L’Occitane takes a stance to encourage new and existing customers to learn the pronunciation of its name
L’Occitane en Provence, a prestige international beauty company with high-quality skincare, body care, and fragrance, is encouraging customers to join the L’Occitane family through a holistic creative marketing campaign that teaches the formal phonetic pronunciation of the brand name.
As a brand deeply connected to its Provençal roots and history, the campaign addresses ‘How to Pronounce L’Occitane,’ featuring its own retail and corporate employees.
Although brand has a strong presence across North America, many consumers — and even some employees — do not know loccitane pronunciation and feel ashamed about it. Through the launch of this campaign, it is aiming to create a sense of community and lightheartedness around this common misstep.
The lighthearted video features L’Occitane employees attempting to get the brand’s name correct. It starts with Fred, a super-enthusiastic employee who makes it a point to make sure everything looks perfect and organised in the store. As he is preparing to welcome customers, he runs through his loccitane pronunciation. It gets even funnier when his colleagues start pronouncing it wrong and he takes it upon himself to call for a team meeting to correct the way its said. It is meant to be pronounced “Lox-ee-tahn” and not “Lock-ee-tayn”.
Ashley Arbuckle, Vice President of Brand Marketing at L’Occitane, said in a statement that the brand released this campaign with the hope that they will build a stronger relationship with their customers and instil confidence in their beauty advisors who are at the heart of the business.
“We are a brand with a rich anecdotal heritage that we are eager to share more with our customers. With this campaign, we hope our boutiques will become more approachable and our customers will be able to proudly speak about our stores and products with their friends and family,” Arbuckle added.
The campaign will be featured across retail stores in the US, digital platforms and social media promoting the fun and engaging video and “branded Memes” sharing how to pronounce L’Occitane.
Taglines for this campaign include “Hard to say, easy to love,” and “We know it’s hard to say, thanks for loving us anyway,” which targets customers who love the brand and its products without minding how to pronounce its name.
