L'Oréal's Sense of Purpose (raison d'être) is a core principle, to see ourselves as a high-performing, committed, responsible, inclusive company showing solidarity in decades to come. L'Oréal's raison d'être is included in the strategic orientations defined by its Board of Directors and in its business model.
L'Oréal's Sense of Purpose was developed following the work implemented over almost two years, initiated and driven at the highest level by Jean-Paul Agon and Nicolas Hieronimus, as well as several members of the Executive Committee. L'Oréal's Sense of Purpose was the result of dialogues with the Group's employees in three of its key countries (France, the United States and China) and many external stakeholders, including consumers. The progress made was discussed several times in the Executive Committee. For L'Oréal, the aim was to collect and formalise its contribution to the world as a company, its values and its actions in one document.
This raison d'être was approved in 2020 by the Board of Directors, who incorporated it into their Management Report published in the 2019 Universal Registration Document and presented to the General Meeting of Shareholders on 30 June 2020.
L'Oréal was presented with the Award for ESG Purpose and Commitments at the 2022 General Meeting and Gender Balance Awards ceremony, organised by the Institut du Capitalisme Responsable.
A single sentence epitomises L’Oréal’s Sense of Purpose: “Create the beauty that moves the world”. It is defined in concrete actions made to consumers, employees, clients, suppliers, shareholders, service providers and communities. L'Oréal aims to combat climate change, by respecting biodiversity and preserving natural resources, and to champion the cause of women. The Group is using its Sense of Purpose to publicise its ambitions through an eponymous media campaign launched in 2021. The majority of the Group's brands have supported their causes since 2018, combatting violence against women with the Abuse is Not Love programme from Yves Saint Laurent Beauty, campaigning against street harassment with L'Oréal Paris and the Stand Up programme, helping women get access to reading with Lancôme's Write her Future programme or supporting environmental causes with Biotherm's Water Lovers programme.
In its Management Report, disclosed in the present document, L'Oréal's Board of Directors reports on the implementation of the ambitions included in its raison d'être, and on the progress towards the goals set:
L'Oréal has defined a clear vision that is broken down into two points: its Sense of Purpose (raison d'être), which is detailed above, and Beauty for each. L'Oréal aims to offer women and men around the world the best in beauty in terms of quality, effectiveness, safety, sincerity and responsibility in order to meet all their needs and all their beauty wishes in their infinite diversity. More than ever, L'Oréal's vision takes on its full meaning and represents a strong anchor in this increasingly unpredictable and complex environment.
L'Oréal's strategy is to combine both Universalisation and Singularisation. Universalisation involves the globalisation of brands by taking regional characteristics into consideration in order to serve and retain consumers. Singularisation, or “Beauty for each”, takes into account a growing global trend towards self-affirmation for both men and women by providing a diverse range of offers and personalisation. The goal is to offer inclusive beauty by responding to the specific aspirations of consumers in every region of the world. In contrast to standardisation, it is based on careful attention to consumers and a deep respect for their differences.
For over a century, L'Oréal has dedicated itself to one sole vocation: creating beauty. Beauty is rich in meaning. It allows each person to boost their self-confidence, express their personality and open up to others.
Focusing on a single business represents a major competitive advantage for L'Oréal in a dynamic, resilient market. The Group boasts more than one hundred years of beauty expertise, talented specialists and an in-depth knowledge of consumers. This is built on a detailed knowledge of beauty cultures, needs, desires and aspirations. L'Oréal covers all continents across more than 150 countries, all product categories(1), all distribution channels including e-commerce and Travel Retail, and all price segments.
By focusing its energy on a single vocation, along with a capacity for "seizing what's starting", L'Oréal is able to identify new consumer trends and respond rapidly. The digital revolution in particular, in perfect alignment with "social beauty", connected and shared, acts to speed up the development of the beauty market driven by economic, technological, demographic and sociological developments (see also section 1.3.3).
