马龙校园挥拍 欧莱雅如何构建“青年情感”护城河？

This article introduces L'Oréal's 23-year running "Interesting Youth" university public welfare program, sorts out its development history, and summarizes the company's experience in brand rejuvenation. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Development trajectory: The program originated from campus charity sales launched in 2003 amid China's western region education assistance drive. It gradually evolved from a one-way charity donation model, went through a digital upgrade and rebranded to "Interesting Youth" in 2021, and expanded into an open cross-age, multi-track youth empowerment ecosystem in 2024. Paired with L'Oréal's 34-year-old Youth Innovation Competition, it forms a three-dimensional empowerment network spanning from public welfare to business. To date, it has reached nearly 5 million students, donated over 40 million RMB, and supported more than 6,000 students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

2. Latest initiative: The 2026 "Beauty Accelerates" L'Oréal Games held at Fudan University directly addresses three core pain points for young people today: high stress, boredom, and lack of sense of purpose. It expands the definition of beauty by tying it to sports, combats boredom with fun activities, and gives young people an immediate sense of purpose by letting them participate in live-streamed charity sales.

3. Core philosophy of brand rejuvenation: True brand rejuvenation means building equal co-creation with young people and growing alongside them long-term, rather than relying on one-off short-term marketing campaigns.

This article presents L'Oréal's complete case study of building emotional moat among young consumers, offering actionable insights for brands targeting the youth market. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Strategic direction: L'Oréal adopts a long-termism approach, entering the youth market through public welfare engagement. Its model has gradually evolved from one-way charitable giving to two-way co-creation and ecosystem-enabled value creation. 23 years of continuous investment has built deep social trust and emotional connection with young consumers, forming a hard-to-replicate competitive advantage that other brands cannot easily match.

2. Innovation aligned with consumption trends: The brand accurately captures contemporary young people's characteristics of high stress, anxiety and lack of sense of purpose, and expands its definition of beauty beyond traditional physical appearance to include inner vitality, courage and resilience fostered through sports, which strongly resonates with young consumers' current pursuit of health and self-discipline.

3. Sustainable closed-loop value model: L'Oréal has built a flywheel of "public welfare attracts youth participation → co-creation drives innovation → brand gains youth insights and reputation → insights feed back into product development and business decisions → more resources are reinvested in public welfare", achieving the unification of social value and commercial value.

This article shares L'Oréal's experience in penetrating the youth market and outlines emerging market opportunities for sellers targeting young consumers. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Shifting demand in the youth market: Today's young people generally face the pain points of high pressure, monotonous life and lack of sense of value. They are no longer satisfied with brands' one-way definition of beauty, instead prefer brand connotations that align with their personal values, and favor two-way interactive engagement with positive social impact.

2. Actionable operational insights: Youth-oriented marketing cannot rely on stale, repetitive tactics. Brands need to continuously innovate to keep up with young consumers' changing preferences, approach young people as equals for co-creation, commit to long-term investment, and position themselves as growth partners rather than purely product sellers.

3. New opportunity outlook: Combining public welfare engagement with user interaction helps brands earn user trust, gain close access to young consumers' real needs, and expand brand connotation by tying into sports scenarios, building differentiated competitive advantages.

This article offers insights for beauty and consumer goods factories on product design upgrade and business expansion targeting the Gen Z market. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Evolving demand for product development: Young consumers' perception of beauty has shifted from traditional physical appearance to a combination of external aesthetics and inner spirit and vitality. Beauty and personal care products tied to sports and health will grow in popularity, and factories can align R&D and design with this trend to develop targeted product lines.

2. New business opportunities: Brand owners are increasingly prioritizing interactive co-creation with young consumers, and frequently host online-offline integrated activities such as campus pop-ups and live-streamed charity sales. Factories can tap into this demand by developing customized small-batch products for these activities to open up new revenue streams.

3. Insights for digital transformation: Brands' youth-oriented programs have fully shifted to online-offline integration, requiring faster response to market demand. Factories need to accelerate their own digital transformation to capture shifting demand more quickly and keep up with brands' iteration pace.

This article provides references for marketing service providers serving brands on industry development direction, client pain points and solutions. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. New industry trends: Brand rejuvenation marketing has shifted from one-off campaigns relying on short-term traffic buying and influencer endorsements to long-term user emotional operation and value co-creation. Pure traffic distribution services can no longer meet brands' deep-level demands, and the market now needs capabilities for long-term ecosystem operation.

2. Core pain points of brand clients: Many brands aim to achieve rejuvenation but only stay on the surface. They struggle to have genuine dialogue with young people, obtain real demand insights, continuously produce innovative content that fits young consumers' preferences, and build real emotional connection with youth.

3. Recommended solution framework: Service providers can draw on L'Oréal's model to help brands build long-term youth empowerment programs that integrate public welfare, business and user interaction. This enables brands to engage closely with young people, obtain real insights, and build a continuous innovation mechanism to keep programs dynamic.

This article offers references for ecosystem building and operation for platforms that connect brands and young consumers. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Core demands of brands from platforms: To reach young consumers, obtain real youth demand insights, cultivate young talent pools and complete brand value upgrading, brands need platforms to provide access to young groups and scenarios and resources for co-creation activities. Pure traffic exposure can no longer meet these demands.

2. Actionable insights for platform operation: Platforms targeting campus and youth audiences can build long-term public welfare + business co-creation programs similar to L'Oréal's "Interesting Youth" to attract brand partners. This model provides brands with access to young consumers while offering young people opportunities for practical growth, achieving win-win value for all three parties.

3. Risk mitigation guidance: Youth-oriented programs cannot rely on stale, repetitive tactics. They must continuously upgrade and innovate along with changing youth demand, and adhere to long-termism rather than chasing quick short-term returns. Sustained accumulation of ecosystem value is the key to building core competitiveness.

This article presents new trends in brand marketing in the beauty industry and an innovative business model integrating public welfare and business, providing a typical case for relevant research. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. New industry development trends: Brand rejuvenation has evolved from a mere marketing buzzword driven by traffic tactics to a long-term ecological strategy. More and more brands are prioritizing long-term symbiosis with young people rather than one-off traffic conversion, and corporate social responsibility has shifted from a cost item to a strategic asset that feeds back into commercial growth.

2. Research on innovative business models: The public welfare and business symbiosis model built by L'Oréal has gradually evolved from an initial campus charity sale to an open youth empowerment ecosystem, forming a sustainable operating flywheel. It is a new exploration of sustainable corporate business models with high research value.

3. Insights for corporate social responsibility research: Corporate CSR has shifted from simple donation-based giving to "teaching to fish" ecosystem value creation that unifies social value and commercial value. This case provides high-quality primary research material for studies on corporate social responsibility and brand rejuvenation in the new era.