A few days ago, the beauty brand L'Oreal launched an Airlight Pro photodynamic hair dryer equipped with a combination of infrared light and wind technology, it is understood that this product can quickly dry hair at the same time, but also fully care for the hair to make it moisturized and smooth. As an international beauty giant, why did L'Oréal step into the hairdressing small household appliance track? And L'Oreal, which has a huge consumer base and brand influence, will it intensify the competition in the hair dryer market, which is already seriously involuted?
Source: L'Oréal's official press release.
In fact, L'Oreal's entry into the field of hairdressing small household appliances has long been foreshadowed. As early as December 2020, L'Oréal launched L'Oréal's Pro "Radiant Stick", which combines a straight curl shape and hair care function. In October 2023, L'Oréal (China)** underwent industrial and commercial changes, and the company's business scope increased the sales of household appliances, valves and cocks, household appliances spare parts, software development, Internet sales, etc.
In response to the public's question about why L'Oréal crossed over into the hairdressing small household appliances, Guivebalooch, global managing director of L'Oréal Group's digital beauty and open innovation, publicly said in an interview that the reason why they decided to make hair dryers was not because they wanted to enter the personal care market, but because they believed that hair dryers were also a beauty tool, just like skin care equipment.
The hair dryer launched by L'Oreal will be launched in the European market in mid-2024, and it is planned to be introduced to the Chinese market at the end of the same year, with a product price of 400 US dollars (about 2800 yuan), which is comparable to Dyson's pricing and its water evaporation rod positioning, and also takes the high-end route. Taking the Jingdong platform as an example, as shown in the figure below, L'Oreal Pro water light evaporation stick, water light evaporation stick 4The prices of 0 are 2180 yuan and 3000 yuan respectively.
Although L'Oreal said that it does not want to enter the personal care market, as far as the hair dryer market is concerned, what impact will L'Oreal's hair dryer launched with the combination of "infrared light and wind power" technology bring to the hair dryer market?
From a technical point of view, the core technology of L'Oreal hair dryers is the high-speed brushless motor that is currently the main product in the industry. "The relevant person in charge of a care brand said to the analysis of China's home grid, and infrared light (or infrared) care is a technology that has existed many years ago, and mainstream brands basically do not use this technology, the main reason is that it is difficult for light induction technology to actually improve the effect of hair care, and it is difficult to have sufficient convincing evidence on the experimental data, and the main care technology of the current hair dryer is negative ion care," I think L'Oréal's two technical points are more of a momentum point from a conceptual or marketing point of view, rather than a breakthrough in the core technology. ”
When talking about the competitive pressure on hair dryer companies due to L'Oreal's cross-border entry, the person in charge bluntly said that it will not have a special impact on the existing market. In fact, L'Oreal is not the first beauty brand to launch personal care small household appliances, earlier Sassoon has launched hair dryers, curly hair straighteners and other small hair appliances, the American beauty brand Sally Beauty has launched hair dryer products, Cyber Group's Rowenta brand and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (Galeries Lafayette) have launched co-branded hair dryers, etc., "Traditional hair dryers are used in supermarkets, professional electrical stores, Online and other channels are sold, and the hair dryers of these beauty brands are more sold through beauty stores or fashion channels, and more are aimed at specific consumer groups in these stores. The value of the hair dryer products launched by these brands is actually greater than the value of the product itself. The person in charge said that they may occupy part of the high-end market share, but for the entire industry, for the traditional C-end consumer market, there will not be much impact, "L'Oreal hair dryer brought about changes are not changes in product upgrades, but changes in sales channels." ”
A collaboration between Rowenta and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
Looking at the development of the hair dryer market in the past two years, it can be seen that the industry has gradually fallen into the "high-speed" involution. In 2016, Dyson launched a high-speed hair dryer, which quickly seized the high-end market at a high price of 3,000 yuan, and also drove the industry to dig deep into high-speed motor technology. Li Lizhong, the marketing director of Yueli Group, said that the hollow design of the hidden air duct of the Dyson hair dryer is a breakthrough from 0 to 1 in terms of function and appearance, and the current mainstream hair dryer products are iteratively upgraded on this basis. In terms of humanized convenience, various companies have also made many attempts, such as the charging technology of hair dryers has been studied for a long time, but there are still some bottlenecks that are difficult to break through, charging is to convert electrical energy into heat energy, so the battery life will be poor, if the battery capacity is increased, it is difficult to achieve a good balance in the weight and convenience of the product. Li Lizhong further said that in the direction of product upgrading, the basic hair drying function and hair care function are still the two core functional exploration points of the current hair dryer products.