Welcome to the 45th issue of B.

For this issue, B takes a close look at L’Occitane, a Provence-based cosmetics brand. Most people first encounter L'Occitane by receiving its best-selling hand cream as a gift. And many end up marveling at the high quality and effectiveness of the product. Founder Olivier Baussan started the brand a few years after the oil shock, at a time when people were becoming increasingly focused
on economic and environmental issues. He tried to produce natural soaps inspired by folk remedies that had been previously considered obsolete. In the four decades since, the brand has released a consistently strong selection of natural ingredient-based products, creating a solid position for itself in the highly competitive beauty industry.

Respect for nature is one of L’Occitane’s priorities, and the brand releases new products according to changes in nature, not global trends. The brand’s products are a celebration and thanksgiving of the harvest of the ingredients used, just like the way farmers celebrate their crops. Olivier once said, “We time the release of a new product for the harvest season of its natural ingredient. This is a completely new practice started by us.”

L’Occitane started as a local brand, but it evolved into a global cosmetics powerhouse in the 1990s thanks to new CEO Reinold Geiger. He was brought on to save the company in a time of deep financial trouble. Instead of changing the product ingredients or design, he maintained the brand’s identity and philosophy, and just added “en Provence” to the name as a way to tell the world that L’Occitane would stick to and reinforce its original values as a Provence brand by instilling its products with the local lifestyle. By doing so, Reinold, currently the largest shareholder of the L’Occitane Group, set a new long-term direction for the brand. Under his leadership, L’Occitane opened its first store in the U.S., a
replica of its shops in France, and became very popular in the American market. This success spurred the brand’s penetration into the Asian market and later other parts of the globe.

In L’Occitane’s lexicon, however, “respect” encompasses more than just consideration for nature. The company’s management respects the traditional wisdom found in folk medicine, the livelihoods of the indigenous farmers who grow the company’s natural ingredients, and the values the brand has believed in. Therefore, it is safe to say that L’Occitane is not just a natural beauty brand, but a brand that practices what they preach. This respect for others is the key ingredient of a good brand.

L’Occitane’s unique press events are well known among reporters. Generally, press events consist of a new product showcase and press interviews, and when there is time left, reporters and corporate people enjoy meals or relax. But L’Occitane does things differently; it provides reporters with the opportunity to experience Provence, where the brand was born, by sharing local foods and activities from the region. L’Occitane seems to believe that promoting Provence equals promoting the brand.

We believe that we have our own art of living, just like the people of Provence do. On sunny spring days like those we are currently
enjoying, on which forsythias and azaleas are in full bloom, how about taking a picnic to a nearby field and ruminating over the meaning of respect demonstrated by L’Occitane? After all, this is the lifestyle that we ourselves have lived for centuries.

Taehyuk Choi, Editor in Chief