GIFT UNIVERSITY GUJRANWALA

ASAD AMIN
ID #11108124
SUPER SHAMPOO PRODUCTS AND THE INDIAN MASS MARKET
Issues
Several issues were identified regarding launch of a new shampoo in the market because of
diversity in cultures, consumer psyche and strong competitors existence. Some of them are
discussed below.
Understanding the diversity of cultures and the consumer psyche
How do the non-users perceive the category of shampoos
Strong rivalry exists in the market that already holds the huge market size.
Analysis
India contained a diverse array of lifestyles and cultures, while marketers were upbeat about the
consumption of categories and there were unique challenges to marketers. These unique
challenges included the management of marketing mix elements, understanding the diversity of
cultures, development of appropriate products and more specifically understanding the consumer
psyche in a changing environment.
In the Indian rural market, it was found that most people do not engage in washing their hair with
any shampoo See (Exhibit 1) shown that only 24% of respondents wash their hairs with
shampoos. In the rural areas of India most of people used to wash their hairs with soap or
Shikakai. Shikakai is a traditional Indian hair care product popular as a natural alternative to
other detergents and shampoos. It is considered by some a better approach to hair care than the
chemicals in many shampoos for both environmental and personal health reasons. There is
sufficient evidence to conclude that non-users of shampoo believe that the chemicals in shampoo
are not good for the hair and will damage it.
The cognitive and affective beliefs of three brands of shampoos based on their advertisements
are listed as follows.

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Clinic plus: clinic plus helps you keep your familys hair healthy and strong and lets them be
uninhibited to do what they want.
Head & shoulder: Head & shoulder is an expert recommended brand for dandruff-free healthy
hair.
CHIK: CHIK keeps your hair soft, nourished and beautiful all the time so you do not have to
worry about tangles and can look and feel your confident best.
Options
The biggest hair problem in India was hair fall. However, the fastest growing segment at 12 to
150 percent growth year-on-year was the anti dandruff segment, which was around 15 to 20
percent of the market. Although as we discussed above that non-users of shampoo believe that
the chemicals in shampoo are not good for the hair and will damage it. So we will position our
product as try a purely herbal shampoo for dandruff free hairs and for the cure of hair fall.
Before launching super shampoo we have an idea about where we want to see our product to be.
That means what we want to be in the eye of customer, what customer should perceive about our
product. Target market should be rural Indian Market.
Evaluation
If we positioned our product that includes herbal and hair fall attributes then we can serve the
consumers that are currently using Shikakai. Its almost 67% of the total respondents that is
actually a huge number of potential buyers and also Its a great opportunity to serve rural Indian
market because it is consisted of 720 to 790 million consumers with around 160 million
households. The market grew 25% in 2008 and was projected to be around US$425 million in
2010-11. We launched our shampoo as a quality product made by natural ingredients that cannot
let side effects for hairs. (See Exhibit 2). Shown a perceptual map on two attributes dandrufffree and herbal in which defined that the most of the competitors are covering the segment of just
dandruff and healthy hair. No one positioned their product on the basis of herbal or purity. So we
have an opportunity to attract consumers on the basis of purity factor.

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Recommendations
Need to change perception of potential consumers about shampoo. Initially they need to arrange
KIOSK activity in villages and if possible then distribute free samples to make new customers.
Make advertisement in which the attributes and inferred benefit should be clearly defined. Drama
behind this ad should be shows quality of the shampoo.

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Exhibit 1

Respondents that used Shampoo and Shikakai were 24% and 67% respectively
How often do respondents wash their hairs
Once in 2 Weeks

7%

Once a week

48%

Twice a week

43%

Thrice a week

3%

Daily

0%

Exhibit 2

Perceptual Map
Herbal

Super Shampoo

Opportunity

CHIK

Dandruff
Dandruff

Clinic Plus

Head & Shoulder

Anti-

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Non herbal