Brandstorm from Jess, Hui Woon and Kok Hin

Dear all,

L’Oreal Brandstorm is an annual marketing competition held by L’Oreal which is participated by thousands of students from all over the world each year. The whole gist of the competition is nicely summed up by its catchy tagline, “Turn Ideas into Products”. Basically the participants, who forms groups of either 2 or 3 members, are given the chance to experience how it feels to manage a particular brand under the L’Oreal umbrella group and turn all their creative ideas into reality by coming out with real life models as well as the advertising and communication campaign for the brand assigned to them. This year, the brand that was chosen to be the case study is L’Oreal’s mass market hair styling product brand, StudioLine, which incidentally is also celebrating its 25th anniversary.
I was actually dragged to join this competition by my friend, and also our team’s unofficial leader, Hui Woon. Since all of us were non-marketing students, I honestly didn’t think we would get far, but I just figured out it will be a fun experience anyway. I figured, we as consumers are always complaining or suggesting how a certain product or brand in the market can be better, so why not have a go at a competition that allows us to take our ideas seriously and make it real?
Still, it was not an easy journey. To begin with, when we registered our team (we named ourselves The Osirians by the way, just because it sounded cool and we didn’t have any ideas:P), we found out that UTM was not one of the participating universities! This was because L’Oreal was of the idea that UTM was solely an engineering and technical university (they were not aware that we do have a management faculty) and therefore will not have their targeted participants, which are marketing students. Still, after a little bit of persuasion on our side, we were allowed to register ourselves for the competition.
The first task that we had to complete was to do a SWOT analysis of StudioLine based on some information and documents that was provided by L’Oreal. We then submitted the analysis done in PowerPoint as required by L’Oreal. From all the entries sent, L’Oreal then chooses 10 teams to go to their HQ in KL to present the analysis in front of their top management. I remember that all three of us were actually very busy that week and we did not manage to do much preparation beforehand. Still, all the years in AIESEC have sharpened our presentation skills and despite our lack of preparation, we just went in and gave it our best shot. One week later, we received the email informing us that we have been picked as one of the top 5 teams to be competing in the National Finals and inviting us to a 2-days briefing in KL conducted by L’Oreal.
The next week we went up to KL for the briefing and finally met the other short listed teams. The 4 other teams in the Finals were from USM (Studio AttiTud), IACT (Manja), UM(Synergy) and UTAR (AnnCorp). During the 2-days briefing, we were given in-depth information about L’Oreal and also the StudioLine brand itself. We were also brought out on a field trip to MidValley Megamall and 1Utama by several L’Oreal personnel so that we can see for ourselves how is StudioLine doing in the market. We talked to some of the L’Oreal promoters in departmental stores, as well as saw what are the advertisements and promotions offered by StudioLine to encourage sales at the point-of-sale venues (i.e the pharmacies, departmental stores etc where the brand is retailed.). The 2-day briefing was quite informative and made us really excited about the National Finals which was going to be held on 12th of May. After the 2-days briefing, all teams were not to have any more contact with L’Oreal (except for logistical purposes in connection with the competition), and we were pretty much left on our own to come up with the best marketing strategy and advertising campaign for the StudioLine brand. Q During the 1 month plus time given to us, we kept changing concepts and ideas in our effort to come up with the ultimate marketing strategy that will bring StudioLine to greater heights. There were several factors to consider when coming up with the winning strategy. It has to be something fresh and new, but at the same time realistic and feasible by taking into account the current and future trends of the hairstyling market in Malaysia. At the same time we also had to stay true to the values embodied by the StudioLine brand itself as L’Oreal places great importance in its brand equity. Also as part of the competition’s rules, each team had a 1 day appointment with the advertising giant McCaan-Erickson, who was the media communication partner for the event. McCann-Erickson provided some professional advice for our advertising layout and prepared the advertisement boards for every team which would be used in the presentation on the day of the finals itself.
