Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Eashan Bhattacharyya
675556613
3/27/2017
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pantene in early 2000, one the top premium brand in shampoo category with maximum market
share were termed high in terms of customer loyalty and were prominent leaders of shampoo
industry. But in 2003, Pantenes market share experienced a small decline taking Pantene from
22.5% to 20%, which worried the parent brand P&G. On the other hand, Garnier increased their
In order to analyze the decline factors, P&G decided to hire a marketing research firm to evaluate
the marketing mix of Pantene in comparison to competitors. Thus, Procter and Gamble chose
and contracted with Nielsen Marketing research firm. P&G set a long-term growth target of five
share points. Nielsen is a global market research company and provided solutions to clients
Analyzing the case, we could identify brand equity as the most important aspect. From figures 3
and 4, we could derive key drivers were the awareness and the associations in the Shampoo
Brand Equity. We could understand the associations includes following four categories:
health/shiny, premium quality, and family. Out of these, health/shiny was the most important
Upon analyzing we could find that the market share of Pantene shampoo products is facing a
decline caused of the heavy promotions by competitors, lack of distribution intensity. Packaging
is also an issue where other competitors performed better. Because of which they were not able
to capture the younger customers. The Delta moments were also lesser in number when
compared to other competitors. Pantene could look into these issues and take some actions
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Pantene has accomplished high rates of customers loyalty and perceived as the number one high
quality product in the shampoo industry for long, Pantene reputation is build based on the known
parent brand P&G which is highly recognized in the domestic and global market. But within a year
of Garniers launch in 2003 in United States, it gained 5.1% of the market share. During the same
period of Pantene who were the market leaders saw their market share declined from 22.5% to
20%. This was a drastic fall which made Procter and Gamble (P&G) concerned. To better
understand the decline factors, P&G decided to hire a marketing research firm to evaluate,
Procter and Gamble chose and contracted with Nielsen Marketing research firm which is the
leader in the market research ranked in the top five research firms with 16% market share and
$31 billion global market research industry in 2010. Nielson provided solutions to clients
Nielsen decided to apply one of its comprehensive solutions Winning Brands, which scrutinized
the brand from various perspective such as category issues, brand challenges comprising of
equity, loyalty and personality, marketing mix such as price, promotion, distribution; and
consumer behavior. They started by analyzing the shampoo category and found 98% of market
penetration. It was found that consumers were highly involved with shampoos and purchased
1) From figure 6, we found that Pantene that the index of Garnier and Pantene is very close
in the following aspects: range of hair care products; cleans gently for colored hair; Makes
you feel pampered. For the Has attractive packaging and the Uses natural ingredients,
2) From figure 7, we understood the brand equity of the Pantene is far greater than the
other brands, that is to say Pantene has the strong competitiveness. Pantene is doing best
in this sector.
3) There are various causes for decline in market share of Pantene. Pantenes current image
is that of high quality that leaves hair soft and silky which are qualities both rated high
on the level of importance to the consumer. The brand personality is described as elegant
and professional. From Table 1 and 2, Pantene has better brand equity in the target age
group of above 21. Garnier on the other hand concentrated on modern, trendsetting
youth which gave better brand equity in the age group of 18-20 when compared to other
age groups. Pantene also lacked in the package attractiveness as well. Garnier in this
sector stood out, they had flashy design and better packaging when compared to that of
Pantene and others. Only three years can have many customers, this age group has an
enormous potential market of shampoo. Garnier saw this analysis and thus targeted the
4) If we check out the Pantenes Omega and Delta moments we could see high Omega
moments (Table 5) and low Delta moments which makes us to think Pantene did good job
at keeping the customers that already exists but has a definitely a lot of scope of
improvement in getting to the notice of new customers. High prices of Pantene when
compared to its other competitor is also a cause of its loss in market share.
5) We found from figure 10 that Garniers brand personality and symbol represents fun,
young, feminine, fashionable, attractive, modern, and trendsetter. But the Pantene just
represents the elegant and confident. The brand personality is not as strong as Garnier.
6) A crucial factor which comes is packaging which affects brand marketing. According to the
Figure 12, Garniers packaging is more modern than the others; the shape of bottle is also
very attractive. But Pantenes packaging is more common, adopting the opaque bottle.
7) From figure 5 we found that Pantenes price is way above VO5 and Palmolive. We noticed
we noticed that the price of Pantenes product is higher than the price customers are
willing to pay.
8) From figure 16, we could analyze Palmolive and VO5 are promotion driven products,
because they have already become the cheaper shampoo, the price will attract low-
income people. Whereas Pantene and Garnier are low on promotion in comparison to
These were the analysis which requires to be looked upon and help strategize next step.
PROBLEM DEFINITION
The market share of Pantene shampoo products is facing a decline. Pantene, leader of shampoo
industry saw their shares decline by 2.5% which is alarming to the parent brand, P&G. Brands like
Garnier, VO5, Palmolive are competing with them due to which they need to take steps to gain
1) Heavy promotion by competitors: Pantene have not marketed their product aggressively
due to which they are facing trouble connecting with younger generation.
