Although recent results from the Cincinnati-based giant illustrate it is bearing up well under the strain of the current retail environment, the company cannot afford to be complacent.
One of the weaker segments of the P&G’s extensive portfolio was professional hair care which suffered low single digit sales declines in the first quarter results. The hair care segment in general reported mid single digit growth buoyed up by strong results in developing regions.
In an attempt to drive growth in the sector and remain attractive to the penny pinching consumer, P&G is positioning its Pantene brand as an affordable alternative to leading salon brands.
New spokesperson
It has recruited a new brand spokesperson TV personality Stacy London and has announced new study results that ‘prove that no salon brand can beat the overall performance of Pantene products’.
According to the company, blind tests compared the performance of Pantene shampoo and conditioning systems to consumer’s usual brands, with positive results.
Over 3000 salon brand users around the country were asked to use unlabelled bottles of the Pantene shampoo and conditioning products specific to their hair needs for two weeks.
Approximately 70 percent of the women tested agreed that their salon brand didn’t beat the Pantene products, according to P&G.
The best performers were the Pantene Pro-V Smooth products, with 77 percent of respondents saying they preferred the brand for giving them smooth hair and 70 percent stating they saw benefits within the first week.
Value for money message
The company recently applied a similar strategy to its Gillette shaving products category, emphasising the products value for money in increasingly challenging times.
Gillette employed NASCAR star Carl Edwards to front adverts that deliver the message that men only need spend $1 a week on Gillette Fusion blades.
Drawn from data on average national retail price and consumer consumption of refill cartridges, this figure, Gillette tells us, is less than most men spend on a cup of coffee every morning.
With shots of the Gillette Fusion razor and the sound of revving engines in the background, the ad asks “in the world of high performance, what machine can you run for as low as $1 a week?”