microeconomic price allocation theory. Pricing is a fundamental aspect of
financial modeling and is one of the four Ps of the marketing mix. The other
three aspects are product, promotion, and place. Price is the only revenue
generating element amongst the four Ps, the rest being cost centers.

Price/quality relationship

The price/quality relationship refers to the perception by most consumers that a relatively high
price is a sign of good quality. The belief in this relationship is most important with complex
products that are hard to test, and experiential products that cannot be tested until used (such as
most services). The greater the uncertainty surrounding a product, the more consumers depend
on the price/quality hypothesis and the greater premium they are prepared to pay. The classic
example is the pricing of Twinkies, a snack cake which was viewed as low quality after the price
was lowered. Excessive reliance on the price/quantity relationship by consumers may lead to an
increase in prices on all products and services, even those of low quality, which causes the
price/quality relationship to no longer apply

What a price should do

A well chosen price should do three things:

 achieve the financial goals of the company (e.g., profitability)

 fit the realities of the marketplace (Will customers buy at that price?)
 support a product's positioning and be consistent with the other variables in the marketing mix
o price is influenced by the type of distribution channel used, the type of promotions
used, and the quality of the product
 price will usually need to be relatively high if manufacturing is expensive,
distribution is exclusive, and the product is supported by extensive advertising
and promotional campaigns
 a low price can be a viable substitute for product quality, effective promotions,
or an energetic selling effort by distributors

From the marketer's point of view, an efficient price is a price that is very close to the maximum
that customers are prepared to pay. In economic terms, it is a price that shifts most of the
consumer surplus to the producer. A good pricing strategy would be the one which could balance
between the price floor (the price below which the organization ends up in losses) and the price
ceiling (the price beyond which the organization experiences a no demand situation).