BSB123 Data Analysis: Pantene Pro V: Secondary Data Analysis

Introduction

Pantene Pro V is a hair care product line based in America. Procter and Gamble own the hair care line. It was first introduced in 1945 by Hoffman-La Roche in Europe but later was bought by Procter and Gamble in 1985. The brand is famously known for its two in one shampoo and conditioner known as the Pantene Pro-Vitamin.

Secondary data analysis

When Procter and Gamble bought Pantene Pro V in 1985, their primary goal was to make it a beauty product brand rather than a brand that sold functional products.

Method

The method used for the content analysis is qualitative analysis from the Pantene websites and published articles.

Intended target market

When Procter and Gamble purchased Pantene Pro V, they based their marketing strategies on females. Therefore their primary target audience was the females. They analyzed what women wanted with their hair and used this as a marketing strategy to reach this audience. They realized that most women regarded shiny hair as that which was healthy (Procter and Gamble, 2018). They realized that women considered shiny hair as healthy hair and therefore used it in their taglines to attract this audience.

Also, the brand has continuously used female brand ambassadors such as Priyanka Chopra to advertise the brand. By using women, the brand believes that they can be able to relate to their target audience and thus acquire the market. The brand has received criticism from feminists that consider the using of females for the advertising as narcissist.

The brand's female target audience consists of those between the ages of 18 to 34 years. The brand has different strategies for the females above 25 and those above 20 years of age.

Current user profile

The current user profile of Pantene Pro V consists of females that want healthy and shiny hair. The users usually buy their product at a local supermarket or superstore and mostly using cash. The users typically buy one or two bottles of shampoos at a time. Most of the users like to change their hair color especially in a country like Thai. This purchase usually has a two month period (Dawes, 2017).

A lot of the users use the products that have no hair breakage and that relieve hair loss. They also went for products that nourish and those that prevented dry hair. Bottom line, most of the users were looking for healthy hair.

Marketing standing and performance

Pantene Pro V had a market standing of 14% as of 2009 coming in third after Sunsilk and Clear. It is a brand that is recognized globally and coming in third means it is performing well. As of 2015, the brand had a total basket share of 16%. The brand is generally performing well as more and more women are purchasing it (Mendes, 2016). 

Brand positioning

Pantene has positioned itself as a brand that provides shiny hair which most of its target audience consider as healthy hair. Their target line is that the outer shine reflects in a woman's inner shine. They decided to reposition so that the branding will stick into a person's mind (Hsu, 2017). Their goal is that shiny hair will be associated with Pantene and therefore if a female sees a fellow female with shiny hair then they automatically think Pantene. The brand has also come up with new packaging and logo that goes with the new brand.

Top strength

Some of the strengths that Pantene Pro V has are:

• It has an anti-dandruff formula
• The brand focuses on the worthiness of the product and not its price
• The brand has won an award for being the most admired brand
• The brand relates to the females who want to have long shiny hair by focusing on this aspect
• The brand is the best selling in the market for shampoo products
• The brand contains vitamins that nourish people's hair

Top weakness

Some of the weaknesses of the Pantene Pro V brand are:

• Consumer feedback says that the Pantene shampoo is too strong and causes hair loss
• There is a high saturation of hair products in the market which affects Pantene
• The brand does not appeal to the feminists as they view it as a narcissist brand

Method

These weaknesses have been identified through content analysis of the brands website as well as articles about the weaknesses of the brand.

Criteria that consumers use

When purchasing products, the consumer uses the following top three criteria to select them:

Packaging

The consumers usually look at the packaging of the product as a factor that will influence their purchase decision. This is a tangible characteristic. They will look at the physical appearance of the packaging if it is attractive or if they can relate to it. For instance, in Pantene, most of the packaging usually has a female showing shiny long healthy hair. The consumer will most likely be attracted to this package due to the healthy hair, and they will also relate to it as that is what they want for their hair (Schmidt, 2016).

Brand name

When making purchases consumers usually tend to look for brands that they are familiar with. This is because the brand that they know has a high reputation and has been recommended to them by a friend. For instance, the 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner Pantene Vitamin Pro is widely recognized, and therefore more people are more likely to buy it as they can associate with the brand.

Consumers purchase most of the products at Pantene Pro V because the brand is recognized globally and has a good reputation.

Product placement

This plays an essential role in purchasing decisions. Most people are likely to buy products that are placed within reach and can be found easily. Pantene Pro V products are found everywhere and within reach so that people can purchase them. They are located in local stores, supermarkets as well as on social media for example Amazon (Steenkamp, 2014). On sites such as Amazon, the product placement is on the first page which is convenient for the buyer as they do not have to go to the second page.

References

Dawes, J. G. (2017). Three Discussion Points on the Route to Brand Growth: Acquiring More Buyers vs. Higher Loyalty, Brand Positioning, and Building Brand Equity.

Hsu, C. K. J. (2017). Selling products by selling brand purpose. Journal of Brand Strategy, 5(4), 373-394.

Mendes, M. D. O. (2016). The effect of social media and celebrities on Millennials’ Consumers: the Pantene example (Doctoral dissertation).

Procter and Gamble. (2018). Retrieved from https://pantene.com/en-us

Schmidt, K. (2016). Standardization of International Advertising Strategies: A Content Analysis of Pantene Pro-V. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 7(1).

Steenkamp, J. B. (2014). How global brands create firm value: the 4V model. International Marketing Review, 31(1), 5-29.