Men’s shower gel trends move in the opposite direction to women’s

Adrienn Vida, Unilever’s junior customer marketing manager: – The value of the domestic shower gel market was just below HUF 14 billion last year, a little bit above the 2009 result. However, volume sales were slightly below the 2009 level.

Unilever introduced Dove women’s innovations and Dove Men+Care last year. In the men’s segment Henkel came out with the Right Guard product family and Nivea concentrated on this segment with its Silver portfolio. According to Szilvia Albert, Sarantis Hungary Kft.’s junior brand manager on the men’s shower gel market 2in1 is still a strong trend, while women do not typically prefer shower gel and shampoo in one product. Viktória Etter, Coty Hungary Kft.’s PR coordinator added that men’s body care segment expanded, but prices decreased somewhat because of the intensive promotion activity of new entries to the market and because of private labels. On the contrary, on the women’s shower gel market prices were up 3 percent, while sales slightly declined in terms of both value and volume.

The reason behind this trend was economic recession – the same reason made the soap category stronger, to the detriment of shower gels. Sarantis Hungary Kft.’s experience is that consumers have become even more price sensitive because of the crisis: many buy a large number of products if there is price reduction and do not buy until the next promotion.

The promotion leaflets of chains have become more influential, many people use them to buy targetedly. Coty thinks along the lines of ‘hygiene families’ (shower gels, deodorants, aftershaves, etc.), a good example of which is adidas cosmetics: products are grouped according to fragrance and efficiency. Beiersdorf‘s examinations revealed that nearly half of stagnating sales were realised in the hypermarket channel, where sales fell a bit last year.

Drugstores realised one quarter of sales and they even managed to improve their market position. Shoppers still like 250ml shower gels the most and women’s segment is stronger. Melinda Jager, Beiersdorf’s trade marketing manager told Trade magazin that winter and summer are the high seasons for shower gels. The company’s Palmolive brand appeared with Aromatherapy and Thermal Spa shower gels on the market, adding something extra to the classic Palmolive Naturals products.

Fourth Kft. is the exclusive distributor of Denim, Vidal and Tesori d’Oriente brands in Hungary. They are present in practically all retail channels and their experience is that medium- and low-priced products sold significantly better. In January Unilever introduced Dove Go Fresh Rebalance skin nourishing and Dove Visible Care Toning cream shower gels; for men they put Dove Men+Care Aqua Impact on the shelves. Under the Axe brand they launched Reload and Excite. Nivea comes out with three new shower gels in 2011, including men’s Muscle Relax and Vitality Fresh products.

Henkel’s Fa brand will hit the shops with its special Fa NutriSkin product family, which nourishes the body and protects the skin; it will be available in three fragrances. Colgate-Palmolive’s 7 types of shower gel fit different moods and occasions with their trendy colours and agents. Sarantis keeps strengthening its STR8 brand, under which the Freedom version will include a shower gel too. Performance shower gels will have a new, more youthful design and a new 2in1 product called Deep Wave will also appear in shops. The B.U. brand’s most popular fragrances will come out in 250ml shower gel versions too.