Pantene's Decline: Market Research for Hair Nutrition Brand - Essay Sample

Introduction

Pantene, a P&G personal and hair care brand is highly recognized due to its stylish varieties of shampoos that provide hair nutrition. The brand generates high revenues for Proctor & Gamble. By 2013 Pantene had a market share of 20% which represented a decline from 22.5% (Gupta, 2013). The decline in market share worried P&G that it hired Nielsen to conduct customized market research and identify the reasons behind the fall in market share.

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Strengths

Pantene has a fabulous product line in its portfolio with a great distribution channel that makes the brand among the top players in the US market. Pantene has solidified its position in the hair care segment. According to the market research by Nielsen, Pantene's shampoo category had an annual growth rate of 2.8% and a 98% market penetration (Gupta, 2013). With this note, consumers were highly involved in purchasing Pantene shampoo line of products even though they experimented on various brands. Closely linked to the tremendous market performance was the growth in the company's brand equity. Pantene is widely renowned for its strong brand equity. Nielsen found out that associations improved the Pantene's brand equity. As a result, the company is rated very high on 'quality' and 'soft and silky' characteristics of its shampoo products (Gupta, 2013).

Pantene continuously improves its product line with amazing fast-moving commodities. Pantene has a vast variant of shampoo and hair conditioners and still manages to impart customer values. It is not easy to have so many fast-moving variants of a product but Pantene has managed to maintain a competitive edge over Palmolive and Garnier among others. Nielsen research found out that Pantene had a high emotive loyalty among its consumers. According to the market research firm, emotive loyalty is just as important as behavioral loyalty. As such, consumers shopped for Pantene products in the auto-pilot mode based on their awareness about the brand's quality and reliable product line.

Weaknesses

Market saturation in the personal care segment particularly with regards to hair care brands is very high. For instance, in a supermarket shelf with over a hundred products, a customer only chooses one. Therefore, due to fierce competition from Sunsilk, Garnier, and Palmolive, among other brands that saturate the market, Pantene cannibalizes some of its products to maintain marketability and market survival. Similarly, price control becomes a tedious challenge for a brand with a big portfolio of products (Gupta, 2013). Therefore, maintaining an optimum price level makes price control difficult, for Pantene because it is a global brand. Countries have different tax codes that impact the pricing strategy.

Nielsen research found out that consumers who voted highly for Pantene also rated Garnier and Dove high as well (Gupta, 2013). As a result, Pantene faces the threat of using a weak marketing mix because Sunsilk has a stronger strategy. The brand needs to improve its marketing mix and promotions to ensure that its brands remain relevant in the fierce operating environment. Cross-brand affinity indicates competitors are working hard to outdo Pantene's market dominance.

Conclusion

Conclusively, Pantene is the revenue-generating brand of P&G that has a 20% market share with strong brand equity. The shampoo category attracts young people increasing the popularity of the brand. However, the brand has to improve on price control marketing strategies to ensure that it regains the lost market share.

References

Gupta, S. (2013). Nielsen: Market Research for Pantene. Indian Institute of Management

Bangalore. IMD 419, pp. 1-21