Are There Too Many Beauty Brands?
Lots of "restructuring" going on over at the Estée Lauder brands
Hello, Gorgeous!
Yesterday, there was some extremely upsetting news over at Estée Lauder.
As reported on Retail Dive and a bunch of other outlets, Estée Lauder is geared to cut up to 7,000 jobs, which amounts to about 11% of its global workforce.
Ouch.
Bad news for the Lauder brands
The news was sneaked into an overlong statement that started on a high note with a quote from Stéphane de La Faverie, President and Chief Executive Officer.
“Today, we are excited to launch Beauty Reimagined, a bold strategic vision to restore sustainable sales growth and achieve a solid double-digit adjusted operating margin over the next few years as we aim to become the best consumer-centric prestige beauty company.”
To be fair, after the confusing talk of things going well, La Faverie later discussed weak sales.
What is restructuring anyway?
In this case, restructuring is a barely veiled way of saying slash and burn and try to revive. And unfortunately, the two-year Lauder restructuring program involves thousands of people at the Lauder brands losing their jobs.
In case you’ve ever wondered just how many brands are currently under the Lauder umbrella*, Brand names include Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, M·A·C, La Mer, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin Paris, TOM FORD, Smashbox, AERIN Beauty, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, GLAMGLOW, KILIAN PARIS, Too Faced, Dr.Jart+, the DECIEM family of brands, including The Ordinary and NIOD, and BALMAIN Beauty.
That’s a lot of brands, but L’Oreal owns over 51 brands. And in case you’re wondering, yes. I’ve consulted for/written for/named products for Lauder and L’Oreal-owned properties. And there was also the time that Aerin Lauder followed me around Bergdorf Goodman in NYC, not so surreptitiously looking at my perfume picks.
Are the shelves and virtual shelves too crowded?
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you love makeup and varied cosmetics brands as much as I do. But it’s getting a bit overwhelming to keep up. With new launches daily, it’s hard to keep track of the number of brands out there.
It’s hard for a global conglomerate to continue changing with the times, which is probably why Lauder started acquiring so many other brands over the years. But in the process, the sense of cohesion all but disappeared.
Japanese beauty brand Shiseido owns many brands, including Drunk Elephant, Nars, and IPSA, but they all seem to have a similar niche audience. Over the years, Lauder expanded in ways that sometimes seemed confusing to those in the industry—and by those in the industry, I mean me.
I’m sad for all the people in the beauty industry who are losing their jobs, but I hope that a leaner approach and outlook could revive at least some of the Lauder brands. But I’m not holding my breath.
I didn’t do a deep dive into specific Lauder brands, but I’m curious which are your faves and which you’ve long stopped using. Shall we discuss this in the comment section?
Rachel, Your beauty concierge 💋
I think you're right about Estee Lauder not having a vision behind their collection of brands. It's more of a hodgepodge. I used to love Clinque and EL, but haven't used them in years. There's definitely an oversaturation across beauty brands and not enough differentiation. Maybe it's time for a rethink.
I've been a longtime fan of Estee Lauder and more recently, Clinique. They are pricey so I buy when I find "deals"--mostly gift with purchase things. I don't pay attention to all the branding issues but I do love how the products make my skin feel.