Salon brands raise ante in assault on mass market

Drug Store News,  Sept 7, 1992  

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Now that more and more drug chains are merchandising salon and semi-professional hair care brands in their general market hair care department, where they must compete with heavily-advertised mass brands like Salon Selectives, the "pro" manufacturers are launching their own marketing and advertising initiatives to drive sales.

"Pro" brands are still stressing their "salon heritage" as a way of enhancing their prestige, but they also realize that if they are going to compete effectively in the high traffic aisles of a general hair care department, they have to reach new consumers who may not be familiar with their salon backgrounds.

Consequently, companies like Alberto Culver with Tresemme, Redmond with its Australian and Hair Paradise lines, Clairol with Infesium 23, Key Distributors with Vital Care, John Frieda with Frizz Ease, Advance Research Labs with Citre Shine, Demert & Dougherty with All Set, Modern Research Labs with Stiff Stuff, Slick Stuff and Let's Jam, and Allegany Pharmacal with Hask are investing more dollars in marketing and advertising, often using TV as well as print.

Professional manufacturers are also using their expertise and their insights into the latest salon trends to bring innovative new products to market, especially concentrating this year on three hot growth segments: deep conditioners, shine enhancing/anti-frizz products and styling gel mists.

Healthy products, most pro manufacturers say, is what's most in demand today. Consumers are looking for products that are healthy for their skin, and they want products that are healthy for their hair.

That are healthy for their hair. with natural ingredients, herbal extracts, shine properties and deep-conditioning benefits so popular, and creating growth opportunities for a number of niche lines ranging from Redmond's Aussie and Hair Paradise to Freeman's Beautiful, and other botanical lines through the new AromaTherapy Hot Oil treatments from Allegany Pharmacal's Hask Division.

Hask AromaTherapy Professional Hot Oil, for example, is positioned as a "sensual hair and scalp treatment that protects hair and soothes the senses." It is made, of course, with natural herbs, and early reports are that it is selling well in a growth segment.

Alberto Culver's new Tres Shine Anti-Frizz Hair Mist and its new Tresemme Vitamin Treatment, were also developed to give consumers heathier, shinier hair.

Tres Shine also offers an alternative to the anti-frizz serums that have become so popular in the past two years, Tres Shine and other mists and spray gel products are not as thick as serums, so they don't weigh the hair down and they're not messy to use.

Culver introduced Tres Shine and Vitamin Treatment at the end of last year; according to early reports from Towne-Oller, it's tracking well in the chains where they have distribution.

Culver is just now launching a major new advertising campaign stressing Tresemme's salon heritage to help grow the brand, especially now that it competes more and more directly with general market brands. The campaign is designed to position Tresemme as an "affordable professional hair care brand.

Hask is now introducing a new deep conditioner in a form that is unique to the mass market: an AromaTherapy Hot Clay. Salons have been very successful with warm clay treatments, and the one from Hask has additional product benefits such as a creamy lather and a pleasant aroma. It should be in stores early this fall, and it will be supported by print ads starting in the first quarter of 1993.

Key Distributors, which market Vital Care, also has a new television campaign, new spokesperson and a series of new products it is bringing to market. Vital Care is expanding into the deep conditioning, shine enhancing and mist segments. Plus, it has three new freeze-type styling products: Mega Freeze, Styling Freeze and Volume Freeze.

In the deep condition segment, Vital Care has a new Therapeutic Conditioner that rebuilds and protects the hair; a multi-vitamin Deep Therapy Conditioner for color-treated and permed hair; and an Intensive Reconstructor Conditioner that has vitamin B in the formula and is used to treat dry, damaged hair.

The company has several new shine enhancers including an Instant Shine Spray that enhances both natural hair color and color-treated hair.

Vital Care's new ads are now appearing in teen books and in Cosmopolitan and Self Its new spokesperson is Indy car racer Jimmy Vasser.

Key Distributors is testing a new line of premium-regimen hair care products created by and named after Don Sullivan, one of the founders of Redken Labs and the chemist who worked with Vidal Sassoon as he launched his hair care line.

Sullivan's line has been in test in Southern California for several months and is said to be building very nicely. There are 11 SKUs all built around a regimen of shampoos, deep conditioners and styling aids.

More trend setters

Modern Research Labs, which launched one of the hottest products of the 1980s when it introduced Stiff Stuff in 1985, now has 20 "pro" items available either at retail or in the beauty and barber shops where salon products get their first over-the-counter exposure.