No more gray days for vibrant hair coloring: young consumers make it a hot fashion accessory

Discount Store News, Feb 19, 1996 by Dawn Wilensky

NATIONWIDE DSN REPORT -- Consumers are just "dyeing" to do it--color their hair that is--as the graying of America and experimentation by younger consumers have made the $944 million hair color market one of the fastest growing categories in hair care.

The category grew nearly 20% over the past year, according to Chicago-based A.C. Nielsen. The gain was particularly significant at mass merchandisers which recorded $305 million in sales, a 24% increase for the year ended Sept. 9, 1995. Mass market retailers outpaced both drugstores and supermarkets, which were up 15.2% and 14.4%, respectively.

"Much of the growth in the category has come from younger consumers who don't necessarily want total coverage, but view the category as one that enhances their look and adds fashion," said Mona Klein, education manager at Clairol.

The trendy hair color market has been flooded by new introductions over the past several years by industry leaders Clairol and L'Oreal (which virtually split the sales of the market), and it is predicted to outpace the shampoo category by the year 2000. Currently, 46 million women color their hair and of them, 30 million do so at home, according to L'Oreal.

With these numbers expected to continue a rapid ascent, real opportunities exist for retailers that aggressively pursue the category by allocating more space, reassessing the mix of brands and shades and promoting the category like color cosmetics rather than as toiletries.

Currently, discounters have merchandised hair color brands simply in-line, without capitalizing on the synergies that exist between other cosmetics and health and beauty products that would undoubtedly create add-on sales opportunities.

An effective strategy that might entice a new or existing consumer to try the products would be an endcap of several popular hair color shades combined with complementary products such as lipstick eye shadow, mascara and nail polish.

"Since women begin their beauty regimen with the color of their hair, retailers that aggressively pursue the growth of hair color will also benefit from sales of related categories, such as cosmetics, skin care and fragrance, as well as other hair care products," said Dave Waldock, senior vice president of sales for L'Oreal Hair Care.

Hair color has become a strong traffic builder and is no longer viewed as only a means of covering up those first grey hairs. Instead it has become an accepted method of brightening dull-looking hair and updating or fine-tuning an image. It's also a fashion accessory, especially among youn-ger consumers.

Of particular interest to younger or new users are temporary or semi-permanent products that last anywhere from seven days to six weeks and allow users the flexibility of testing different colors without making a real commitment.

Clairol has made significant strides in the Level 2, or semi-permanent category, with brands like Natural Instincts and Glints, while L'Oreal has enjoyed enormous success with its Casting tone-on-tone colorant, which debuted in 1993, and Exuberance sevenday color foam, which hit shelves last year.

Revlon, too, has slowly been making a name for itself in this market with Shadings Harmonizing Hair Colorant, a low-level peroxide product with no ammonia that debuted in 1994.

These industry leaders have also made exciting introductions in the permanent hair color market, with Clairol restaging Ultress Gel Colorant in June 1995 by adding Ultress UltraColor Care Conditioner, an after treatment that provides users with better conditioning and manageability.

L'Oreal made headlines in late '95 with its Preference Fade Resistant Formula which resists fading and brassiness even through repeated shampooing. This followed on the heels of Excellence Creme, which brought the salon technology of a creme form to the retail market.

"The increased availability of new technologies and products available to the consumers for at-home use, combined with the changing demographics of the population and increased advertising at the trade and consumer level, helped fuel the hair color category's growth," said Waldock.

Consumers have become much more educated about the category through the use of point-of-sale displays and informative packaging, which address basic issues of great concern to consumers.

Among those concerns are choosing the right color, choosing the right formulation and, above all, not damaging the hair in the process.

Clairol has addressed those concerns with its Color Choice System, a point-of-sale booklet that explains the entire product line and advises consumers how to pick the right product and the right color for their hair.

Packaging is also a key in helping consumers make the right color choices, and L'Oreal uses its packages to help women select the right shade for their natural hair color. The box also provides a picture that closely depicts what a user's natural hair color will look like when paired with the new color.

With its Natural Instincts, Clairol was able to address consumers' desire for a gentler product. This hair color is formulated with a combination of natural, botanical-based ingredients derived from pure, renewable plant sources. The company will also be shipping Clairol Hydrience, a new water-based permanent product.