WHAT IS the best way to market men’s beauty products?
Creating a marketing plan for Diesel was the theme for this year’s university finals for L’Oreal Brandstorm, a global marketing competition where students compete as brand managers for one of L’Oreal’s 26 global brands.
“They need to create new products that are reflective of the Diesel image,” said L’Oreal’s Corporate Communications Specialist Martin Catañeda.
The teams get to analyze the skincare line market, build a marketing strategy for Diesel, and even design the packaging and advertisements of their product.
During the university finals on January 18, two teams, Team Ignacio and Team Hybrid 2 managed to qualify for the national finals.
From ideas to products
One of the winning teams, Hybrid 2, is composed of seniors Conrad Dela Fuente, Regine Garcia, and Jonah Ople. Their winning entry, Republic, consisted of a facial wash and moisturizer called Rise and Rule, respectively.
Hybrid 2’s products were designed to look like gunpowder and scotch and were packaged in a metallic silver canister with magnetic properties.
“We wanted to make the product into something innovative, wherein it is something [one] can consider radical and extreme which is [then] reflective of the brand,” said Garcia.
Ignacio, on the other hand, was composed of seniors Paolo Salapantan, Daryll Santillan, and Raymond Castillo. Arsenal, their line, contained facial and body care products that had bronze beads instead of whitening agents to give men “that manlier glow.” The products were packaged as ammunitions like gun oil and black gun powder.
“For us, this was a challenge because Diesel as a product does not have that strong hold in the Philippine market,” said Salapantan. “We had apprehensions on how our product would be accepted.”
A learning experience
For Dela Fuente, Brandstorm was really competitive. “The experience was scary for us because there was pressure especially in presenting [one’s] work to the panel,” he said.
The panel was composed of L’Oreal executives and a representative from McCann advertising agency.
“From this experience, we learned a lot from the strategies of each team, as well as from the comments of the panelists,” said Santillan. “We realize what our strengths were and the tweaking we needed for this product.”
Both teams feel blessed to have the opportunity to advance in the competition although for Castillo, the idea of their group’s win hasn’t fully sunk in yet.
“Before, Paris was just a dream. We were just joking around on what we will do in Paris once we get there,” he said. “Now we are one step to reaching that dream.”
Paris is the final leg of the competition.
Apart from the winning teams, a special audience choice award called “Only the Brave” was given to Team Karbon composed of Raymond Ang, Katrina Paredes, and Amanda Cruz.
Aiming for excellence
For senior Sheena Loren Go of the audience, she noticed that some of the teams showed usual marketing presentations in class. “But there were some teams who went all the way and showed us what marketing is really all about.”
“I think all the winners deserve their position because they really did good research wherein they were able to back up their creativity and ideas,” said Senior Denise Santos.
School of Management Dean Rudy Ang said he is proud of the teams who participated. “I am amazed at the creativity of the students and I am giving my support to the top two teams.
Hybrid 2 and Ignacio will advance to the L’Oreal Brandstorm National Finals in mid-April where they will compete with teams from La Salle and the University of the Philippines. The Paris finals will be at the end of June.
