Many people remain loyal to their favorite shampoo brands, fearing potential hair damage from switching. Break through this defensive loyalty by offering the promise of enhanced hair protection. Highlighting benefits like anti-pollution properties and advanced scalp care can meet consumers’ changing needs while delivering noticeable, superior results.
Shampoo users who tend to switch their brands and live in smaller cities prioritise affordability, accessibility and eye-catching packaging. In contrast, those in metro cities tend to focus on premium ingredients and higher product quality. Focus on these respective factors to make them loyal users.
Conditioners lag in usage because their perceived benefits are limited to softness and shine. Expanding their positioning to address key hair concerns such as hairloss, thinning and damage can enhance relevance and usage.
Fragrance plays a key role in consumer preference and loyalty, and it’s a key attribute Indians associate with shampoos. In this highly adopted category, fragrance in shampoo can be a crucial differentiator.
This report looks at the following areas:
- Key trends for shampoos and conditioners
- Consumer usage patterns
- Benefits associated with shampoos and conditioners
- Understanding brand loyalty towards shampoos and conditioners
- Factors influencing brand loyalty
- Motivations for switching to alternative shampoo brands
- Ingredients of interest in shampoos and conditioners
- Attitudes towards shampoos and conditioners
Shampoo loyalty often stems from a fear of switching, rather than real results, though users now seek scalp care and anti-pollution benefits. Conditioners must go beyond shine to be truly functional solutions.
Tanya Rajani, Principal Analyst, Beauty & Personal Care, India
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- Mintel’s perspective
- Key issues covered in this Report
- Overview
- The outlook for shampoos and conditioners in India
- Overcome defensive brand loyalty by providing enhanced hair protection
- Graph 1: reasons for using the same brand of shampoo, 2024
- Engage Shampoo Brand Switchers with targeted strategies
- Graph 2: reasons for switching shampoo brands, 2024
- Use fragrance to differentiate in the highly penetrated shampoo category
- Expand the appeal of conditioners by addressing functional hair concerns
- Graph 3: attribute associated with conditioners, 2024
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KEY TRENDS
- What you need to know
- Haircare NPD activity
- The growing enthusiasm for experimentation warrants innovation
- Indians are spending more time on haircare
- Graph 4: spending more time on haircare*, 2022-24
- Breaking the status quo: novel ingredients, new fragrances and a focus on science-backed features drive NPD
- Rosemary has seen a significant rise in popularity in recent shampoo launches
- Graph 5: shampoo launches, by botanical ingredient, 2022-24
- Ingredient to watch: hibiscus
- Hair concerns are top of mind
- Hair concerns affect significantly more women
- Graph 6: hair concerns, by gender, 2024
- Graph 7: hair aspirations, by gender, 2024
- Indian adults are ready to invest more for solutions that address their hair concerns
- Indian’s social media posts reflect their haircare priority
- Potential for Indian haircare brands to prioritise beauty-enhancing claims
- Haircare brands focus on addressing diverse hair concerns
- Ingredient-led narratives are becoming key differentiators
- Indians are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about ingredients
- Ingredient claims lead in India’s haircare market
- Graph 8: haircare* launches, by top five claims, 2023-24
- Brands are focusing on novel botanicals
- Brands ‘skinify’ haircare with skincare ingredients
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WHAT CONSUMERS WANT AND WHY
- What you need to know
- Shampoo is the cornerstone of India’s haircare routines
- Graph 9: haircare product usage, 2024
- Shampoos enjoy high brand stickiness
- Graph 10: brand loyalty behaviour towards shampoos, 2024
- How to win with Shampoo Brand Loyalists
- Brand trust and a fear of hair damage keep shampoo users loyal to their preferred brand
- Graph 11: Shampoo Brand Loyalists’ reasons for using the same brand of shampoo, 2024
- Overcome defensive loyalty by alleviating switching fears, fostering trust through transparency and enhancing product effectiveness
- Reframe switching as a positive experience rooted in effectively addressing hair concerns
- Demonstrate effectiveness via novel ingredients to attract new users
- Graph 12: strong agreement with “The use of new ingredients is required to deal with severe hair issues”, by gender, region and city tier, 2024
- Beyond natural ingredients, users prioritise anti-pollution and scalp care ones
- Graph 13: ingredients of interest in shampoo and conditioner, 2024
- Focus on scalp care
- Indians place a greater emphasis on scalp health
- Graph 14: social media posts containing ‘scalp’, 2019-24
- Conversations about shampoo often revolve around topics such as scalp health, dandruff and key ingredients
- Elevate shampoo brand loyalty by incorporating skincare ingredients for oily scalps
- Graph 15: ingredients of interest in shampoos and conditioners, Shampoo Brand Loyalists by shampoo use frequency, 2024
- Global inspiration: innovate with scalp care ingredients growing in use
- Graph 16: ingredients in scalp-related haircare launches, 2018-23
- Global inspiration: innovate with scalp care ingredients growing in use
- Showcase scalp-beneficial haircare solutions
- Evolving regulations and increasing consumer demand for safety are transforming the global landscape of anti-dandruff ingredients