2) Packaging: The problem area of Pantene is also about its opaque bottle which is lackluster
when compared to Garnier. They need to address this issue and come up with better
3) They have not focused on family market segment and brands like Palmolive has focused
4) Trouble connecting with youth: Pantene focused on the age group above 21. Thus, the
category below 21 who comprises of Delta customers have preferred brands other than
Pantene. The Garnier mainly concentrated in the 18-30 age group, especially the age of
18 to 20. Only three years can have a large number of customers, this age group is a huge
potential market of shampoo. Garnier caught the young customers and constantly
5) They have performed poorly in Delta moments when compared to other brands.
6) Pricing has also been a major factor. Customers have felt that the price of Pantenes
product is higher than the other brands. They are not willing to pay high amount for their
daily usage.
Pantene though still are one of the top brands and still has maximum Omega customers but they
ALTERNATIVE ACTIONS
There are various actions that might help Pantene capture the market and excel:
1) One way to increase the market share is to increase the brand awareness with more
rigorous marketing. There are various channels such as television, internet and radio.
certainly increase the brand awareness. Pantene is still the most powerful brand in the
shampoo industry and preferred by most consumers. Intensive marketing would increase
their brand value and might help them capture the lost share of market.
2) Another alternative is to simply stick with what they have done and continue to market
as they have been already doing. The decline in the market might be short time issue due
to other problems in the market rather than introduction of Garnier. They still owned a
good 20% of the shampoos market share. The advantages of this alternative are that
there are no new costs associated with it. However, the downside to this alternative is
the potential to keep losing market share, and potentially, their position as leader of the
shampoo industry.
3) Pantene can also increase their market share by changing the packaging of the product.
Loyalty can hardly be associated with shampoo with high number of delta moments.
Attraction has important aspect as new customers might try the product out of impulse
and Pantene has the best chance, out of any brand, to turn that customer into an auto-
pilot consumer. They could change the design of the product to attract the young
customers.
4) One of the way to gain market share and prove authority is acquisition of a brand. Here
we analyzed with Garnier but there are other companies competing as well. According to
the analysis and study of Nielsen, VO5 had a high market share but with a low brand
equity. VO5 can be bought, and enhancing the brand equity of VO5 can be looked upon.
This acquisition can make up the shortcomings of Pantene, but also keep the original
brand personality of Pantene, prevent the original customers losing. The new brand
should aim at the low price market, also can put on the for whole family label, to capture
5) The last but not the least is about creating a new brand or sub brand. Creating a new
independent brand of P&G or sub brand of Pantene is an alternative that the marketers
can look. This new product can be designed and manufactured with better packaging. This
new product will not only focus on the healthy and shiny, but also target the age- group
from 18-21. This new brand is aiming at competing with Garnier, gain the market share.
If its a P&Gs independent brand, although not attached Pantene's brand effect, but it
has the bigger development space. They can also can take advantage of the new brand
switch trigger to open the market. This new brand can aim to disturb the Garniers
development. The advantage of this method would be that it would attract the young
customers but at the same time they have to invest time and resource on research.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
Based on the data provided by the case and the analyzing the alternatives, the best marketing
strategies for Pantene to increase market share would be to create a sub brand of Pantene or
independent brand of P&G. The new product must have the following features:
1) New packaging and design: The new bottle should be designed to attract the customers
in the age group of 18-20. It would separate the whole Pantene product line from other
shampoos. Curved design could be adopted which would fit into their current elegant
personality trait. They can add young, modern, vibrant colors to the bottle which will be
attractive to boys and girls. They can also provide free bonus bottle of conditioner which
2) Pricing strategy: According to the price appropriateness chart, Pantenes price is above
the amount the average person is willing to pay for shampoo. Though Pantene is premium
brand with high prices, the new brand must ensure a competitive price with that of
Garnier and other brands. People have tendency to buy high quality product with low
price and a pricing strategy should be made to compete with Garnier. According to figure
5, attractive pack is one of the associations as drivers of equity in the Shampoo category.
3) Youth driven advertisement: It is important that youth could connect to the brand and
the advertisement should highlight the fashion, charm and personality of elements linked
to young people. Polls and opinions should be done to keep fresh and exciting taglines,
4) Focus on Delta customers: Typical Delta consumers have colored, frizzy, thick, and
mediocre to poor condition hair, so when marketing to Delta consumers, Pantene should
stress that their products will make hair smoother and less frizzy, repair damaged or
breaking hair, will keep colored hair vibrant, and will keep hair strong and healthy. By
This implies that Pantene though has lost only 2.5% of the market share, it still is one of the most
popular shampoo brand in the market. So, they need to focus on the delta consumers and try to
gain their attention. They can definitely look for young celebrity endorsements and look to attract
1) Customer segmentation: Target the age group 18-20. Advertise for the youth.
2) Market targeting: More focus on youth based advertisement and celebrity advertisement
3) Product positioning: Focus on new elegant design and packaging which distinguishes it
from rest of the brands in the market and leaves impact on the consumers. They need to