Retailers have long agreed that even in times of economic slowdown, women will not stop buying beauty products.

Under what is widely known as the “lipstick effect,” they even increase their purchases of cosmetics and reduce spending on household items like furniture or other expensive products during economic hardship.

With seeming faith in this trend, the world’s biggest cosmetic maker L’Oréal SA hopes to see double digit growth in its Indonesian sales this year in spite of people’s weak purchasing power amid a sluggish economy.

“When times are good, women spend on beauty care. When times are bad, women still spend on beauty care,” said Umesh Phadke, the president director of PT L’Oréal Indonesia, recently.

The firm’s optimism about the market outlook in Indonesia, where it competes against rivals such as consumer goods producers Unilever and P&G, is not groundless.

In the past decade, the domestic beauty industry has annually expanded by 12 percent to reach a market value of Rp 33 trillion (US$2.47 billion) in 2016. The major drivers are hair care products (37 percent), followed by skin care items (32 percent) and make-up products (10 percent).

To achieve this year’s goal, the local subsidiary of the French cosmetics giant is banking on the surging popularity of social media in Indonesia, a country with more than 260 million people, its top priority markets along with China and India.

Here, a huge segment of the population of 18-to-30-year-olds use social media for various purposes, including to express themselves and seek the latest fashion and beauty trends.

Venesha Suryani falls into the category that L’Oréal is targeting to generate its sales growth.

Just like many young people of her age, the 26-year-old housewife regularly turns to social media like Instagram or Facebook to browse the latest makeup or hair color trends. Wearing make up daily boosts her confidence around her peers, Venesha said.

“I wear make up so that I can look fresh. When I take pictures and post them on social media, my face looks bright and ready,” she told The Jakarta Post.

To reach out young people like Venesha, L’Oréal has allocated more than half of its advertising expenditure to digital media in the past years, a change from its previous heavy reliance on television as a marketing and promotional channel.

Beyond that, the firm has also used social media as its “cyber research center” to obtain insight about what consumers really want, helping it generate new products.

Its top-selling “The Magnum Barbie Mascara” is an example of a product born from such cyber-based research.

Launched around one and a half year ago, the item was made after the firm found out that many Indonesian women wanted to have a “Barbie look,” said Ngoc Phungbich, the marketing manager of Maybelline Indonesia, one of L’Oréal business units.

L’Oréal declined to elaborate what products it expects to help boost sales this year or reveal new products for launch. At present, it benefits from products made to fit the characteristics of local women. This include Garnier Light Complete day cream, which was specially made for Indonesian people’s skin, said Reny Agustia, the marketing manager of Garnier, one of L’Oréal’s business units.

Present locally since 1979, its Indonesian subsidiary now operates L’Oréal’s biggest factory in the world built with an investment of €100 million (US$109 million) in Jababeka Industrial Estate in West Java. It sells 60 percent of its hair care and skin products domestically, while exporting the rest to Southeast Asian countries.

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