Magazine: Strong hair and an even stronger category

Abigél Győri
junior brand manager
Henkel

The Hungarian hair care market had been growing dynamically for years and the trend continued in 2017 – our magazine learned from Abigél Győri, Henkel Magyarország Kft.’s junior brand manager. All the main segments of the market – shampoo, conditioner, after-wash products – realised a sales growth. In 2017 the top trend was premiumisation.

Bianka Perge
senior trade marketing manager
L’Oréal

Bianka Perge, senior trade marketing manager of L’Oréal Magyarország told Trade magazin that shoppers are turning to more expensive products and premium brands, but they buy them in smaller portions: this is why value sales were up but volume sales dropped a little.

Noémi Gilányi
junior brand manager
Bedrock

Zsuzsa Tabár, product manager of Target Sales Group informed that drugstores were responsible for more than half of hair care product value sales, while the share of FMCG stores continued to decrease. Noémi Gilányi, Bedrock Kft.’s junior brand manager revealed that wholesale partners and Hungarian-owned chains continue to be the most successful channels of retail for the company. Manufacturer brands dominate in the hair care market, but private label products have managed to increase their share in sales a bit.

Bianka Andavölgyi
junior brand manager
Unilever

According to Bianka Andavölgyi, junior brand manager of Unilever Magyarország, product size has increased a little recently. More and more consumers are buying products larger than 400ml, be it shampoo or conditioner. Henkel’s experience is that large-sized shampoo products sell better in hypermarkets, while small shampoo sales are getting stronger in drugstores. L’Oréal has found that among small-sized products, sales of 100ml products grew the most. Target Sales Group sells 500mm shampoos and conditioners and those consumers who choose these tend to decide based not on size or price, but on factors such as product composition or efficiency.

Ms Győri reckons that the hair care category is promotion-sensitive. Shoppers like and search for new products, so manufacturers keep launching new innovations. This is also true for the men’s hair care category, where the company put new products on the market in the Schwarzkopf Men and Syoss Men product lines in 2017. Ms Perge told us that last year the star component of hair care products was clay. For instance the Elseve Clay product range quickly became popular in the region, e.g. Elseve Extraordinary Clay was the third top-seller Elseve shampoo behind Color Vive and Total Repair 5.

Zsuzsa Tabár
product manager
Target Sales Group

Ms Tabár told that their coconut oil shampoo and conditioner duo has been invincible in the category for years. The coconut oil containing hair oil sells better year after year, especially the summer periods are strong. Ms Gilányi shed light on the fact that in 2017 argan and keratin containing products were the most popular under the Joanna brand. The argan hair care range consists of six products and there are three products in the keratin range – the latter are made with the special Keramimic formula.

One of the latest trends is the dominance of fragrances and natural ingredients. Ms Andavölgyi revealed that the popular new fragrances will appear in the Dove Nourishing Secrets range that was launched last year. She added that dry shampoos are more and more widely used. Ms Perge agreed with this: they see great potential in the dry shampoo market. Ms Gilányi announced their plans to pay more attention to the Hypoallergenic shampoo and Prebiotic shampoo products in the future.

Henkel Beauty Care is launching many new products in 2018. January brought the debut of premium hair care brand Beology in drugstores, while in February Freshlight, a new mid-premium category range appears on the shelves of hypermarkets and drugstores. L’Oréal has reacted to the ‘no poo’ and ‘low poo’ trend (the name refers to the lack of foam), which was born in the world of social media and urges followers to start using chemical-free shampoos instead of traditional products: Elseve Low Shampoos are 3in1 products. Another new trend is ‘hair food’, which means hair care using natural ingredients; this is reflected in the case of the Garnier Fructis brand.Garnier also came out with the Botanic Therapy range.

Unilever is adding two new hair care products to the portfolio: Dove Thickening Ritual Shampoo helps to make thin hair thicker, while Dove Restoring Ritual Shampoo restores damaged hair. Dove Volume Lift shampoo and conditioner and Dove Radiance Revival shampoo and conditioner also satisfy important hair care needs for women.The latest innovations from Bedrock Kft.’s Joanna brand are the products in the Ultra Color System range. These products can be categorised according to hair colour and strengthen the hair. Target Sales Group comes out with two new fragrances in the Inecto product line: hair strengthening bamboo shampoo and conditioner for thin, damaged hair, and shea butter shampoo and conditioner for dry, curly hair. //