If At First You Don’t Succeed…

SymphonyIRI’s Victoria Gustafson says “marginal innovation was just not enough” to turn hair color around—and looks at what made the category grow after years of decline.

by Victoria Gustafson

Whether you always had a knack for changing your appearance or got a rude awakening one morning when you discovered your first gray hair, the majority of women do not accept their natural hair color as a biological inevitability. Getting professional hair color is costly, since a visit to a salon can set you back well in excess of $100. And, if you following recommendations and do it every six weeks, hair coloring quickly becomes a major expense line on your budget and a logical place to target when times are tough.

With the onset of the recession when “do-it-yourself” for many categories has become a new norm, at home hair color was poised to exhibit rapid growth…and yet, the category struggled. In fact, the women’s hair color category has lagged the total hair care category in dollar performance from 2007 to 2009 in food, drug, mass outlets (FDMx), excluding Walmart. Granted, hair color is much more complex than other categories from a consumer perspective. The process of hair coloring is long, messy, uses harsh chemicals and the products are relatively expensive. To complicate matters further, as most of us who have done it at least once know, the consequences of a botched dye job are much more severe than a poorly chosen lip color or nail polish that you can instantly remove. Because of this complexity, manufacturers have innovated consistently in this category. But, it was not until all issues were addressed that the category turned itself around. Marginal innovation was just not enough.

DIY Coloring Advances

Manufacturers first tackled the “pressed for time” issue in 2008 when Clairol introduced Nice N’ Easy Perfect 10, which delivered full hair coloring benefits in just 10 minutes. L’Oreal quickly followed by introducing Excellence to-Go in 2009 with similar claims. However, these products did not deliver category growth or attract new users to home hair color—just saving consumers time was not enough. In 2010, two new breakthrough products came to the market, Garnier HerbaShine and L’Oreal Healthy Look. These products still delivered quick results, but used more advanced technology to deliver results and shine through use of natural ingredients without the use of ammonia. Consumers responded, and the women’s hair coloring category grew in 2010 after years of decline.

When major technological innovations hit the market in 2011, this category started growing at healthy rates both in terms of units and dollars. In 2011, L’Oreal Paris, Clairol and John Frieda brought hair coloring products with foam/mousse consistency to the market. In addition to delivering quick, consistent results, these products took “messy” out of hair color application. Because these hair coloring products have mousse consistency, consumers have full control over application. As a result, hair color stays where it belongs—in your hair instead of running down your face. Consumers enthusiastically responded to new products, and 2011 saw the highest rates of dollar and unit growth in the last five years. Mousse products now account for almost 7% of total FDMx dollar sales.1

Just because a category does not immediately respond to innovation does not mean it is not capable of growing. As the women’s hair color category proves, addressing consumers’ needs—which necessitates new positioning, new packaging, a new definition of multi-benefit products—all comes together to deliver growth to a pretty stale category. When it comes to hair coloring, women are looking for technologically advanced products to eliminate surprises and deliver old fashioned, if boring, consistency.

Author Bio: Victoria Gustafson is the leader of the SymphonyIRI Beauty Vertical. During her 15-year career, she has held various key commercial and research roles across a number of industries, with the last three years focused exclusively on the beauty industry.


1. SymphonyIRI Liquid Data, Total Store View; Dollar Sales, 52 weeks ending Nov 27, 2011 vs. Year Ago.