Lafarge Case Study

Group6:
Justine Bernard
Lisa Taurines
Frederique Ramananarivo
Victoriano osa sanz
Maxime Vifian

GROUP 6

LAFARGE
I N T E R N A L A N A LY S I S

TOP MANAGEMENT GOALS

•  Financial & economical performance:
•  Total sales in 2008 : 19 billions €
•  Growth from 2007 to 2008 : +8,1%
•  Power inside the firm:
•  The Lafarge Group is the world leader
•  The CEO is former HEC Bruno LAFONT
•  The Headquarters are in Paris & the eldest R&D center in
Lyon
•  Present in 79 countries
•  Long term vision:
•  Expending to the emerging markets
•  Growing concerns about environment, cost reduction,
employee safety & innovation

SBU IDENTIFICATION & ASSESSMENT

Governmental Organizations
•  Firm’s activities: ABELL matrix
Customer needs
Environmental concerns

Private owners
Know-how

Architects
Builders
Awareness

Accessibility
Customer groups

Technology

4

SALES PERFORMANCE & EVOLUTIONS

•  Competitive position: World leader in cement,
aggregates and concrete, gypsum
•  Global Turnover in 2008: 19 billions €

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT
MARKETING STRATEGY AND MIX
•  STP strategy:
•  Segmentation criteria: private and professional users
•  Target: B2B & B2C, choice and strategy: be
everywhere and taking care of people, planet & profit
•  Positioning: innovative, awareness of the brand,
accessible
•  4 P’s analysis:
•  Product: Cement, Aggregates & concrete, Gypsum
•  Price: ?
•  Place: respectively, in 50, 40 and 29 countries
•  Promotion: essentially on the corporate website

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT
MARKETING STRATEGY AND MIX

•  Critical analysis:
•  A corporate website all-in-one, reaching stakeholders
through identified topics but there is not enough
transparency and reactivity.
•  Few efforts of mass advertising poorly broadcasted that
remained unknown: it was in 1996, the advertising
campaign “materials to build the world”

LAFARGE
E X T E R N A L A N A LY S I S

MACRO-ENVIRONMENT: PESTEL

•  Political: Even if Lafarge is present all over the world, the
company works mostly in developed countries, then it does not face
important political conflict. However their business is really dependent
on political context especially for building permit

•  Economic: The economic crisis has a really important impact
on the business of construction, particularly in developed countries
since the amounts of money they are spending are way lower

•  Sociocultural: World population keep growing
•  Technological: Nowadays extracting process of materials
needed to make cement are at the state of the art. Most of houses &
building has needed cement for their construction

MACRO-ENVIRONMENT: PESTEL

•  Environmental: Our current society try be very careful
concerning the environment and especially the impacts on the
climate change and the scarce of resources
•  Legal: Developed countries have to respect the Kyoto Protocol
concerning the CO2 emissions. They have to respect the laws of the
different countries where they are working. Laws about construction
can often prevent the construction of a building
•  Opinion leaders & trends: Nowadays, the main trend
concern the sustainability development especially in terms of
renewable energies, recycling of industrial waste and a lower energy
consumption. Building manufacturers try to be as eco-friendly as
possible
•  International: Emerging countries are the main actors of the
growth in building materials thanks to their urban and demographic
development and their economic growth

MACRO-ENVIRONMENT:
INDUSTRIAL & SECTOR ANALYSIS
•  Competitors rivalry:
•  Even if Lafarge is the market leader for building materials, the
competition is really strong in this business. Lafarge has 5 main
competitors (CRH, HOLCIM, CEMEX, Heidelberg cement &
Italcementi).
•  Except for Italcementi their turnover 2008 is higher than €14 billions
•  Their strategy concerning social networks is different, indeed some
of them use them and not the others

•  Buyer Power:
•  Lafarge has a worldwide presence and then has a large number
of customers
•  However their contracts represent huge amount of money, then
they have a big bargaining power especially for big projects like
roads or railways

MACRO-ENVIRONMENT:
•  Substitutes: To replace the use of its products, we can for
example use wood, steel, iron or glass depending of the case. Some
of these products are more eco-friendly and others cheaper than
cement
•  Supplier power: Since Lafarge extract directly the raw
materials that they use to produce their goods, the only suppliers are
the ones producing engines they are using, then it seems that their
bargaining power is not that important
•  New entrants: An important threat could come from the
emerging countries, for instance in Asia. Their own market is growing
and that allows the companies to develop themselves, become
stronger and get a comparative advantage. Then the main barrier
for new entrants is the required capital (for infrastructures, raw
material … )

