Unilever tops in haircare segment

"The expansion in the haircare market was due to the competition from each manufacturer, in order to increase sales amid the economic slowdown," Porranee Ungpakorn, director of marketing development for haircare at Unilever Thai Trading, said yesterday.

Haircare brands have many marketing strategies to compete with rivals, but Unilever focused on offering more value to consumers, and it was very successful," she said.

The segment showing the best performance was hair-treatment products. Unilever Thai started concentrating on this segment early this year, because it showed more potential than the other ones.

"The shampoo market is quite mature, while conditioners have a little bit of room to grow. Sixty-five per cent of Thais already use a conditioner, but only 25 per cent know about hair treatment.

"Most hair-treatment users are in urban areas, so Unilever will expand this product upcountry," Porranee said.

The firm will distribute Dove hair-treatment products more in traditional trade stores. Another strategy is to allow women to test the product. The company has collaborated with women's magazine Marie Claire since April to let readers try the product and talk about their impression in the magazine.

Marie Claire will publish articles on the product for six months until September.

Porranee was quite surprised the total haircare market in the first five months was up 11 per cent year on year.

Broken down by product segment, sales of Unilever brands rose 10 per cent for shampoos, 14 per for conditioners and 17 per cent for treatments, compared with increases of 3 per cent, 7 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, in the same period last year.

Unilever manufactures three haircare brands - Sunsilk, Dove and Clinic Clear - with a combined share of 51 per cent of the Bt11.8-billion market.

Due to fierce competition, the market expand at a double-digit clip by the end of this year, she said.

The company this year increased the quantities for Sunsilk and Clinic Clear brands but kept their prices the same and resized Dove's packaging to expand its customer base.

The market shares for Dove and Clinic Clear last month increased to 10.8 per cent and 13.2 per cent, respectively, from 9.7 per cent and 13 per cent as of the end of last year, while Sunsilk maintained its share at 26 per cent.

US-based Procter & Gamble, another giant consumer-products firm, recently said first-quarter sales of its haircare products did not grow year on year.