Haircare brand gains fame during pandemic

CEBU, Philippines — While consumer buying behavior has changed in the last two years due to the pandemic, which focused more on budget-friendly household essentials, haircare emerged as the number one fast growing consumer brand in the Philippines.

In the special edition of its Brand Footprint research, consulting company Kantar unveiled that the haircare brand Keratin Plus has gained popularity among Filipino consumers especially in the last two years when beauty salons were closed due to pandemic-caused lockdown.

During Kantar’s research presentation held Tuesday September 19, 2022, Kantar Philippines Client Director Nino Nierva said that the absence of beauty salons pushed the haircare line of Keratin Plus brand with its claim to achieve a salon level hair treatment at home, doubling its growth figure in the year 2020.

Despite shoppers spending less on hair care during the pandemic, Keratin Plus saw its CRP (Consumer Reach Points) grow by 77 percent with an 8.3 percent penetration point increase.

Based on the research, Keratin Plus brand satisfied shoppers seeking affordability and salon-level benefits. This has led to lower income homes buying it more times (an increase of 21 million occasions in 2021 compared too 2020). Keratin Plus leverages shoppers who value proximity stores, particularly sari-sari stores where more homes buy the brand.

The second fast growing product in the Philippines is the Indonesian home care brand, Wings. It managed to gain 1.8 million shoppers in 2020, and another 1.8 million homes in 2021.

Wings, a value brand, is well placed to meet the budget needs of Filipinos who favor the most affordable variants—Calamansi Clean and Floral Fresh detergents. While the brand has been first launched in Visayas and Mindanao, its active expansion to Luzon pushed its instant popularity among consumers seeking for more affordable and widely accessible home care products.

Yakult remains as the number one cultured milk brand of Filipino families. In fact, Yakult saw rapid growth with an additional 1.3 million purchases in the past year. More homes bought the single and multi-pack offering of Yakult in its core regions, National Capital Region and Visayas.

According to Nierva, consumer buying behavior has changed due to restricted mobility, and tight budget among Filipinos since 2020 and 2021. This resulted to the high patronage of reasonably priced household brands, including the high consideration of buying products available in sachet packages.

Last Tuesday, Kantar revealed the Top 10 Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) in the Philippines over the past 10 years. The list, comprised of food and beverages as well as personal and homecare products, is a result of Kantar’s annual analysis of a brand’s strength vis-à-vis the choices Filipino shoppers make for their households.

According to the Worldpanel Division of Kantar, the Brand Footprint ranks successful FMCG brands based on their Consumer Reach Points (CRP). This measure combines population or the number of households in the country; penetration or the percentage of households purchasing the brand; and consumers’ choice or the frequency of the brand being chosen by Filipinos over the course of 12 months.

Claiming the top and most coveted position in Kantar’s ranking of Brands of the Decade in the Philippines is instant noodle brand, Lucky Me. The Brand Footprint report showed that Lucky Me was bought by almost all Filipino homes at 98.4 percent and was chosen by local shoppers 31 times per year over the past decade, giving it a total of 9.4 billion CRP.

In second place is coffee brand, Nescafé, with 7.3 CRP. Other food and beverage brands in Top 10 listing are Silver Swan (5.4 billion CRP), ranked fourth; Bear Brand (4.9 billion CRP) securing the sixth spot; Milo (4.9 billion CRP) landing on seventh; and Ajinomoto (4.6 billion CRP) making its way to number eight.

The Top 10 list was rounded up by three personal care brands and one lone homecare brand. Detergent brand Surf ranked third, registering 5.6 billion CRP. Meanwhile, Palmolive received 5.2 billion CRP to get the fifth spot, whereas Safeguard (4.2 billion CRP) and Cream Silk (4.1 billion CRP) took the ninth and tenth spots, respectively.

Bea Coronel, Client Manager at Kantar Philippines, explained that the combination of high penetration and frequency are the top two drivers of brand growth.

“In fact, 88 percent of brands in the country have achieved growth this way during the last 10 years. These FMCG brands have been successful in finding more shoppers and reaching them at the right moment to win their households over via their shopping baskets,” she explained.

According to Kantar, brand growth can be achieved if FMCG companies are able to use different levers to maintain a constant level of penetration amidst a growing population, such as in the Philippines.

“FMCG brands should get to know the behaviors of their target consumers better, be more present in places where they shop, and communicate effectively with them to create more moments where they can catch their attention. They must also find ways to innovate and address the emerging needs of consumers or offer more categories for them to choose from.

By leveraging these levers, FMCG brands similar to Keratin Plus, Wings and Yakult, have the opportunity to increase their CRP and secure a spot as one of the top 10 brands of choice of Filipinos in the years to come,” Nierva noted.