MACRO-ENVIRONMENT:
Companies
from
emerging

countries
could
become

really
powerful
in
the
next

few
years

Bargaining
power
of

suppliers
is
not
really
Many
buyers
but

Compe>tors

they
s>ll
have
a

high
since
Lafarge
all
over
the

extract
its
own
raw
high
bargaining

world
but
they

power
since
they

materials.
They
are
are
the
market

only
dependent
of
represent
huge

leader

contracts

engines
providers

Some
products
that
are

cheaper
or
more
eco-‐
friendly
could
replace

cement
in
some
cases
like

for
exemple
wood
or
glass

MICRO-ENVIRONMENT: MARKET
DEFINITION

•  Generic Market: Cements + special cements with added
characteristics / Woods, iron, steel, glass

•  Quantitative: 100 million tons of cement each year
•  Qualitative:
•  Nowadays the trend is to be eco-friendly and thanks to the
innovation they succeed to use twice as less amount of raw
materials to produce the same good
•  The second important aspect concerns the safety of the labour
force

MICRO-ENVIRONMENT: MARKET
OFFERING

•  The distribution channels: Lafarge communicates only
through its internet website

•  For now the direct competitors of Lafarge are in
developed countries but since Lafarge try to increase its
presence in emerging countries, it faces new
competitors

•  Lafarge has a strong innovative strategy and is actually
the market leader

QUESTION 1:

Using only information provided in the case,
you will evaluate and select 2 social
networks that allow an efficient corporate
communication, taking into account the
sector’s structure, Lafarge possibilities &
competition moves.

Helpful Armful
Strengths Weaknesses
•  Market leader with a •  Low visibility
worldwide presence • Just one promotion channel:
•  Huge innovations & the corporate website
Internal Origin

know-how •  Most of its customers in
•  Market knowledge Western Europe & North
•  Significant acquisitions America
such as Orascom Cement
in Egypt
• A strong R&D business unit
• Taking care of their
employees
Opportunities Threats
• Emergent countries •  Economical Crisis background
External Origin

development • New competitors
• Population keep growing
then an increasing need
of MGB industries
• Trend of environmental
SWOT ANALYSIS
concern

Criteria to choose the two social networks:

•  Adapted to B to B
•  Increasing the visibility of Lafarge
•  Highlight their competitive advantages compared
to their competitors
•  Targeting new customers and above all in emerging
countries

FACEBOOK

•  It has several business advantages:
•  Advertising targeting and surveys
•  Future employee recruitment
•  New partners and clients
•  Buzz and videos
•  SEO and link to the website
•  Facebook can have a big impact on stakeholders
because it is mainly used and well-known worldwide but
it is not adapted as a corporate communication tool.

•  We think the Lafarge Group does not need to start with
a Facebook page because it is more adapted to
communicate directly with its customers (B2C) but not to
do B2B.

TWITTER
•  Status & micro-sharing
•  Increasing business purpose and professional followers
•  Relationships between users
•  Polls & surveys
•  Link to the website

•  Twitter has less users than Facebook but he has a
increasing business purpose and a bigger impact on
stakeholders trough the web influencers.
•  We think the Lafarge Group should start with a Twitter
account, as a corporate communication tool and as an
interaction platform with all its stakeholders.

LINKEDIN

•  Building its digital identity (professional & personal presentation)
•  3rd degree connections
•  Find people, jobs & opportunities
•  Community & groups to talk about brands & products
•  LinkedIn is a very dynamic platform that allows third
degree connections and has a worldwide influence.

•  We think that the Lafarge Group should integrate
LinkedIn as its second social network, because its users
are increasing, its main purpose is professional and
combined with Twitter, all the expectances for the
Group corporate communication are fulfilled.

VIADEO
•  Famous in France and Asia
•  Groups with a belonging feeling
•  Spaces with specific subjects
•  Geographic clubs
•  Need to be alive

•  Viadeo doesn’t have a worldwide platform, so it has too
much boundaries in order to be the second social
network of a multinational company.

•  We think that the Lafarge Group should not use Viadeo
as a social network because, even if its business
advantages are very interesting for the company, the
geographic impact would be too small.

CONCLUSION QUESTION 2

•  Finally, we choose Twitter and LinkedIn because these
are the social networks which will be the most efficient
for a company like Lafarge.
•  interactive platform
•  Professional purpose
•  Increasing number of users
•  Better for a B to B business
•  Geographic impact

QUESTION 2:

According to the social networks selected in the
first question, you will propose a coherent
positioning and communication strategy. It is
mandatory to details the themes and messages you
plan to communicate through these networks. A
particular care will be given to the definition of
operational objectives, means and costs used and
expected returns.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

On the one hand, on Twitter, Lafarge will provide
immediate news about them and their projects. It allows
to a dynamic communication.
On the other hand, on LinkedIn, Lafarge will create its
profile and its digital identity. At the same time, it will
gather a community with its employees, its suppliers, its
clients and its potential stakeholders.
Lafarge doesn’t follow the same objectives with these
two social networks.

