CONSUMER BEHAVIOR PROJECT: SHAMPOOS

A study of the behavior of the Indian Shampoo consumers and the strategies followed by major players in the Shampoo market to exploit that.

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OBJECTIVES
Critically analyze the Product lines of 2 major players in the Shampoo Market and to analyze their strategies with respect to each other. To study the Shampoo consumption behavior of the Indian consumer. To assess the influences of strategies like advertising, prizing, and campaign and repositioning of Shampoo brands.

INTRODUCTION
The Indian consumer of shampoos finds himself in a plethora of brands and products, all claiming to be the best solution for him. In this crowded market of information overload, the consumer selects those shampoos from the lot which cross the differential threshold to make a lasting impression on his mind. In this study, we will analyze the various aspects of the shampoo consumers behavior. The Indian Shampoo market is marked by intense competition from domestic as well as multinational companies. The changing dynamics in the industry coupled with comparatively low penetration rates offer the players in this market the opportunity to grow in both the top and bottom ends of the market. The market was dominated by India's largest fast moving consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL), and one of the world's largest consumer goods companies, Procter & Gamble Company (P&G). We will also take a look at the strategies employed by these companies to exploit the consumers behavior, his attitudes and perceptions and his felt needs.

DATA COLLECTION
Primary Data Collection
The primary data collection was done through Survey questionnaires (results & bar-charts attached in APPENDIX) and Focus Group Interview. The survey was conducted on a sample consisted of 22 youth in the age group of 19-25. Focus group interviews were held with 3 housewives, 4 youths in the above age group, and 2 people from the lower income group.

Secondary Data Collection

Secondary data about companies and consumers was collected from company websites, annual reports, and blogs of analysts, online-new-papers and case-studies.

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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

CHARACTERISTICS OF SHAMPOO MARKET:

High Awareness about products. Stiff Competition Low Brand Loyalty

(Source: Survey Questionnaire attached in APPENDIX)

Major Factors in Consumers Behavior Influencing Purchase:

The consumers paid more attention to message in the advertisements than models / brand ambassadors. (0% influence from Models/ Brand Ambassadors in above Figure) Earlier, the celebrity was to bring in credibility, trust and realism. Today, the consumer is not willing to believe anyone other than himself. And hence the role has now been reduced to just bringing in glamour and noticeability Peer reviews, Word-of mouth, Brand perception, Attitude & Self concept are the major influences High Brand awareness and Influence in the purchase of the shampoos mainly depends on the hair problem and assurance to solve that problem given by the brand. People select shampoos with respect to their hair types and type of improvement expected in hair quality. For example, people with Dry Hair preferred shampoos with essential oils and extra conditioning, people with frizzy hair, opted for Anti-frizz products, damage-repair products.

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Content
The focus group interviews showed that people were becoming increasingly conscious about the chemical content of the shampoos. Due to recent news & studies of harmful chemicals in shampoos, people are open towards shifting to more herbal & natural contents in shampoos. On anti dandruff shampoos, people had 2 kinds of opinion. One considered it as a possibility to use it as a regular shampoo, while the other section considered its usage only for medical purposes or when dandruff recurred. The second group cited that overuse of dandruff shampoo may harm hair. Probably, this emerging psychology consumer is one the reason that has led major brands like Clinic to reposition itself as two separate brands, Clear for dandruff and Clinic Plus. The other reason is that it wanted to retain the family based consumers with Clinic Plus and attract consumers seeking anti-dandruff properties towards Clear. Shampoo market has a very stiff competition and shampoos as a consumer product experiences a low brand loyalty with people frequently changing shampoos. This could be one of the reasons that led the companies like HUL to expand their product lines to give the more choice to the consumers so that they can choose within the offered product lines, while increasing their market share at the same time.

Packing & Packaging

Inside a convenience store where all products are on display, attractive packaging is one of the leading reasons why consumers chose one shampoo over other. Bottles were preferred by higher income group people who shampoos 2-3 times a week. Sachets were preferred by the lower income group people who shampooed around once a week.

