Vendors try to tame the frizzies

Drug Store News, Dec 9, 1996

Category leader John Frieda, to broaden its reach and defend its turf, has just quadrupled its advertising budget for its successful Frizz-Ease line to $7 million. Clairol and Advanced Research Labs, ogling John Frieda's success, have just launched their own high-performance, frizz-taming lines.

John Frieda plans to release a dynamic advertising campaign for the 6-year-old Frizz-Ease line this month. Directed by fashion photographer Albert Watson, the campaign will communicate Frizz-Ease's prescriptive strengths and fashionable results.

Television commercials and print ads will demonstrate before-and-after shots of women and conclude with the tagline, "The problem. The cure. Frizz-Ease."

"We have a broad base of people who use the products who are almost like a fan club," said Gail Federici, president of John Frieda's product company. But in terms of the line's potential reach, she said, We still haven't scratched the surface."

And that is why Clairol and Advanced Research Labs see room to stake their claim in this category. "If you look at the number of female consumers who have problems with frizz, 70 percent, there is a tremendous untapped category out there," explained Lee Feldman, vice president of sales and marketing for ARL, which just launched the Zero Frizz line.

With all the heightened marketing and new product activity, ARL predicts the frizz-taming category will grow to $70 million from $35 million by the end of 1997. Clairol, which just launched the Frizz Control line, predicts the category will grow to $80 million by 1999.

Frizz-Ease is positioned as a salon quality, premium-priced line of hair care products. It includes shampoo, conditioner and several treatment products. In the past, sever manufacturers have launched items to address frizzy hair, but John Frieda has been the only vendor to successfully launch an entire regimen for consumers with this hair condition.

Following the lead

ARL and Clairol believe they can change that. Both are marketing their regimens of products to women with both chronically frizzy and occasionally frizzy hair.

Frizz Control and Zero Frizz have lower price points than Frizz-Ease, are being packaged in much sleeker-looking bottles and will be backed by multi-million dollar advertising and promotional campaigns.

The seven products in the Frizz-Ease line carry suggested retail prices ranging from $4.99 to $9.99. Suggested retail prices for the seven Zero Frizz products range from $3.99 to $6.99. Frizz Control products carry suggested retail prices that range from $4.49 to $7.69

ARL's Zero Frizz includes a polishing shampoo, instant conditioner, intensive conditioner, anti-frizz hair serum, lusterizing mist, anti-frizz styling mousse and anti-frizz styling gel. Clairol's Frizz Control line includes a hydrating shampoo, taming conditioner, high gloss hair serum, taming balm, restructuring mousse and defrizz refresher and shiner.

Both lines are being positioned as high-performance products with unique benefits. Advanced Research Labs asserts Zero Frizz is unique because every in the line, not just the styling aids, includes silicone protective spheres that saturate and bond to the hair's cuticle, thereby smoothing, sealing and defrizzing frizzy hair. The product is also being launched in an educational inline unit with flip charts that explain the benefits of the regimen.

Clairol asserts that Frizz Control is unique because, in addition to taming frizzies, the products do a number of other things. This includes mending split ends, providing humidity resistance and protecting against UV damage.

Executives at John Frieda will certainly watch the new launches closely but they seem confident that their line will stand out.

"We are fanatical about making sure the products really work for this hair type" Federici said. "You can't make silicone products cheaply. We've tried."

"A lot of people have tried to come out with competing products," added John Frieda, founder of the company. "At the end of the day it will all be about performance."