POSITIONING ON TWITTER

Segmenting Targeting
Geographical Developed and emerging
countries
People concerned by a particular
building (neighborhood)
Demographical-Occupation Professional: suppliers and clients
Behavioral To be comfortable with new
technology
Behavioral-Users status Followers on Twitter

Behavioral-Needs and benefits Look after immediate information

New positioning on Twitter: Bringing immediate
information to its stakeholders worldwide.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY ON
TWITTER

•  Themes and messages:
Every news concerning the group and the different projects.
For example the date of a launching project, inaugurations, visits of
political personalities or an appointment to the nomination of a
director…

•  Operational / communication objectives:
•  To provide immediate information about the group and its projects. It
means in real-time (daily or more frequently).
•  To give more transparency
•  To show the dynamism of the group. It has hundred projects worldwide
•  To communicate about their strengths: this is the market leader, it has
made acquisitions (as Orascom Cement), the group has a strong
know-how
•  To organize (and use) polls and surveys about some of their projects
and show they take care of the public opinion

POSITIONING ON LINKEDIN
Segmenting targeting

Geographical Developed and emerging
countries
Demographical-Occupation Professional: suppliers, clients,
employees and potential
employees
Demographical-Life cycle Students (potential employees)

Behavioral To be comfortable with new
technology
Behavioral-Users status Users of LinkedIn

Behavioral-Needs and benefits Look after jobs and opportunities
(ex: new projects for suppliers )

•  New positioning on LinkedIn: Creating a community
with its stakeholders worldwide.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY ON
LINKEDIN
•  Themes and messages:
At first, Lafarge will create its LinkedIn profile with its history, its former
and new projects. It will provide opportunities as jobs offers for
students or new projects for suppliers. In this way, Lafarge will create
its network composed by its stakeholders and potential stakeholders.
This community will be also a platform of discussion about brands or
services.

•  Operational / communication objectives:
•  To develop its digital identity
•  To create a community between Lafarge and its stakeholders
•  To give its stakeholders the feeling to belong to Lafarge ‘s projects
•  To create a platform of mutual exchanges

MEANS AND COSTS

•  Tangible resources
-  Employees: A community manager in charged social
networking
-  Physical: A laptop and an internet access
•  Intangible resources
-  Financial: It is free to register on Twitter and Linkedln

•  Finally, these communication strategies haven’t
important costs compared to other existing strategies
( as posters for example). There is just the wage of the
manager in charge of the social networking.

QUESTION 3:

You will propose a communication plan
emphasizing on actions taken in-line with objectives
previously defined. Your must include timeline and
budget. You can support your plan by relying on
both information provided in the case and the
knowledge acquired through your study lectures,
personal business culture and own creativeness.

GOALS

A communication adapted to B to B:
•  For the group:
•  Increasing the international visibility of Lafarge
•  Targeting new customers and above all in emerging countries
•  To show the dynamism of the group
•  To communicate about their environmental concern
•  To develop its digital identity

•  For the clients and suppliers
•  To give more transparency
•  To create a community between Lafarge and its stakeholders
•  To give its stakeholders the feeling to belong to Lafarge ‘s projects
•  To create a platform of mutual exchanges

SEGMENTS &TARGETS

Segmenting Targeting

Geographical Emerging countries
Developed countries

Demographical - Exhibitors in building shows
Occupation and stakeholders of
building shows

Behavioral-Needs and Look after information
benefits
Psychographical- interest Readers of specialized
medias

Phsychographical - interest Sustainable development
concern

TOOLS

•  Sponsoring:
•  Sponsoring of professional events, “Building Show Lafarge”
in developing countries (as Batimat in France ). It offers an
international visibility every year in the emerging market.

•  Public relations:
•  Interviews about sustainable development issues in
specialized magazines. It gives legitimacy to Lafarge
because it is published by specialized journalists.

TOOLS

•  Direct marketing:
•  Participation of international building show as Ecobuild,
which is specialized on sustainable design, construction and
the build environment. This is a way to show their
environmental concern.
•  Newsletters addressed to their clients and suppliers, each
month. It will contain the news about the projects and the
group development.

•  Advertising:
•  Advertising in specialized magazines

RESOURCES & BUDGET

•  Resources:
•  Lafarge is the leader on the market, that’s why it could
probably spend the benefits of projects
•  To expand the communication projects on many months in
order to have time to get the money.

•  Budget:
•  2 big investments: sponsoring and advertising in specialized
magazines
•  Very high budget

TIMELINE

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.

Twitter XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

LinkedIn XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX
Newslette
rs
X X X X X X X X X X X X
Sponsorin
g
XXX XXX
Advertisi
ng
X X X X X X
Interview
s
X X X

Build XXX XXX
show

CONCLUSION

•  Lafarge is the leader on the market but has a lot of
progress to do on the web if it want to stay competitive.
•  The most interesting social networks are Twitter and
LinkedIn.
•  But there are many other ways to promote our firm like
sponsoring or advertisements.
•  It costs money but this is important to show to its
potential customers that this is an innovative
corporation.
•  Furthermore it will respond to the goals we have fixed
previously concerning its visibility, transparency, identity
and so on.

Lafarge Case Study

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Lafarge Case Study