P&G has a new solution for your hair dilemmas.
The CPG co is launching a massive Pantene restage, introducing “New Customized Pantene.”
The restage of Canada’s largest hair care brand is the result of continued investment in research, which Pantene Canada brand manager Rob Payne says led to new findings about hair care. “It’s a significant testament to the power of these findings that Pantene decided to change our entire lineup, making it easier for the consumer to find their customized product.”
According to Payne (who has been recently promoted to category brand manager, P&G Scale Marketing), the customized solutions are designed to smoothly fulfill almost all Canadians’ good hair wish lists, as Pantene’s scientific team identified that 97% of women have hair that falls into the four new collections: Fine, Medium-Thick, Curly and Colour.
The insights that informed the restage are all around decluttering the shampoo aisle to make selection faster. The restage holds current pricing, but cuts SKUs 25% and product collections 61% in an effort to simplify things for the shopper by using “problem solution” merchandizing that groups products.
A lot of R&D went into this. As per Payne, “We spent the last five years researching in anticipation of Pantene’s biggest breakthrough in 10 years. We tested 600 prototypes with 20,000 women from 10 different countries. We introduced 14 new ingredients, new fragrance and simplified product lineups and new packaging.”
Asked how that will translate into growth and play out at retail, Payne cites consumer research:
“We learned that when the consumer goes to the hair care aisle she is overwhelmed with choices, confused and often frustrated. By reducing SKUs and consolidating our collections into four core hair types, Pantene makes it easier. Our goal is to limit the frustration at shelf, which at the end of the day leads to larger basket sizes and therefore stronger sales.”
Since the point of the mission is customization, the world’s hair care leader went very close to home to cast for its new campaign. To spark interest and glean PR, the brand opted to do a live commercial, and instead of casting a celeb flouncing perfect tresses, they crowd-sourced.
Women without personal stylists competed to be the “World’s First Reality Hair Star” by submitting videos on the brand’s microsite, where friends and family could vote to help them become one of 12 finalists flown to New York for a test shoot. The North American contest was promoted in April through social media outreach to P&G’s beauty bloggers, print ads, as well as SEM and job postings.
Payne reports “Pantene consumers came out in droves,” and that the campaign has been a tremendous success, driving buzz behind the launch. “We had 163 videos uploaded in a matter of days,” says Payne, who confirms that two of the 12 finalists for the May 25 live spot are Canadian. Payne says that to date there have been over 10 million Canadian PR impressions.
Unsurprisingly, you’ll be hearing a lot more about it as the new campaign unrolls in June. “Our media support will surpass all previous launches and our in-store presence will not go unnoticed,” promises Payne. “We also made a huge play in the digital space.” Keep your eyes peeled for more this summer.
Media is handled by Toronto’s Starcom, while the creative for Pantene hails from Grey New York. Digital is helmed by Resource and in Canada by Bam Strategy, while in-store is done by ARC and by Boorne Canadian Graphics.
