Brand story: The recent APAC developments from the biggest names in beauty

P&G aims to keep consumers excited with new and improved virtual shopping experience – SVP​

Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble is launching a new version of its virtual shopping experience to keep consumers excited about its host of brands.

The enhanced Show Me My Home platform was the result of the learnings the firm gleaned from the first campaign in 2020, which saw 20-times sales uplift regionally at its peak.

“That was the start of COVID, and we’ve learnt a lot from that. We wanted to go back to the drawing board, reinvent, redesign, and redevelop,”​ said Shankar Viswanathan, senior vice president, Malaysia, Singapore & Vietnam, P&G and head of e-commerce, Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa, P&G.

L’Occitane double-digit decline in China hinders group’s APAC performance​

Hong Kong-listed L’Occitane’s business in China dropped by double digits due to COVID-19 troubles, hindering the performance of the Asia Pacific region in the three months ending June 30.

According to the firm, most of its APAC markets posted double-digit growths, led by Hong Kong, Australia, and Malaysia.

In particular, the troubled Hong Kong market posted double-digit growth, driven by travel retail growth as a successful partnership with e-commerce partners, said the firm. However, the growth was offset by the troubles in China.

Hindustan Unilever reports ‘unprecedented levels’ of inflation in soap category – CFO​

Indian consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever has reported seeing “extremely unprecedented levels” of inflation in the soap category, said the firm’s CFO.

CFO Ritesh Tiwari highlighted that inflation was a significant challenge for the firm during its latest quarter earnings conference.

“As you can see, market prices of most of the commodities have further increased sequentially in June quarter 2022 and are at very high levels,”​ he said.

He added that soap was one of the categories that has been severely impacted.

L’Oréal confirms that Maybelline will continue to have offline presence in China - CEO​

French beauty giant L’Oréal will not be stamping out Maybelline’s physical presence in China and migrating online completely.

Last month, reports started circulating that L'Oréal was shutting down mass-market make-up brand Maybelline’s physical stores in China and shifting the brand online completely.

However, CEO Nicolas Hieronimus confirmed that the reports were inaccurate, and the firm was only closing its underperforming standalone stores.

Shiseido to invest over $75m in brand equity and employee training​​

Japanese beauty major Shiseido is planning to invest JPY10bn (USD75.5m) in both brand equity and its employees as part of plans to go on the offensive and buck the declining trend of the market.

CEO Masahiko Uotani said it was imperative for the firm to strengthen its brand equity, therefore, the firm is set to invest an additional JPY5bn (USD37.8m) this year to do so.

“Top priority in our strategy… is to strengthen brand equity which serves as a basis for our bond with consumers and for continuous purchases of our products by consumers.”​