Finally the day of the National Finals, 12th of May arrived. Taking place in the Renaissance Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, it was really a nerve-wracking afternoon for us as we battled it out with the other finalists. The closed competition (by invitation only) was judged by a diverse panel of judges comprising of L’Oreal Malaysia’s top management, CEO of 8TV, Mindshare, McCann-Erickson and The Star. We were the third team to present and we started our presentation with a bang by doing a rollcall proclaiming that we were from UTM (another thing that we learned from AIESEC :P). Our marketing strategy for StudioLine was simple- a revamp of the brand by giving it a younger and more hip look by using “Parkour”, an up-and-coming extreme sport that delivered the energy and passion that we wanted to communicate as our ‘ambassadors’. At the same time we also came up with several “mobile” hairstyling products that catered to the needs of the youths nowadays who are constantly on the move. We summed up our whole marketing strategy with our catchy tagline ‘Trust Your Instincts”. The tagline not only projected the positive “just do it” attitude commonly related to youths, but most importantly, the tagline also showed that with the expertise behind the StudioLine product, consumers just need to “Trust Your Instincts” in order to achieve the hairstyle that they want.
The rest, as they say, is history. That evening we bagged ourselves a trip to Paris to represent Malaysia in the International Finals, as well as RM2500 and hampers of L’Oreal products for each team member. Later all 5 finalists had a Mediterranean Dinner at Marche restaurant along with the Organizing Committee of the event as well as L’oreal Malaysia’s top management.
After that we had roughly around 1 month to prepare before flying off to Paris for the finals which will be held on the 20h of June at the L’Oreal headquarters in France. Our presentation and concept remained the same as required in the rules of the competition, but we used the 1 month to brush up on our presentation. We also had our advertisements reprinted by McCann-Erickson, had buntings printed as well as got models of our products done. Armed with these and a whole lot of excitement in our hearts, we set off for Paris on 17th of June 2005.
It was a 12 hours flight and we reached Paris the next day. We then went straight to our hotel, Mercure Hotel, which was actually just a stone’s throw away from THE landmark in Paris, the Eiffel Tower. No words can describe the feeling I had at the first glimpse of the tower. I was in Paris, my dream destination since I was a child! I was speechless.
After checking in and resting awhile, we went to have a final rehearsal at L’Oreal headquarters for the finals. We finally saw the other teams from other countries that we were going to compete with. The feeling is indescribable. One can really feel the internationalism of the competition, standing there in the headquarters of a major MNC together with people from 31 different countries.
Though it started quite late, the rehearsal and technical check up after that went smoothly. We had the whole afternoon and the next day off so we took the chance to go around Paris. Some of the places we visited included Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coure, Moulin Rouge and others. We also took the chance to try some French cuisine, including escargot (snails) and crème brulee, all at the charming Parisian sidewalk café we always read and hear about of course!
All too soon, 20th June came. There was definitely a buzz in the air as all contestants got on the bus that will bring us to L’Oreal headquarters. After a welcoming message by the Organizing Committee, all teams went to separate rooms to compete within their region first. The 31 countries were divided into 4 regions, Asia, Europe 1 + Australia, Europe 2, and the Americas + South Africa. The winner of each region will then compete in the International Finals to vie for champion.
We were up against 7 other Asian countries which were China, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was really interesting to see the different ideas and presentations of each team. Again just like in the national finals, we gave it our best shot and despite the stiff competition, we were satisfied with our performance as we know that we have done what we could and the decision now lay in the hands of the judges.
We then went back to our hotel for rest and also preparation for the Internaional Finals in the evening. The finals were held in a famous TV studio called Studio Gabrial. Suspence hung thick in the air as everyone was guessing who the top 4 teams were going to be. Then it was time to begin. The host started the evening with a few pleasantries, then straight away got down to business by announcing the top 4 teams. The first name she called out was none other than Malaysia! A whole bagful of emotions, from happiness to surprise to fear ran through us as this happened, and we went up the stage together with the other 3 finalist teams who were Switzerland, Australia and South Africa. Then we were given roughly 5 minutes to prepare before doing a shortened, 10 minutes presentation of our ideas and concept (previous presentation was 20 minutes). Unfortunately due to the time constraint, we were unable to finish our presentation. Later the results were announced, and we were placed third along with South Africa, with Australia getting second place and Switzerland bagging the Champion trophy home.
With the competition over and the results out, everyone was packing and ready to leave. The next day we had one debriefing session where the judges gave feedback to each teams on their performance, before ending the day with a delicious lunch buffet served at a restaurant within the L’Oreal headquarters itself. All in all, it was an unforgettable experience.

Hugs,
Jess