Showering with the twins

Using twins to market hair care products may not be revolutionary, but it has been effective. Not bubbly blondes and buff brunettes, but twin-packs of shampoo and conditioner. They go together like Mary-Kate and Ashley, but food retailers may not be aware of the attractive power that twin-packs hold over consumers.

Taken separately, dollar sales of shampoo and conditioner were flat to slightly down in food, mass, and drug outlets for the 52 weeks ending Oct. 6, according to Information Resources, Inc. Yet dollar sales of shampoo/conditioner twin-packs are up 43 percent across the three channels over the same period.

This would be good news for supermarket HBC category managers—if it weren't for the fact that the drug and mass channels were scoring all the incremental sales. IRI's numbers indicate that dollar sales of twin-packs in supermarkets are down 33 percent to $812,303 for the same period. If the primary reason for the shortfall is that grocery stores are understocked (or are just not receiving the bargain pack from suppliers), then it might be good news after all, since acquiring the twin-packs looks to be a sure way for supermarkets to boost HBC sales.

Unit sales in the hair conditioner/cream rinse category are down 1 percent across food, mass, and drug channels, which translates to a loss of roughly $8 million in a category that had sales of $796.4 million for the year. Shampoo sales increased only 1.5 percent to $1.32 billion in the same channels for the same period. Meanwhile, the 40-percent-plus growth of twin-packs adds up to roughly $4.9 million. For mass merchandisers, that means twin packs are making up more than half of the dollars they are losing in the shampoo section.

P&G's regimen

"Procter & Gamble saw a significant opportunity to create trial sales with the shampoo/conditioner regimen packs," according to company spokesman Blayne Smith. "P&G began regimen packs about 15 months ago with the primary objective being to increase category sales for our retail customers. While household penetration for shampoos is in the 90s, it is only about two-thirds of that for conditioners. Data supports that by using even one more product in a regimen, consumers can achieve better results for their hair."

Another successful marriage of shampoo and conditioner in a twin-pack is Unilever's Suave for Kids, which posted sales of $1.1 million across all three channels for the 52 weeks ended Oct. 6.

Suave recently introduced Hair Vibe, a tween/teen hair care collection, and has partnered with Nickelodeon to air ads and promotions through the network's TEENick block of programming.

Another hope for revitalization of the hair care category lies in the hands of Himmel Hair Care Products, which acquired the rights to market Breck hair care products in the U.S. from The Dial Corp. in June 2001. Breck is a 90-year-old brand that had been reintroduced numerous times since 1982. Dial took it off the market in December 2000.

Solid brand equity

"Breck's formula was changed, its bottle, its fragrance, the price point—even the name—and consumers became disenfranchised, but the brand equity remained solid," said c.e.o Jeffrey Himmel in an interview with Progressive Grocer's sister publication Retail Merchandiser. "Consumers loved Breck in the 1970s and they love it now. Breck had a unique fragrance and bottle; female consumers over age 35 today have warm and fond memories for this brand. Breck stands for beautiful hair in their memory. We can leverage that kind of equity. The brand did not need to be changed, it had to be nurtured."

In terms of strategy, the company is going after "low hanging fruit," as Himmel puts it. "We are first targeting those consumers who grew up with Breck and have an emotional connection to it. They are the easiest to convert and bring back to the brand."