Personal care

Discount Store News, Oct 20, 1997

Consumers said they are fairly sure they'll find what they want in personal care appliances when shopping in the discount store of their choice, with a confidence level of eight on a nine-point scale where nine equals total confidence.

Of the consumers surveyed, 65% said they had a brand preference when buying personal care appliances, up from just 60% in the 1996 survey. Despite this, brand loyalty in this category was somewhat low; 64% of consumers said they would buy another brand or skip buying the product if they didn't find the brand they wanted.

In this year's survey, 58% of consumers said they might buy a private label in personal care appliances, nearly even with last year's results.

Baby Boomers are the least brand loyal when it comes to buying personal care appliances, with nearly 74% saying they would switch brands if they didn't find the brand they wanted, compared with 57% of Empty Nesters and 64% of Baby Busters.

Boomers were also the most likely to buy a store brand or private label product at 69% compared with 57% of Empty Nesters and 50% of Busters.

For the sixth year in a row, Conair remained the best-known name brand in the personal care appliance category.

Black & Decker and Revlon appeared in the retailer survey for personal care appliances for the first time this year. Revlon, which hasn't appeared on the retailers' list of preferred brands during the past five surveys, took the No. 5 position with 20% of respondents saying it was a top brand.

General Electric, a brand name that has appeared on retailers' top brands list for the past five years, dropped off this year's list.

Three brands appeared on this year's list of consumers' top brands that did not appear last year--Sunbeam, Panasonic and Black & Decker. General Electric, Gillette, Water-Pik and Schick, which appeared in the list of consumers' top brand in the 1996 survey, lost favor and failed to make this year's list.

Discounters

Brand                   1997      1996

Conair                  53%       40%
Remington               30        21
Norelco                 26        30
Vidal Sassoon           22        20
Revlon                  21        --
Windmere                11         8
Braun                   11         9
Black & Decker           8        --
Jerri Redding            7         4
Sunbeam                  6         3
Discount Store Shoppers

Brand                   1997      1996

Conair                  36%       35%
Vidal Sassoon           14        15
Remington                9        10
Norelco                  8        12
Sunbeam                  8        --
Braun                    8         7
Clairol                  5         4
Panasonic                3        --
Black & Decker           3        --
Gillette                 2         4