Winners of the L’Oréal Case Study Competition Share Their Winning Strategy
On January 28, 2022, three of our International Business Honor Society (IBHS) members won first place in the L’Oréal Case Study Competition hosted by the Dean’s Student Advisory Board (DSAB). Sofia Prieto is a junior majoring in international business, Maria Jose Gonzales is a senior majoring in marketing, and Catalina Nieto is a senior double majoring in international business and marketing. They worked together as a team to develop a winning solution for the challenge presented by L’Oréal.
The competition consisted of exposing the participants to a real-life issue and later having them prepare a presentation with their proposed solutions. They were instructed to assist L’Oréal’s CEO in working through an ethical issue, one which involved the use of child labor in Africa to extract an ingredient required for L’Oréal’s makeup products. Participants were given 45 minutes to prepare their proposal and plan their presentation.
Maria Jose stated that they began by first understanding the facts and background information provided. From there, Catalina shares that each member brainstormed ideas until they ultimately agreed to create a marketing campaign. They then proceeded on creating a visual presentation for their proposal.
According to Sofia, they decided that the best approach would be a short-term investment for long-term benefits by allocating funds to improve and guarantee safe working conditions in Africa in order to ethically obtain the makeup ingredient. The team also suggested investing in a marketing strategy where they would focus on raising awareness and using social media influencers to change the narrative to one that demonstrates L’oréal’s desire in helping the African community.
IBHS would like to thank DSAB for their hard work on organizing this event. We also want to thank and congratulate Sofia, Maria Jose, and Catalina for their efforts and for successfully collaborating as a team. We are proud to have you representing IBHS!
Written By: Valeria Cordova
Edited By: Lisa Gonzalez