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This case study of IIM Bangalore depicts various aspects of the shampoo industry in India.
This case majorly focused on P&G’s Head and Shoulder and HUL’s Clinic Plus and Clear
despite of several other brands in the Indian market. After which a proper comparison and
analysis was done with the help of survey report mentioned in the case study. After studying
the case and analysing the survey results we can say out of those 3 brands which are
competing to capture market share, Clinic Plus is ahead of all. Clinic Plus provides the best
results tapping areas of consumer such as highest Feelings and Judgement aspects. As per
the survey Clinic Plus has beat Head & Shoulder and Clear in terms of giving confident,
beautiful, personality, individual’s personal needs, and conditioner product, Vitamins,
pleasant smell, moisturizer & smoother, soft to touch, etc. The brand position itself to the
consumers using emotional positioning strategy. So every mother and daughter will think
about these Low price and Emotional aspects when they buy the product. Whereas Clear
and Head & Shoulder are positioned as Expensive and Functional Positioned brands.
This case study also talks about the positioning aspects of the three brands along with other
market competitors and how it has differentiated them as a product which will again be
discussed later in the report as well. Advertisements are the way to present the brand before
people. In India, people are very emotional. So every brand tries to capture the market by
targeting the emotional aspect of people. When it comes to Clinic plus, it does very well in
that aspect. Clinic Plus always tries to highlight the global problem; Girl child upbringing.
As we all are promoting the women empowerment campaign in India, people are easily
connected with Clinic Plus because the brand highlights that fact. Whereas Head &
Shoulder and Clear reflect the problem-solving aspect against dandruff with the testimony
of dermatologists. We can relate the dandruff problem when we think about Head &
Shoulders and Clear.
Then in this report we have mentioned some of the repositioning approaches that we would
like to recommend to Head and Shoulders to continue to increase the market share. But
repositioning is always a risky task where we change the way the consumers see a brand.
Head & shoulders has been one of the most preferred brands in India since its inception.
Despite huge competitions from the clear (earlier clinic all clear) & clinic plus, it has moved
up the ladder as one of the market leaders in specific categories. It introduced in the market
itself as an anti-dandruff shampoo & in the scalp health segment. Through innovative
campaigns & promotions, it can also try to have emotion as a dimension.
Today there are numerous shampoo brands who fulfil every need of the consumers as
mentioned above. In personal care segment there are wide range of products where it does
not take much time and effort of a consumer to switch their brand very easily as per their
convenience. This change in the consumer behaviour happens very often due to several
factors such as income, lifestyle etc. Here the brand plays a major role to create a perception
of its own very different from its competitors, so that they can retain their customer base for
a wider duration. In this case Clinic plus is ahead in delivering most of the attributes in what
does people expect usually.
1
INTRODUCTION
In modern world people have understood to take proper care of themselves for which
shampoo and conditioner plays a very vital role in the personal care segment. There has been
a huge growth in shampoo market and leading players are fighting hard to retain their
positions as with the emergence of new brands in the market there is higher growth scope.
The Indian shampoo market is dominated by two of the major companies like P&G and HUL.
Both the companies dominated more than 70% of the market share in the shampoo category.
HUL having market share of around 49% and the rest of the market share is for P&G. P&G ‘s
flagship brand Head & Shoulders dominates the shampoo market in terms of sales. P&G
launched its flagship brand Head & Shoulders in the year 1997. The competitor of the brand
at that time was Clear which was the first anti dandruff shampoo in Indian market. But with
the emergence of head & shoulders Clear lost its position.
Head & Shoulders has been successfully positioning its brand over the years that has helped
them to connect with their customers over the period of time and has retained its position.
Eventually there was a point when head & shoulders growth stopped and the brand manager
thought its positioning and success might fall apart to which he decided to find better ways to
improve the current scenario.
There was a detailed analysis being done of the case being presented to understand the
importance of consumer attitude towards the brand’s positioning and brand equity in a
dynamic market scenario. This case eventually helped us to understand the importance of the
cognitive and emotional aspect of the brand along with its competitor in the market.
2
COGNITIVE ASPECTS FOR EACH BRAND AS PER THE CASE
Cognitive aspect of each brand lies on the belief of the consumer through their direct
experience after using a product by themselves or through information gathered from various
external sources such as advertisements, word of mouth etc. There were 11 brands being
mentioned in the case study as per which we did their cognitive analysis.