- Future focus: algae for moisturising, strengthening and scalp health benefits
- Develop shampoos and conditioners that tackle pollution concerns
- India’s escalating air quality crisis warrants anti-pollution haircare
- Indian products accounted for just 1% of global launches in anti-pollution haircare
- Graph 17: top 10 markets for haircare claimed to protect against the elements, 2021-24
- While users seek anti-pollution ingredients, no haircare format has established a strong connection with this benefit
- Graph 18: interest in anti-pollution ingredients in shampoo/conditioner, by region, 2024
- Combat hairloss triggered by pollution
- Call out protection against pollutants on the pack
- Examine the link between pollution and skin/scalp conditions
- Leverage plant extracts for protection against pollution
- Beyond pollution: the challenges of hard water on hair health
- Engage shampoo users who frequently switch brands
- Convenience and affordability drive brand switching in shampoo
- Graph 19: reasons for switching their brand of shampoo, 2024
- Boost reach and affordability to attract Shampoo Brand Switchers in lower-tier cities
- Win over non-metro-city dwellers with appealing packaging
- Graph 20: reasons for switching their brand of shampoo – more appealing packaging, Shampoo Brand Switchers by city type, 2024
- Appeal to lower-tier markets with innovative packaging
- Superior ingredients drive consumer choices in metro cities
- Graph 21: reasons for switching their brand of shampoo – better ingredients, Shampoo Brand Switchers by city tier, 2024
- Elevate ingredient-based storytelling
- Shampoo Brand Switchers seek hair-strengthening and growth solutions
- Graph 22: ingredients of interest in shampoos and conditioners, by Shampoo Brand Loyalists vs Switchers, 2024
- Capitalise on biotin for hair strength and growth
- Graph 23: shampoo launches with biotin, 2019-24
- Harness the hair-strengthening benefits of keratin
- Highlight arginine for hair growth, strength and repair
- Graph 24: shampoo and conditioner launches with arginine, 2023-24
- Formulate with rice water for strength and shine
- Focus on scientific evidence to demonstrate credibility in hair strengthening and growth
- Enhance hair hydration and softness
- Graph 25: shampoo launches by beauty-enhancing claims, 2019-24
- Deliver luxurious texture and hair softness
- Leverage fragrance as a key differentiator
- Pleasant fragrance drives both loyalty and switching in shampoo users
- Capitalise on fragrance to drive preference and create a memorable shampoo experience
- Frequent shampoo users value a long-lasting, pleasant post-wash fragrance
- Graph 26: strong agreement on the importance of hair smelling nice after using a haircare product, by shampoo user type, 2024
- Effectively convey a shampoo’s enduring scent
- Innovative fragrances can spark experimentation
- Graph 27: strong agreement with “I would try a new haircare product if it has a new fragrance”, by shampoo usage type, 2024
- Shampoo brands underplay the role of fragrance in their messaging
- Graph 28: shampoo launches, unfragranced, 2019-24
- Case study: take inspiration from Herbal Essences’ strong emphasis on its fragrance proposition
- Maximise fragrance appeal to enhance brand loyalty and attract new consumers
- Develop signature scents to differentiate
- Promote fragrance as a self-care and wellbeing cue
- What’s next: neuroscience-backed fragrance to shift moods
- Go beyond the ‘soft & shine’ association of conditioners
- Conditioner lags behind shampoo and hair oil in usage
- Graph 29: usage of haircare products in the last six months, by type, 2024
- Shampoo users have yet to fully adopt the habit of using conditioners
- Conditioners are not used as frequently as shampoos
- Graph 30: frequency of shampoo and conditioner use, 2024
- Conditioners are not associated with any specific benefits, making them a lower priority
- Demographic profile of conditioner users vs non-users
- Conditioner non-users are traditionalists who do not see value in conditioners
- Graph 31: usage of haircare products in the last six months, by conditioner users vs non-users, 2024
- Challenge the dominance of ‘soft & shine’ and promote the additional benefits of conditioners
- Graph 32: attributes associated with conditioners, conditioner users, 2024
- Global conditioner claims reveal potential for Indian brands to expand beyond the shine focus
- Graph 33: conditioner launches, by the top three beauty-enhancing claims, 2019-24
- Make conditioners functional in nature
- Case study: The Hair Lab by Strands demonstrates value by targeting multiple hair concerns
- Offer women thicker fuller hair via conditioner
- Graph 34: conditioner users’ top three hair aspirations, by gender, 2024
- Graph 35: conditioner users’ hair concerns, by gender, 2024
- Centre on hair volume and thickness for women
- Meet consumer interest in natural hair-strengthening ingredients
- Graph 36: strong agreement towards natural ingredients being the best to help with hair growth, by conditioner users vs non-users, 2024
- Highlight natural ingredients as hair growth solutions
- Novel ingredients drive the focus on targeted solutions for severe hair concerns
- Graph 37: conditioner users’ strong agreement that new ingredients are required to address severe hair issues, by gender, 2024
- Incorporate novel hair-strengthening ingredients
- Ingredient watch: peptides for hair strength
- Harness home remedies to naturally enhance efficacy
- Conceptualising with Mintel Spark
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APPENDIX
- Consumer survey methodology
- Social data research methodology
- Correspondence analysis
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