Study herbal shampoo category in Indian context and analyze the brand image of Himalaya shampoo brand

Abstract

Marico is the leading player in the Indian hair care market, generating an 18.7% share of the market value. The Indian hair care market is fairly fragmented with the three leading players Marico, Unilever and Dabur India collectively accounting for 46.5% of the market value. The top shampoo brands in India include Sunsilk, Clinic Plus, Dove, Pantene, Head and Shoulders and Garnier Fructis. The company that leads the shampoo market in India is Hindustan Unilever Limited. The top three most sought after brands Sunsilk, Dove and Clinic are produced by HUL. The company holds a 44% market share1 in the Indian shampoo industry. It is said that HUL earns almost 8% of its revenue from the sale of these products. The other recent brand that has taken the Indian personal care industry by storm is P&G’s Pantene. Since its very inception the brand was a best seller. Proctor and Gamble the second top shampoo brand in India holds a market share of around 25% in the Indian shampoo industry. The revenue earned from the sale of shampoos from Proctor and gamble is almost 17%. Together these two major players (HUL, P&G) constitute a major part of the Indian shampoo industry. Be it in the form of price cuts, discounts or increasing the size of the shampoo sachets without any extra costs, these two companies are at a continuous price war. Despite all these efforts, none of these top brands have been successful at making shampoo, a daily use product because most consumers still carry doubts about using shampoos on a daily basis given their chemical content. Hindustan Unilever’s Clinic Plus had earlier tried to bring shampoo usage into the daily care regimen through its promotional campaigns. However, it could not make a major breakthrough in the market so as to force other brands to follow. This is where the herbal shampoos have an advantage (leverage on their herbal-safety association). Himalaya’s Gentle Daily Care shampoo, CavinKare’s Nyle Daily Cleansing shampoo, Dhathri’s Dheedhi shampoo, Cochin Ayurvedic Centre’s Indulekha coconut milk shampoo are a few of the brands which are playing ‘herbal’ and ‘safety’ tags to promote daily consumption (Most of the developed countries have high per capita consumption of shampoo compared to India). The “daily use factor” would play a critical part in the future given the kind of growth the shampoo category in India had witnessed over the years. The shampoo market in India is currently valued around Rs 4,500 crore and even at the current level of penetration, daily consumption can add another Rs 9,000 crore2 to the market. The aforesaid factors make research on consumer behavior in shampoo category (in Indian context) all the more interesting, hence the reason for this study.