Clinic plus- Firstly, starting with clinic plus as it has a cognitive aspect of displaying a
message of, “Strong, long and beautiful hair” by displaying a healthy bond shared
between a mother and daughter. It promises less hair fall catering to consumers
seeking for healthy hair benefits.
Dove- Dove believes in delivering damage free hair to its users by addressing every
issue faced by a daily life user. It always believed in discussing problems being faced
by common women who maybe housewife’s or working, as Dove wanted to connect
to the roots of every human.
Pantene- Pantene believes in delivering stronger and shinier hair inside out which
eventually will help to boost confidence of every individual.
Sunsilk- Sunsilk minimizes hair damage with any hairstyling. People faced issues as
they maintained different hairstyles and faced severe hair damage, hair fall issues and
dry scalp. Sunsilk targeted their consumer by addressing these problems and enabled
them to remain care-free with any hairstyle they wished to carry.
Chick- Chick from the beginning had a cognitive aspect of reducing hair fall problems
at a very affordable price.
Tresemme- Tresemme believed in offering salon like hair at home. People had a
conception that those who wanted perfect hair treatment did visit salon once a while
and it was costly and time consuming too. Tresemme did address this issue by
delivering a shampoo which is believed to help consumer get the salon like feel and
proper treatment of their hair at a very affordable price.
L'Oréal Paris- L'Oréal provides stunning celebrity like hairstyle by addressing 5 signs
of hair damage. People do consider the 5 signs as below:
When the hair gets crunchy and needs some extra nourishment
When the hair feels super gummy and tends to stretch
When the hair tangles constantly
When the hair seems too porous
When the hair breaks easily
L'Oréal smartly addressed these problems of consumers.
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Garnier- Garnier is believed to deliver strong hair with triple nutrition and
strengthening from scalp to tip.
Head & Shoulders- Head & Shoulders has a cognitive aspect of being an anti-
dandruff along with cosmetic benefits which over the years have been clinically tested
and approved by dermatologist.
Clear- Clear is believed to be an expert in dandruff free hair segment where before the
arrival of head & shoulders they were the leading anti-dandruff shampoo in Indian
market.
Nile- Nile promises nourished and problem free hair with the goodness of natural
ingredients working inside-out.
4
BRAND PROPOSITION AND ADVERTISEMENT FOR EACH BRAND
Brand proposition is the concept that highlights the uniqueness of each brand from its
competitors in the market. It is something that acts as a problem-solver to the situation that
arises in life of consumer. Below mentioned is the interpretation of different brand
proposition and their particular advertisements being mentioned in the case.
Clinic plus- Clinic plus beautifully highlighted themselves by stating, “Mazboot Ball,
Mazbot Rishtey” which clearly focuses on creating strong relationship and family
bonding. Mother-daughter relationship as shown in the advertisement strike the
emotional cord of every consumer.
Dove- Dove since the beginning believes in celebrating real beauty for a real woman
to feel beautiful every day. They created their advertisements where it shows non-
celebrity women carrying out their daily routine work without any worry about their
hair damage because of Dove in their life.
Pantene- Pantene positions itself as a product that helps in bringing a woman’s inner
shine. Pantene over the years have come up with advertisements featuring Priyanka
Chopra, Anushka Sharma and youtubers like Lily Singh flauting stronger, shinier hair
inside-out.
Sunsilk- Sunsilk with its tagline, “Life can’t wait” shows that hair has a deep
emotional connection with women. The company very clearly understood that every
girl has different needs and hence it partnered with 7 of the best experts in the world
to create the best Sunsilk ever named Sunsilk Co-creations.
Chick- Chick believes in providing thick, glossy, long hair that helps to prevent hair
fall and they differentiated themselves by stating as an egg white shampoo containing
egg white protein. Their advertisements feature everyday life problems a girl goes
through while managing their hair and has also been endorsed by celebrities like
Sonakshi Sinha.
Tresemme- Tresemme stated themselves unique by delivering salon like hair at home.
Bollywood celebrity like Jaqueline Fernandez being associated with tresemme
encourages women to overcome challenges of confidence by powering their presence.
L'Oréal Paris- It addresses all the problems of consumer by stating 5 problem one
solution. L'Oréal got celebrity of all ages to promote their product. The strategy that
they use here is to use local celebrities to common man relate to rather than having
just one celebrity to promote globally. Example: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is seen
advertising their product in India whereas Penelope Cruz in United Kindom.