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HUL: PRODUCT LINES ANALYSIS

SUNSILK:
Targets: 20-something adolescent women. A wide highly segment-specific range to choose from. - Example: Anti frizz, Bounce, Texture repair, Black-shine leave-on etc. Youthful and catchy packaging and advertising with Priyanka Chopra. Brand Personality: Innovative, Novel, young, experimental, fashionable. Launched web-campaign Sunsilk Gang-of-Girls to tap the innovative female youth targets on the web. It gave positive results.

HUL STRATEGIES:
HUL is concentrating on increasing its market share to improve profitability. The company has already started putting a strategy in place which includes grammage correction, pricing unit packs at lower price points and increasing promotions for value brands. Sales Promotion Strategy for SUNSILK: Youth are constantly moving away from traditional marketing communication channels. Online community-building initiative Sunsilk Gang of Girls utilizes the untapped emerging media like the Internet popular especially among the Indian youth. It was able to get good brand recognition and could connect with the target group. Positioning of CLEAR: HUL re-launched Clinic ALL Clear as Clear and repositioned it as a strong & effective antidandruff shampoo against Head & Shoulders. HUL is placing. HUL did this because Consumers were identifying more with the emotions emoted by Head & Shoulders making it the top antidandruff Shampoo.

CLINIC PLUS:
Targets: Family as a consuming unit, housewives, people who like dependable brands. Clinic Plus appeals the most to mothers and daughters who are most concerned about the health of their hair. Largest selling & Largest distributed shampoo in India. Brand Personality: Trustworthy, Family oriented.

DOVE:
Targets: Upper- upper-middle class women who want to feel beautiful. Dove is seeking to become a daily-use shampoo with products like Daily-Therapy to increase its sales. Fastest growing shampoo brand in the country Brand Personality: Promise Keeper, Beautiful, Pure, Dependable, suave

CLEAR:
Targets: People with dandruff problem but who also like to have fabulous hair. Launched as Clinic Special, and then changed to Clinic All Clear in 1996, now re-launched as Clear. Completely Anti-Dandruff Range. Brand Personality: Strong, Suave, Sophisticated,

Dandruff being the greatest hair problem among Indians, every Product line offers an Anti-Dandruff Shampoo as well. The above product lines are COMPLIMENTARY and do not try to kill the market presence of the sister product lines.

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P&G: PRODUCT LINES ANALYSIS

HEAD & SHOULDERS:
Targets: People with dandruff + People who want to prevent dandruff Completely Anti-Dandruff range of products. Projects itself as a daily use shampoo to increase sales. Brand Personality: Confident, Strong, Effective, and Popular.

P&G STRATEGIES:

Pantene has recently reduced the prices of all its products in the shampoo category and has increased sachets. the grammage in

PANTENE PRO V:
Targets: People with damaged hair + People who want to prevent Hair damage. Expanding people outreach by Reality TV Ad-Model Hunt o Expected Effects of the campaign: Increase people involvement Increase Brand Awareness Novel Campaign of Reality TV increases brand retention. Brand Personality: Enriching, Damager-Repairer, Protective, Sophisticated

Pantene has been positioned by P&G as a damage-repairer and protective product. Head & Shoulders is the top AntiDandruff shampoo in the antidandruff category. Head & Shoulders consumers were least likely to change their shampoo and were generally satisfied on all characteristics. But to counter brand-fatigue of Head & Shoulders and to counter the repositioning of HULs Clear against Head & Shoulders, P&G has adopted the strategy of continuing novelty of advertisements and campaign. It has recently signed Kareena Kapoor as its Brand Ambassador to give a new and appealing face against Bipasha Basu of Clear.

CONCLUSION
The Shampoo consumer is becoming aware and matches his needs to the products in the market. The use of emerging media like internet, reality-TV are the new avenues of communicating with the consumers. Repositioning of products and fighting brand fatigue are the most challenging tasks faced by the companies. The consumers latent demands from shampoos are reliability and continued innovation. The major players realize these needs of the consumers and come up with new products and novel marketing concepts to satisfy the needs of the new-age shampoo consumer.

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APPENDIX
Questionnaire Responses: