Loreal needs sincerity to mend its image

On Friday, French cosmetics brand Loreal "explained" twice a recent discount crisis, and promised that those who suffered losses from it would get coupons, but that only generated more anger on the social network micro blog, where it issued the letters.

The incident started on Oct 13, when Loreal published an advertisement on the micro blog, saying they would hold a livestreaming pre-sale activity with livestreaming anchor Li Jiaqi on Oct 20, via which those who place orders would get "the biggest discount" of the year. Yet on Nov 10, a major shopping carnival for e-commerce, it gave a discount that made its products almost 40 percent cheaper than the previous one.

Thus many complained online, requiring Loreal to pay back their money. Yet instead of making timely responses to them, Loreal deleted "the biggest discount" from its previous micro blog. On Friday, as the counts of several hashtags involving the incident continued to rise, Loreal issued two "explanatory letters" that contained "apology" in their texts and proposed the above-mentioned measures, but the anger of the customers continued.

Actually the incident could well have been prevented quickly. When customers find there was a bigger discount than Loreal's promised "the biggest discount of the year", the best choice for Loreal was to pay them so as to cover the gap, which would not only honored its promise, but also helped to maintain its commercial credit.

Yet it chose to turn deaf to the calls of consumers and edit its long-issued micro blog in an attempt to cover the wrong. It cannot cover the wrong at all, because all tracks are remembered in this age of the internet; Just on the contrary, the move can be considered a clue that Loreal possibly falsified its advertisement intentionally.

According to the Consumer Rights Protection Law, the consumers have the right to ask Loreal to not only repay, but also compensate them; Market regulatory departments could also intervene and punish Loreal if having intentionally falsified its advertisement.

If that happens, that's what Loreal earned for itself, as it chose to hide wrongs instead of correcting them. And that's what will possibly happen as the provincial consumers association of Zhejiang province where there e-commerce prospers has already voiced that "any commerce will collapse without trust".

Chinese consumers enjoy the right no less inferior to that of their Western counterparts. Hope other international brands learn a lesson from the Loreal incident, too, so as not to repeat the wrong and suffer losses.