Estée Lauder Companies in AI Answers
Corporate Reputation Analysis
Executive Summary
- L'Oréal dominates AI recommendations: Across all 6 topic clusters and 5 platforms, L'Oréal was featured as the primary recommendation 80% of the time (120/150 tests), versus 9.3% for ELC.
- High awareness, low conversion: ELC maintains 93% mention rate, but "mentioned" rarely translates to "featured" — a gap between brand awareness and AI recommendation positioning.
- ESG represents the weakest cluster: 0% win rate in sustainability queries despite 76% mention rate. L'Oréal's ESG positioning appears significantly stronger in AI training data.
- Platform variance exists: ChatGPT shows strongest ELC performance (20% win rate); Gemini shows weakest (0% win rate). Worth monitoring but insufficient sample to determine causation.
ELC Brands Driving Mentions
Note: Individual brands may be mentioned without explicit attribution to ELC parent company.
Topic Cluster Analysis
Win rate represents tests where ELC was the primary recommendation. Each cluster contains 5 queries tested across 5 platforms (25 tests per cluster). All clusters show L'Oréal as the dominant competitor.
ELC's strongest cluster. Financial queries about market cap, growth outlook, and investor perception occasionally feature ELC as a leader alongside L'Oréal.
Innovation queries heavily favor L'Oréal. ELC R&D investments and technology partnerships may have less visibility in AI training sources.
Employer brand queries show L'Oréal with strong positioning. Glassdoor was frequently cited, showing 22% ELC win rate when present.
Industry leadership queries consistently position L'Oréal first. ELC typically mentioned second or third in ranked lists.
Portfolio and M&A queries position L'Oréal's acquisition history as the benchmark. ELC's brand portfolio is discussed but rarely positioned first.
Weakest cluster. ELC was never featured as an ESG leader across 25 tests. L'Oréal's sustainability narrative appears significantly stronger in AI training data. Unilever and Natura also appear before ELC in this category.
Source-Outcome Correlation
Earned media sources that appear more frequently when ELC wins vs. loses. Baseline win rate: 9.3%. Excludes owned properties, competitor sites, and reference sources.
Correlated with ELC Wins
When these sources are cited, ELC is featured more often than baseline
Correlated with ELC Losses
When these sources are cited, ELC is featured less often than baseline
Overall Competitive Position
Featured company distribution across all 150 tests. "Featured" means the company was positioned as the primary recommendation or leader in the AI response.
Win Rate by Topic × Competitor
| Topic | L'Oréal | ELC | Unilever | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investor & Financial | 80% | 16% | 0% | 4% |
| Innovation & R&D | 84% | 12% | 0% | 4% |
| Talent & Employer | 76% | 12% | 0% | 12% |
| Industry Leadership | 84% | 8% | 0% | 8% |
| Portfolio & Brands | 76% | 8% | 0% | 16% |
| ESG & Sustainability | 80% | 0% | 8% | 12% |
AI Platform Performance
ELC win rate by AI platform. Each platform was tested with all 30 queries.
Platform Variance Note
ELC shows significant variance across platforms — from 20% on ChatGPT to 0% on Gemini. However, this variation should be interpreted cautiously:
- Sample size of 30 tests per platform limits statistical confidence
- L'Oréal dominates all platforms (typically 70-90% featured rate)
- ELC was still mentioned in 90%+ of Gemini responses — just never featured first
- Platform algorithms change frequently; snapshot may not reflect current state
Implication: ChatGPT's marginally better performance for ELC may warrant monitoring, but the gap between ELC and L'Oréal is consistent across all platforms.
Interactive Query Appendix
All 150 tests with filtering and sorting. Click column headers to sort.
| ID | Query | Topic | Platform | ELC Featured | Winner |
|---|
Study Parameters & Limitations
Study Parameters
- 30 unique queries across 6 topic clusters
- 5 AI platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Meta Llama
- 150 total tests (30 queries × 5 platforms)
- 1,075 citations captured across all responses
- 228 unique domains identified
- Analysis date: December 13, 2025
Topic Clusters Tested
- Industry Leadership: Media/analyst perception of market leaders
- Investor & Financial: Financial performance, investment outlook
- ESG & Sustainability: Environmental and ethical credentials
- Innovation & R&D: Technology and product development leadership
- Talent & Employer: Employer brand and company culture
- Portfolio & Brands: M&A strategy and brand portfolio strength
What This Shows
- Win rates by topic cluster
- Source correlation patterns
- Platform consistency
- Competitive positioning snapshot
- Subsidiary brand attribution
What This Does NOT Show
- Whether sources cause wins/losses
- Whether pitching a source would change outcomes
- Statistical significance with small samples
- Content-level sentiment analysis
- Consumer purchase intent or behavior
Important Limitations
- Single snapshot: Results represent one point in time; AI platform responses can change as models are updated or retrained.
- Query phrasing effects: Different phrasings of similar questions may yield different results.
- Sample size constraints: 25 tests per cluster and 30 per platform limit statistical confidence in comparisons.
- Topic confounding: Source correlations may reflect topic effects rather than source influence.
- Platform algorithm opacity: We cannot determine why platforms feature certain companies.
- Corporate vs. consumer framing: Queries were designed for corporate reputation assessment, not consumer purchase intent.
- Subsidiary attribution: AI platforms may mention ELC brands without explicit parent company connection.
- Competitive set was dynamic: Competitors were captured from responses, not predefined — actual competitive landscape may differ.