L'Oreal wants to know what African women want, then sell it to them
The company plans to develop new hair products especially for African women rather than offering brands developed for consumers in the US
L’Oreal is trying to find out what African women want, and then make money from it. In a sparsely lit room inside a laboratory near Johannesburg, a young woman pores over single strands of hair, the ends of each fiber held, jewellery-like, in delicate copper tubes. A laser machine nearby draws a horizontal red line over the face of a motionless volunteer in a black T-shirt. "African consumers don’t have today a great freedom to do what they want with their hair without pain, money and effort," said Alice Laurent, a French biochemist who built up the research centre from scratch after a five-year stint for L’Oreal in China. "I’d say that L’Oreal is quite a pioneer." The world’s biggest maker of beauty products is hoping to capture a market that it estimates at 100-million middle-class consumers. Unlike Europe, Africa holds the promise of high growth: the number of middle-class African women who live in cities and work outside the home will continue to grow for years to come, and thei...
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