The Global Brand Face Off

1. The Global Brand Face Off

2. Case Facts
• Company: Espoir Cosmetics, one of the
world’s best known cosmetic companies ($1.1
billion in value)
• Natasha Singh: Executive VP and Global
Marketing Officer
• Ed Johnson: Chairman and CEO

3. Current Scenario
• Singh proposes to associate Espoir’s new
summer line with the launch of Supreme
Studio’s second Diana’s She Devils movie

4. Singh’s Argument
• The movie was a hit 2 years ago and research suggests that
the sequel will be a bigger hit
• Studio’s publicity plans are huge
• Do something splashy for their 50th anniversary next year
• Ideal vehicle to launch a global brand building strategy
• The 3 lead stars are from Europe, Asia and South America-
their fastest growing markets
• Create 3 new lipstick and nail polish combinations in the
right palette for each of the 3 stars and associate stars with
the advertising
• Launch products in specially designed combination packs as
film is released in each country

5. Johnson’s Concerns
• If recession gets worse in U.S. marketing
budgets will be cut
• Country heads might not be ready to
compromise local advertising and promotion
for global promotion
• Idea needs to be confirmed with country
heads of North America, Europe and South
Asia

6. Scenario for North America
• Brian Davis, Marketing head for North
America loved the idea
• According to him, 2 of the stars represent big
ethnic markets in the U.S.

7. Scenario for Europe
• Jacques Dubois, Espoir’s newly appointed
marketing head for Europe agrees to the idea
• Espoir’s archrival, Revlon had boosted
awareness by tying up with the 2002 Bond
film.
• However, was opposed to the idea of a central
website. Wanted a different look, feel and
name from the American site.

8. Singh’s previous exploits in India
• Reduced prices and sizes of espoir’s products
in India
• Made sure espoir products were available all
over India
• Instead of large counters the products were
placed near the cashier in the small stores

9. Vaslko Mazur
• Current head of Espoir’s opreation in eastern
europe
• Had met Singh five years back in a training
program in Los Angeles

10. Confrontation with Singh
• Mazur did not like the idea of Espoir’s movie
based promotions
• He believed that appointing beauty queens as
ambassadors and having competition based
promotions would be a good strategy
• Believes that Eastern Europe requires a local
startegy, similar to the one Singh had
employed in India

11. Current Indian Scenario
• India is presently exposed to a lot of global
culture
• Cost-Benefit equation in towns is also working
similarly to the way it does in cities
• Public is ready to watch good movies
irrespective of where they are made.
• All global brands are available in small towns

12. Global Strategy - Challenges
• Tends to discourage innovation in local
marketing strategies
• Lack of data to prove that global strategies will
reduce cost via economies of scale
• No leadership in place to take responsibility
for the anniversary line
• Local marketing heads like Mazur will resent
the move

13. Recommendations
• Global marketing strategy might alienate
certain countries
• Cosmetics requires customer to personally
identify with product, will be difficult with a
global strategy