Garnier- Garnier addresses complete hair care with triple nutrition and delivering
strong hair.
5
Head & Shoulders- The advertisements of head & shoulders are generally endorsed
by Bollywood celebrities which creates an aspirational appeal. Some of its
advertisements are about dermatologist in their lab as they share about their chemicals
being used in their product to give best possible result to the consumers.
Clear- In clear, the brand uses personalities like Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma.
The brand claims nothing to hide with a playful interaction between them.
Nyle- Nyle addresses itself as an herbal shampoo with no added chemicals in their
advertisements.
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AFFECTIVE ASPECTS OF EACH BRAND
Through the survey, we came across how does the consumer feels or what are their emotions
about the bran (i.e. Head & shoulders, Clear & Clinic Plus).
Head & shoulders shampoo which is produced by the parent company P&G in 1961. Head &
shoulders is known as the number one brand of shampoo. It targeted both men and women in
Indian Market and was influenced by an expert that is a dermatologist and also the
Bollywood actors. From the survey, we came to know about the feelings & judgments of
consumers. The top 3 parameters are given below in which consumer think about Head &
shoulders
48% of consumer think that Head & shoulders provides superior anti-dandruff
performance
51% of consumer think that Head & shoulders understands their hair needs
53% of consumer believes that Head & shoulders strengthen the hair also
Clear shampoo is produced by the parent company HUL. They too have targeted both men
and women and have employed Bollywood actor as brand ambassadors to set up the imagery
of the brand as seductive, stylish, and sophisticated. Top 3 parameters are given below in
which consumer feels about Clear Shampoo
40% of consumer can trust this brand
40% of consumer feels that Clear understands their hair needs
43% of consumer feels that it provides superior anti-dandruff performance
Clinic Plus is also produced by the same parent company HUL and it is one of the oldest
brands in India. But here they targeted only women of all ages and employed popular TV
actors to target their audience emotionally by showing a mother-daughter bond. Through the
survey, we came to know about how the consumer feels about Clinic Plus
50% of consumer feels that Clinic Plus contains natural ingredients
50% of consumers say that Clinic Plus improves hair health
55% of consumer agrees that Clinic Plus strengthen hair
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Consumer Attitudes Towards
Clinic Plus Clear Head & Shoulders
Strengthens hair
Moisturizes hair
Provides vitamins
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INTERPRETATION OF AFFECTIVE ASPECTS TAKING INTO
CONSIDERATION THE BRAND PROPOSITION AND AD FOR EACH
BRAND.
Brand reposition is the foundation concept that highlights the unique identifying features of a
brand.
In Head & Shoulders, they positioned the brand as anti-dandruff shampoo along with
cosmetic quality. They made the consumer believe that it truly gives scalp health and also
anti-dandruff benefit by showing an ad where experts i.e. dermatologist were giving their
testimony.
In clear, they positioned the brand as anti-dandruff shampoo only. Here they made the
consumer believe that the product gives scalp health and anti-dandruff benefits same as Head
& Shoulders. But the only difference was that they showed the brand as seductive, stylish,
and sophisticated by employing the Bollywood actors and giving a catchy tagline 'Nothing to
Hide'.
Lastly, Clinic Plus was positioned as hair health shampoo & cosmetic benefits by promising
like Mazboot baal, Mazboot rishte and Baalon ka girna marna hai. It portrayed the brand
through dramatic ads showing the mother & daughter relationship where a mother nurtures
her child. And they also used occasion marketing around mother's day to bring out it's
emotional positioning.
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THEORY OF REASONED ACTION (TORA) MODEL
This model developed by Fishbein and Ajzen defines the links between beliefs, attitudes,
norms, intentions, and behaviours of individuals. According to this model, a person’s
behaviour is determined by its behavioural intention to perform it. This intention is itself
determined by the person’s attitudes and his subjective norms towards the behaviour.
This theory can be summarized by the following equation:
Behavioural Intention = Attitude + Subjective norms
Here,
Independent variable: Dependent variable:
o Behaviour Attitude towards the behaviour
o Behavioural intentions Subjective Norms and Normative beliefs
The model attempts to study the impact of instances of behaviour, and subjective norms, on
the tri-components that make up attitudes. The model incorporates these two factors that act
as moderators and finally have an effect on human attitudes. The consumers’ attitude towards
behaviour includes the beliefs and attitudes about specific acts of behaviour. Factors
underlying attitude are beliefs that the behaviour leads to certain outcomes and evaluation of
the outcome.
