The center was opened at the Chicago site in 2003, and the move will bring it into the center of L’Oreal’s US operations.
The brand, which describes itself as “the leader in the growing ethnic beauty market”, confirmed its renewed focus on multicultural consumers in a statement to CosmeticsDesign.com.
“It became increasingly important that those involved in this vital area of our business have closer proximity to the larger team of L’Oréal researchers at our U.S. innovation hub in Clark, New Jersey, as well as to our business and industry partners in the area,” the brand confirmed.
Rising focus
In the US, ethnic or multicultural consumers will soon become the majority, according to market researcher Kline, with African-American, Asian, Indian, Hispanic, and other people of color already accounting for over one-third of the US population.
Phil Williams, founder and CEO of Enchanted Life, a new e-commerce beauty site aimed at America’s multicultural community, recently outlined the upcoming rise of the multicultural consumer to Cosmetics Design
“The multicultural consumer will soon be the new normal in the beauty space and it’s a category that definitely needs to have attention paid to it and you can see that by the expansion of growth,” he said.
L’Oreal’s ‘expertise’
In its recent focus on multicultural consumers, the brand say that it is “leveraging 25 years of research and innovation” in the category.
The institute’s move in the US comes alongside the recent opening of a similar dedicated research centre in South Africa, confirming a brand-wide focus on multicultural consumers.
“The team at the Institute has developed deep knowledge on ethnic beauty routines and specific expertise in ethnic product formulation and evaluation and L’Oréal is strongly committed to this work,” the brand told Cosmetics Design.