New looks, hot promos making waves in ethnic

Drug Store News, Oct 9, 1989

New looks, hot promos making waves in ethnic

Drug chains commonly report 4 to 5 percent increases in ethnic sales, though the most aggressive retailers--Perry and Harco among them--are experiencing up to 12 to 15 percent gains in high-volume ethnic stores. Merchandising attention goes a long way at these operators.

Industry sources state the category has changed little since spring and there are few noteworthy new products stimulating purchases.

Jim Normandin, buyer at Beauty Enterprises in Hartford, Conn. notes that bonus sizes are driving the category just as last year and that TCB has done an exceptional job in generating sales and market share growth through some very aggressive bonus size promotions.

However, a number of distributors including Normandin think that the fall/winter period might get much better, helped by the popularity of a new salon look created by Soft Sheen, one of the leading ethnic product suppliers.

The style is called Wave Nouveau, described most often as a body wave or "dry" curl. Sources call it one of the hottest looks on the market. Among them, Normandin says the Wave Nouveau mist and lotion that Soft Sheen sells to women through salons exclusively are the "hottest" salon maintenance products he's seen in years.

Soft Sheen is introducing a retail version of those maintenance products to the mass market. Most ethnic product buyers think these items, which are shipping now, could be real winners. At least two other manufacturers, Pro Line and Worlds of Curls, are also coming out with maintenance products for the dry curl.

Normandin says he thinks the Soft Sheen dry curl maintenance products "will be in the top 10 dollar sales in their first six or seven months" because these products support a new type of hair style."

In the Midwest, Dan Medow, president of Standard Distributing, also felt the Soft Sheen Mist and Lotion could do well.

Medow, noting that other manufacturers are coming out with similar products also targeted toward the Wave Nouveau/dry wave customer, says he thinks this is a good early sign that dry wave products could be the next hot growth area.

"The Wave Nouveau look is a good style," he said. "It's popular. But the faster they bring the products out, the better it will be."

"Dry look maintenance products should do great," added Chuck Lewman, president of Paul's Sundries in Los Angeles. "Soft Sheen has built a large enough clientele so there should be a strong demand when they hit the retail stores."

Lewman thinks that between Optimum Care and the current emergence of new dry curl maintenance products, retailers could see category sales increase as much as 7 to 8 percent over the year's final few months, he estimates.

In the men's hair care market, however, the fashion outlook is a little less exciting. Men are still wearing their hair short, but more men may be letting it grow out on the top of their heads, and more men may be opting for geometric cuts.

In the Midwest, Medow said he has noticed a slight change in styling preferences for men. He said they seemed to be growing their hair longer on top while keeping it short on the sides.

"It's the `high top look,'" he says, "and although it's too soon to say, it could cause men to start buying more styling, conditioning and texturizing products."

On the West Coast, Lewman says short hair is still very in. The geometric cuts are visible, but they don't seem to be as strong or as popular there as in the East and Midwest. "Basically," he says, "we're still seeing a lot of short hair and that means our strongest sales are in good, basic maintenance products, conditioners and hair treatments especially.

Lewman says that in his area, petroleum-based products tend to do exceptionally well because they moisturize the hair. He says he's noticing that castor-oil conditioners have become a "sleeper" category, doing a good, solid business year round.

His three best sellers are the All Ways Natural Castor-Oil for the Hair, Isolplus Castor-Oil and Bonner Brothers Castor-Oil.

The braid look is still popular, especially on the West Coast, but distributors say the style's popularity has not yet reached the point where sales can be translated to the retail market.

In the spritz category, Medow thinks ethnic product manufacturers are starting to capture sales more effectively from general market brands. "Until recently, there's been a lot of crossover buying with spritz," he says, "but now the ethnic product manufacturers are starting to catch up."

PHOTO : Ethnic shoppers respond to stores that stock a broad product assortment at low everyday

PHOTO : prices.