SHAMPOO BUYING: A “BAD HAIR” DAY?
When was the last time you purchased shampoo or other hair care products? How long
did it take you to choose? How did you decide?
The hair care aisle of a typical drugstore has more than 200 choices for shampoo. The
packages promote a myriad of benefits including repair, protection, hydration, control,
and nourishment. How does a consumer make the match between his or her needs and
the brand benefits? It’s not easy to choose, and therefore not a surprise that many
shoppers spend about 20 minutes in this aisle when they select a sham- poo brand.
The confusion builds when you consider that it is not just shampoo that we buy. There
are gels, mousses, hairsprays, shine enhancers, and conditioners. A recent Mintel
survey shows that three-quarters of consumers use conditioner in addition to shampoo,
and these numbers are even higher for women.
One way that consumers try to simplify the purchase process is by referring to
compelling advertising, so ad agencies work hard to create effective messages that can
reinforce cur- rent brand loyalty or persuade consumers to try a new brand. Hair care
product advertising relies heavily on television, print, the Internet, and outdoor
advertising, most commonly in the form of billboards. In addition, many ad campaigns
feature appealing celebrity endorsers such as Katie Holmes, Nicole Scherzinger, and
Sofia Vergara.
And it’s not only women in the United States who scratch their heads over these
choices. To the women of Singapore and the Philippines, the choice of hair conditioner
poses the same challenges. To connect with women in these countries, Unilever tried a
nontraditional campaign to show the benefit of Cream Silk Hair Fall Defense, a
conditioner brand the company sells in those countries. Cream Silk’s core benefit is the
“strength” it gives hair. With the help of advertising agency JWT, Unilever was able to
break through the advertising clutter and deliver its message in an entirely new format.
JWT began by contacting Paul Goh, the leading violin bow- maker in Singapore. For
this promotion, Mr. Goh was asked to switch out the horsehair violin bows he
traditionally used and exchange them with human hair on four of his violin bows. This
hair had been washed and conditioned with Cream Silk. To demonstrate the strength of
the hair, a string quartet used the bows as it played during a 4-hour concert in a busy
shopping mall in Manila. Good news for Unilever: The entire concert concluded without
even one broken hair on the violin bows! You can view the video yourself on YouTube;
just search “The Human Hair Quartet.”
According to JWT, the event was fully successful in engaging Cream Silk’s target
market. The people who flocked to the concert rose to as high as 600 at one point. Over
450 samples of the shampoo were distributed. A survey conducted at the event showed
that most of the consumers left with a positive impression about Cream Silk. What do
When was the last time you purchased shampoo or other hair care products? How long
did it take you to choose? How did you decide?
The hair care aisle of a typical drugstore has more than 200 choices for shampoo. The
packages promote a myriad of benefits including repair, protection, hydration, control,
and nourishment. How does a consumer make the match between his or her needs and
the brand benefits? It’s not easy to choose, and therefore not a surprise that many
shoppers spend about 20 minutes in this aisle when they select a sham- poo brand.
The confusion builds when you consider that it is not just shampoo that we buy. There
are gels, mousses, hairsprays, shine enhancers, and conditioners. A recent Mintel
survey shows that three-quarters of consumers use conditioner in addition to shampoo,
and these numbers are even higher for women.
One way that consumers try to simplify the purchase process is by referring to
compelling advertising, so ad agencies work hard to create effective messages that can
reinforce cur- rent brand loyalty or persuade consumers to try a new brand. Hair care
product advertising relies heavily on television, print, the Internet, and outdoor
advertising, most commonly in the form of billboards. In addition, many ad campaigns
feature appealing celebrity endorsers such as Katie Holmes, Nicole Scherzinger, and
Sofia Vergara.
And it’s not only women in the United States who scratch their heads over these
choices. To the women of Singapore and the Philippines, the choice of hair conditioner
poses the same challenges. To connect with women in these countries, Unilever tried a
nontraditional campaign to show the benefit of Cream Silk Hair Fall Defense, a
conditioner brand the company sells in those countries. Cream Silk’s core benefit is the
“strength” it gives hair. With the help of advertising agency JWT, Unilever was able to
break through the advertising clutter and deliver its message in an entirely new format.
JWT began by contacting Paul Goh, the leading violin bow- maker in Singapore. For
this promotion, Mr. Goh was asked to switch out the horsehair violin bows he
traditionally used and exchange them with human hair on four of his violin bows. This
hair had been washed and conditioned with Cream Silk. To demonstrate the strength of
the hair, a string quartet used the bows as it played during a 4-hour concert in a busy
shopping mall in Manila. Good news for Unilever: The entire concert concluded without
even one broken hair on the violin bows! You can view the video yourself on YouTube;
just search “The Human Hair Quartet.”
According to JWT, the event was fully successful in engaging Cream Silk’s target
market. The people who flocked to the concert rose to as high as 600 at one point. Over
450 samples of the shampoo were distributed. A survey conducted at the event showed
that most of the consumers left with a positive impression about Cream Silk. What do
