L'Oréal Portugal

: a digital challenge for the active cosmetics division

Abstract

This thesis focuses on a topic which comes from the digital development of the pharmaceutical sector in the Portuguese market. L’Oréal, a multinational company, and worldwide leader in the cosmetic market has to deal in Portugal with challenges which are associated to the Portuguese context. Linked tightly with the overall Portuguese context, the pharmaceutical sector is starting to face new challenges associated with new trends observed in the market. Digital is one of those trends. Considering the example of other sectors and markets, the pharmacists’ opinions and the knowledge from different players in the market, this dissertation will study the impacts that a sudden digital development of the sector (mainly centered on the company’s clients) might have on the L’Oréal Portugal Active Cosmetics Division business. The main conclusions presented in this paper are related with the fact that although L’Oréal has some tools to leverage in case of a digital development of its clients there are a lot of possible developments which can bring risks and, at the same time, opportunities for the company. To conclude, with this paper, the reader will be able to understand how a sector, which traditionally shows little change and innovation, can represent and create situations for giant players to stop, analyse and rethink their strategy.

Date of Award	15 Feb 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Celeste (Supervisor)