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Now coming to the 3 brands in the case study
Head and shoulders
People having dandruffs in their hair start looking for a shampoo and then they get to
know that head and shoulders not only is an anti-dandruff but also helps in cosmetic
benefits, this triggers the buyer’s conformity among the choice options.
Since it’s a premium brand people who do not want to compromise with the quality of
the shampoo opt for it. Also the fact that it is perceived as the leading anti
dandruff shampoo among the 3 other brands the chances of opting for head and
shoulders is high.
Clinic plus
Clinic plus is positioned for health benefits and family values, also being one of the
oldest brands, it has passed on to generation. If a person is using clinic plus shampoo,
then the chances are it is being used by his/her mother or grandmother as well.
When a person suffers from hair problems he/she will seek advice from parents and
that’s what has worked for clinic plus so well.
From this we can say clinic plus might be an immediate purchase for a buyer while
purchasing head and shoulders might require a buyer to do a bit of research among the
options available.
Clear
With the stylish and sophisticated imagery of the brand, many youths are attracted to
it. The Bollywood celebrities being the brand ambassadors also influences the buyers.
When a buyer wants to try a new product he/she will look up to an influencer and
that’s when these celebrities’ preferences come into play.
Limitations of TORA model-
There is a possibility that a family used to purchase clinic plus but then a member from the
family had dandruff and now the whole family switched to head and shoulders. Thus,
the TORA model can predict the behavior up to some extent but it’s impossible to predict the
human behavior completely.
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THE ENGEL KOLLAT BLACKWELL MODEL
EBK model is one of the structural models of consumer behaviour. It is a holistic model, with
a full description to the decision making problem,
reflecting consumer behaviour process during choosing product or service.
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BRAND EQUITY
Brand equity is the added value endowed on products and services. It may reflect consumers
thinking, feeling and acting with respect to the brand as well as in the prices, market shares
and profitability the brand commands. In fact, brand equity is one of the factors which can
increase the financial value of a brand to the brand owner.
Shampoo sachets are available for Rs. 1.5 benefiting people in 2 ways. Shampoo bottles of
80ml is available for Rs. 60 whereas its competitor Clear is priced at Rs. 79 for the same
80ml
shampoo bottle and benefiting in only one way.
1. Brand Identity – This indicates in which way the brand stands different in comparison to
other brands. Through the case study we have seen how one of the product, Head and
Shoulders stands out in comparison to other brand products like Clear and Clinic Plus where
the products are serving almost same benefiting properties.
2. Brand Meaning – This indicates what does the brand means in terms of performance and
imagery. Performance means how well a brand meets customers’ needs. The brand typically
employed two legs of communication. The first leg focused on anti-dandruff superiority. And
the second leg highlighted the cosmetic quality of the brand. This is the first step for P&G to
build the brand equity and it gives a strong impression to their customers. Availability of the
shampoo product in different sizes. Available of small sachets especially for the rural areas.
Shampoo sachets are available for Rs. 1.5 benefiting people in 2 ways. Shampoo bottles of
80ml is available for Rs. 60 whereas its competitor Clear is priced at Rs. 79 for the same
80ml shampoo bottle and benefiting in only one way.
3. Brand Response – This indicates how customers react and judge the brand continuously.
From the case study, we can extract from the percentage data given how customers have
reacted and we can compare the rate of percentage in between three brands. Among all the
judgements like brand makes me feel confident, brand makes me feel beautiful, brand
understands me and many more, we have observed that Head and Shoulders stands at a
higher rate in comparison to Clinic Plus and Clear.
4. Brand Relationship – This indicates when customers feel a deep, psychological bond with
the brand. Head & Shoulders uses a freshness essence in its packaging which have created a
positive impression among customers. P&G have also employed Bollywood actors as brand
ambassadors for its aspirational appeal and further strengthening its cosmetic appeal.
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14
APPROACHES RECOMMENDED TOWARD REPOSITIONING HEAD
& SHOULDERS
Amalgamating the functional and emotional aspect – We would recommend Head &
Shoulder to move towards the emotional positioning along with the functional
positioning. Since Head & Shoulder and Clear follow functional positioning whereas
Clinic Plus follows emotional positioning we can see that Clinic Plus has done well on all
the parameters of perception about product performance. So, for repositioning this time
we can touch upon emotional aspect, as especially in India emotional positioning has
more impact on consumers and it gives brand recall very easily and develops more brand
loyalty.
