Creative Brief: Herbal Essences

Who uses it? Anyone who has hair

Industry trends?
 Shampoo companies are creating new lines for specific hair problems or hair
types (ex. Curly, dry, flat)
 Salon shampoos are thought of as better than ones bought in supermarkets
 Shampoo is purchased once or twice a month.
 One person can own multiple shampoos depending on what they are trying
to do with their hair that day (curly v. straight)
 Women tend to use more expensive shampoo than men because their hair is
thought of as more “valuable”

Top brands in market?

The top shampoo brands are Clairol, Herbal Essences, Pantene, Head & Shoulders,
Suave, Paul Mitchell, L'Oreal, Bumble and Bumble, Aussie, Dove, John Frieda, Johnson
& Johnson, Vidal Sassoon, Matrix, Redken, Physique, Finesse, and Nexxus.

How product differs from competitors?

 Certain shampoos are sold in salons, while others are sold in supermarkets
or drug stores
 Prices vary a lot depending on where product is sold and what name brand

How product is used?

You put water in your hair, put shampoo in your hand, massage it through your hair,
and rinse

Where it is headed in the future?

Store-brand shampoos are going to keep getting better, but women will still pay big
bucks for salon brands. Also, they will keep coming up with new formulas to do
various things to your hair. They will keep segmenting the audience by hair type and
creating shampoos for each segment.

Business Week Article on Rebranding of Herbal Essences in 2008:

To find the right new, smaller target market for the brand, Arnold and her team turned to
Clay Street, an immersion program for P&G managers to jump-start innovation. There,
the team came up with a new target audience for the brand—Generation Y. "In the case
of Gen Y, there really wasn't another hair-care brand that was really meeting their needs,"
says Lafley. "The question was: 'Can Herbal do it?'"

Arnold's team bet yes. They redesigned the packaging of the product to "fit" this more
tailored market: The shampoo and conditioner bottles are curved so that they literally fit
together on the shelf. The nesting shape not only helped Herbal Essences stand out from
others on the shelf but also encouraged more young women to buy both products, driving
up conditioner sales.

To appeal to Millennials, the team also updated the language on the packaging. The ho-
hum "dandruff" reference gave way to "no flaking away." Names for different hair styles
were changed to more youthful phrases such as "totally twisted" or "drama clean." "We
totally reframed the proposition," says Lafley. While P&G doesn't break out sales figures
on specific products, the company reported in a conference call soon after the shampoo
was relaunched that the brand was growing again, with sales growth rates in the high
single digits.

McCann Erickson’s Role-Playing Approach

1. Who is my target?
a. Generation Y/Millenials
b. Care about what their hair looks like
c. Want a good value
d. Want creative branding/packaging/names
e. Want to sometimes change their natural hair (ex. Curly to straight,
tossled softly, etc)
2. Where am I now in the mind of the person?
a. http://reviews.herbalessences.com/8867/1/category.htm
b. The shampoo that has the most variety based on hair type
c. Creative names to appeal to younger target (ex. Dandruff= “no flaking
away”; curly= “totally twisted”)
d. Each product does what it says it will do (hydrate, degunk, straighten,
strengthen, get rid of dandruff, etc)
e. Great smelling
3. Where is my competition in the mind of this person?
a. VO5 and Suave are considered a good value, cheap
b. Treseme- comparable to salons; not too expensive
c. Garnier Fructice- doesn’t wash out completely, makes hair greasy,
doesn’t do what it says
d. Loreal Vive- does what it says and smells great; works quickly;
number one in market
e. Sunsilk (discontinued)- closest to Herbal Essences with creative
names and lots of variety in choices for different types of hair
4. Where would I like to be in the mind of this person?
a. Best shampoos for different hair types; everything does what it says it
will
5. What is the consumer promise, the “big idea”?
a. Whatever our bottle says it will do, it will (dry hair will be
moisturized, long hair will be protected, etc)
6. What is the supporting evidence?
a. Customer reviews say that each different type of shampoo does what
it says it will
 b. Ex. if you have breaks on the ends of your hair, the shampoo for
strengthening will make them go away
7. What is the tone of voice for the advertising?
a. Optimistic and excited

Foote, Cone & Belding Strategy Model

Quadrant 3- habit forming

This is because women generally use the same shampoo if it
works so if you give a free sample and the people are impressed than they will
become a repeat buyer.