What are L’Oreal’s major barriers to pursuing a global strategy ?

Overall
L’Oréal’s decision to fight the European shampoo battle required considerable coordination between company headquarters and the subsidiaries

Balancing the global strategy for Elséve with different market characteristics and particularities was going to be one of the most crucial issues for success.

Competition had traditionally been based on price, which made margins relatively narrow. The result was a rather lucklustre market where brands were unable to differentiate themselves in the eyes of the consumer or position themselves to stand out from the rest.

The global strategy had to be implemented in the different markets, bearing in mind that each of those markets had its own special characteristics and quirks.
In L’Oréals case, the differences arose from the nature of hair itself –hair type, length, appearance and image, among other things- and from the way shampoos were used- washing frequency, amount used, use of one shampoo by one or more members of the same family, use of conditioners etc.

The implementation of the global strategy could not overlook other aspects such as the presence of the Elséve brand and its competitive position in the different countries or the resource L’Oréal had in the different markets.

France:
In France the penetration rate of conditioners was the lowest in Europe.

Greater demand was being generated for more sophisticated products with more technology because these kinds of products gave tangible cosmetic effect to hair and did not simply clean it. The French market was becoming increasingly saturated and highly competitive.

There is a tendency between low cost products and more sophisticated products. Any brand that was not firmly ensconced in one of these two categories ran the risk of finding itself in a poor