Changing the perception via ads and campaigns – Head & Shoulder through the ads has
always claimed to have a dandruff free scalp and control hair fall. But this time we can
changed the pattern of campaigns and as mentioned earlier that we can add certain
emotional content to attract more customers. Like Dove’s real beauty campaigns where
they triggered the mindset of women helping them to believes that their beauty lies inner
core.
Data collections and survey related to various attribution – Proper research and survey on
market functions is essentially required to gain knowledge about customer preference.
Further we can survey on the reasons of the problems and how the shampoo is helping in
eliminating them. Also we can think upon extra aspects like smooth and frizz free hair
and can gain whether consumer like fragrance in the shampoo or it is not essential.
Budgetary analysis – Before getting into any repositioning activity, we should closely
look upon analysis of sales and revenue generated earlier and also estimate the cost
needed to spend on the new product. As proper budgetary analysis is required to gain
quick profits.
15
REPOSITIONING DIMENSIONS USED FOR HEAD AND SHOULDERS
Emphasise on the emotional aspect of the campaign- The campaigns and ads of the brand
portrays that they are stylish and very sophisticated. It targets only the upper segment
people of the society. The ads of the brands fail to connect to lower segment of the society.
Whereas, clinic plus emphasised on the passing down of the legacy of the hair care from
mothers to daughters, which emphasis on the emotional bond .my suggestion would be the
brand should come up with such ads which can connect to the customers on the emotional
basis.
Introduce new range with paraben free, SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) free- Head and
shoulders is known for its anti-dandruff properties which includes a lot of harmful
chemical. The brand should come up with new formula which will cure the issue but with
less paraben and other harmful chemical. It has been found from the study that the
continuous usage of these chemical affect the health of the hair.
Distribution channel- As it was mentioned in the case study that, the brand was more
focused on the modern trade but they failed to understand the needs of the rural market.
The brand should come up with more SKU’s to cater the needs of every segment of the
society and in the long run it will also improve their revenue generation from the rural
area. This will also create brand image in that section of the market. From a survey it was
found that, while travelling, people prefer sachets over big bottles to avoid spillage and
heavy weight, so it should introduce some more SKU’s.
Focus more on the functional benefit- Head and shoulder is the best shampoo in the anti-
dandruff category. It should focus more on the other functional benefit such as smooth
hair, provide nourishment, reduction in hair fall etc. as a consumer of the shampoo, I only
reach out to head and shoulder’s only when I have dandruff issue and not for any other
concern. So it should come with such variants which caters all the needs of hair care.
Come up with new range with different fragrances- The range of the shampoo of Head and
shoulder is not very extensive. if a consumer doesn’t like one variant then he should have
the option to choose some other variant. The brand should come up with new fragrances as
well, such as lavender, raspberry, Jasmin which are very soothing in nature.
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CONCLUSION
India is known as one of the biggest markets in the world, having a 1.4 billion population or it
can be considered as customers. Which is why many brands are easily sustaining in this
market. Talking about the shampoo brands, many existing brands are easily delivering all
those attributes to the consumer. Some brands have some special or unique features and for
which the brand stands out of the crowd. In this case, we came across that Clinic Plus is far
ahead of all other brands and somehow successfully capable of delivering most of its
attributes which consumers are looking for.
Whereas Head and Shoulders is trying to capture the market but somehow due to the high
price and capable of delivering only a few attributes. Head & Shoulders has positioned itself
as a premium brand having very concerned attributes. If we see it as a dual positioning
communication strategy, the brand is doing well. But if seen from a price point of view then
the price is good because the brand is delivering only one attribute, when the brand is known
for only one thing then it becomes a little bit expensive. If we see from the positioning of
price within customers, then also it is perfect. Because the brand has positioned itself as the
only brand who is successfully delivering that anti-dandruff feature up to the mark. Currently,
as we know air pollution and water pollution are big concerns for all and due to this hair fall
is a genuine reason for all. The brand’s role in protecting the hair from free-falling and
destroying. So the company is fully efficient to support the emotions of people and in near
future there are chances to see changes in marketing strategies on a overall basis.
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REFERENCE
https://store.hbr.org/product/behavioral-drivers-of-brand-equity-head-shoulders-in-
india/IMB645
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srUSWx2LMe4
https://nextwhatbusiness.com/best-shampoo-brands-in-india/
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