GlobalData: Revlon’s position as 'traditional laggard' is key reason for its tumble into bankruptcy, while rival L’Oreal is identified a disruptive leader due to its involvement with corporate venture capital deals, filing patents in disruptive themes

September 6, 2022 (press release) –

• Companies identified as ‘Traditional Laggards’ such as Revlon will struggle to be successful moving forward as they are not investing in disruptive themes
• Revlon’s cosmetics rival, L’Oréal, is identified as a disruptive leader due to its involvement with corporate venture capital (CVC) deals and for filing patents in disruptive themes, and continues to report strong sales growth
• GlobalData’s 3I Innovation Matrix has identified a number of personal care companies, including Mandom and Amyris, as ‘disruptive challengers’ along with other consumer goods companies such as Thai Union Group, Marudai Food, Saputo, Grupo Nutresa, Bunge, Top Glove, ANTA Sports Products, and Levi Strauss

In light of recent news that Revlon has filed for bankruptcy, leading data and analytics company GlobalData notes that this demonstrates the importance of being a disruptive leader when it comes to innovation. As part of research towards GlobalData’s report, ‘Innovation Scorecard 2022’, the data and analytics company found Revlon to be a ‘Traditional Laggard’ when it comes to innovation because it is not investing in disruptive themes.

GlobalData’s research involved ranking over 3,500 companies worldwide based on their relative performance in three ‘Innovation Pillars’: Intensity (activity of innovation), Impact (external impact of innovation), and Ingenuity (disruptive potential of innovation). The analysis took into account 19 high-impact key performance indicators (KPIs) from its Deals, Patents, and Job Analytics databases. Following this analysis, GlobalData produced its ‘3I Innovation Matrix’, which plotted companies within specific sectors into four quadrants: ‘Traditional Laggards’, ‘Traditional Leaders’, Disruptive Challengers’ and ‘Disruptive Leaders’.

Apoorva Bajaj, Practice head at GlobalData, comments: “According to GlobalData’s research, Revlon has been identified as a ‘traditional laggard’ because it is not filing patents in disruptive themes, and the patents it is filing on are not cited by other companies. It is best for companies in the ‘Traditional Laggards’ category to explore some of the more disruptive themes, ranging from AI, to blockchain, robotics and augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR).”

In GlobalData’s study, Revlon received a consolidated innovation score of only 259.4 out of 1,000, performing poorly on a parameter related to corporate venture capital (CVC) deals. If an interested buyer was to take on Revlon, it is vital that it invests in new technologies, as well as research & development and be active in terms of making CVC deals if it wishes to pose a greater challenge to competitors such as L’Oréal.

Sofie Willmott, Sector Head of Health & Beauty at GlobalData adds: “Although Revlon’s debts played a big part in its downfall, the beauty company may have been able to improve its financial position if it had responded to changing consumer needs sooner. The pandemic prompted cosmetics companies to invest in technologies such as AR and VR to help mirror the instore experience online, and social media presence and brands’ rapid response to trends became even more important. However, Revlon was slow to adapt and its reluctant to evolve left it trailing behind many of its more inventive competitors.”

Revlon’s competitor L’Oréal has been identified by GlobalData’s 3I Innovation Matrix as a ‘Disruptive Leaders’ in the consumer space.

Bajaj continues: “Companies in the top right quadrant of the 3I Innovation Matrix such as L’Oréal are defined as ‘Disruptive Leaders’. These are companies that are filing patents in disruptive themes and their patents are also being cited by other companies. In L’Oréal’s case, it has filed several patents around healthtech, health & wellness, and emission reduction. L’Oréal has a consolidated innovation score of 509.5 out of 1,000, and has performed better than Revlon in terms of its involvement in CVC deals. L’Oréal also has a higher share of patents in disruptive themes, demonstrating the company’s innovation ingenuity.”

GlobalData also highlights several companies that are noted to be ‘Disruptive Challengers’.

Bajaj adds: The ‘Disruptive Challengers’ quadrant is the most exciting, as these companies are challenging industry leaders. These are the companies whose patents might not be that frequently cited as of now, but they are filing patents in new tech areas and in disruptive themes, with the goal of becoming a disruptive leader. In the personal care space the 3I Innovation Matrix identifies Mandom and Amyris as well as highlighting other consumer goods companies including Thai Union Group, Marudai Food, Saputo, Grupo Nutresa, Bunge, Top Glove, ANTA Sports Products and Levi Strauss. These are the ones to watch and would be smart investment targets when it comes to selecting innovative movers.”

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