MG412 Principles of Marketing: Head & Shoulders vs. Pantene Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the marketing strategies employed by Head & Shoulders and Pantene shampoos, focusing on the application of the 4Ps of the marketing mix: product, price, place (distribution), and promotion. The introduction establishes the brands' market positions, highlighting their global presence and market share. The discussion section delves into the target markets of each brand, examining how Head & Shoulders targets a broader audience with anti-dandruff solutions, while Pantene focuses on female consumers with a range of hair care products. The product section explores the different product lines and brand strategies, including the use of the Levitt model to understand core and augmented product benefits. Price strategies, distribution networks, and promotional activities, including advertising and celebrity endorsements, are then compared. The report concludes by summarizing the effectiveness of each brand's marketing approach, offering insights into their relative success in the competitive hair care market. The report highlights Pantene's strong performance driven by its targeted marketing to women.

Running head: PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
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1PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
Executive Summary
The whole report is constructed on shedding the light upon both the brands and that are
Head and Shoulders Shampoo and Pantene Lady’s Shampoo. The report will be divided into
three parts introduction, discussion and conclusion. In the introduction part, a background will be
provided on the products along with their market share and value. In the discussion part, target
market and marketing mix of both the brands will be discussed and analysed. In the conclusion
part, a summarized form of every aspect will be provided and the better product will be
highlighted. The primary aim of this report is to gather more information on the products so that
the readers can understand their policies and strategies appropriately along with their individual
position in the market. The desired learning outcome will be focused on the effectiveness of
marketing mix and target market strategies to establish the current position of both the products.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
1. Target market........................................................................................................................4
2. Product/Brand.......................................................................................................................5
3. Price......................................................................................................................................8
4. Place (distribution)................................................................................................................8
5. Promotion.............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12
Appendix........................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
The report is structured on the impact of marketing mix along with the principles of
marketing based on two significant brands Head and Shoulders Shampoo and Pantene Lady’s
Shampoo. Head and Shoulders is an American brand that is mainly known for producing anti-
dandruff as well as non-dandruff shampoo. The brand came into existence by its parent company
named Procter & Gamble that was produced in the year 1961 (Headandshoulders.com 2020). On
the other hand, Pantene Lady’s Shampoo is a brand created by the Swiss-American brand of
hair-care products and it is owned by Procter & Gamble. Head and Shoulders Company has been
gaining a strong financial position in the marketing structure.
In contrast, Pantene Lady’s Shampoo has been focusing on the pricing factors that played
a significant role in order to give a neck to neck competition with other competitors
(Pantene.com 2020). Therefore, it will be interesting to gather analysis of the topmost brands in
this competitive market value, and it will be structured with the help of the marketing mix. The
brand Head and shoulders is one of the leading brands, which consists of twenty percent of the
global market share whereas the brand Pantene has already topped its position by occupying
twenty-seven percent. Therefore, both the brands have been successfully competing against each
other and have developed their individual places. Head and Shoulders has occupied twenty-nine
million units per year for about 110 bottles. On the other hand, global brand value of this brand
has been crossing over 5.1 billion U.S. dollars.
Both the brands are associated with the accurate price pattern that too reaching the target
market for about eighty-five percent and seventy percent simultaneously. The primary purpose of
the report is to present the analysis on both the brands by constructing under the essential four

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P’s of marketing mix so that the readers can get enough knowledge and information on the
brands. It will help them to stimulate their ideas and thoughts appropriately.
Discussion
1. Target market
Head and Shoulders has been ruling over the world since 1961, and it is headquartered in
United States. The primary product that the brand deals with is Anti-dandruff shampoo, which is
generated from its parent company Procter & Gamble (Headandshoulders.com 2020). It has been
labelled as the number one brand in the year 1982 and it has been associated with anxiety
marketing. The main antifungal agents that are attached with the brand are selenium disulfide
and piroctone olamine.
Target market has been primary approach towards attracting and gaining more attention
of the customers (Keegan 2017). In the field of business, they are occupied with immense efforts
and sorting out the localized group of people and making a choice among a section of customers
in order to engage the product with adequate brand value and brand equity (Han et al. 2017).
Every brand has its own marketing strategies and solutions regarding any issues and Head and
Shoulders have been significantly attached with the anxiety marketing where they showcase their
main priority towards customers’ satisfaction for both men and women (Headandshoulders.com
2020). It has been setting target on the higher-middle class population. They have a significant
tendency to target the middle-aged people as they will be more cautious about taking care of
their hair and hair-related problems.
On the other hand Pantene Lady’s Shampoo, it has been serving this field of business for
past seventy-five years since 1945. It has emphasized on hair care products and it has also been

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owned by Procter & Gamble (Pantene.com 2020). The product has been highlighted because of
its amazing marketing strategies and innovative advertisement policies so that they can engage
their customers effortlessly and appropriately. They engage celebrities for maintaining their
position in the market and it will affect the customers directly. The primary element or ingredient
that they utilizes to produce their beauty product is Panthenol.
Target market is very simple for this brand as they effectively focuses on the female
population especially ranging from young girls till the mid-age forty women (Triana 2016). The
brand has invested in providing a healthy lifestyle along with individual confidence by producing
beautiful hair looks with effective growth.
Both the brands have their separate strategies where readers and consumers have been
supporting the strategies of Pantene more than Head and Shoulders. It has been analysed that
Pantene have been focusing on the female population and that has led to their graph of profit
quite remarkable.
2. Product/Brand
Marketing mix is defined as the process where four elements are considered together in
order to provide an analysis on the set of activities, actions along with tactics that are focused on
an organisation or brand. Therefore, it has been divided into 4Ps including product, price, place
and promotion. After utilizing the tactics and activities, the company will be able to establish
their concepts, approaches, policies, and diverse range of ideas by promoting their products. It is
referred to as the planned mix of all the manageable elements of any commodity’s marketing
plan.

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Head and Shoulders shampoo is the one of most leading hair-care brand, which produces
shampoos along with hair conditioners. The brand has been searching the perfect ingredients and
elements to dissolve the worldwide problems of dandruff. The brand and its customers are highly
acquainted with each other and has been connected since many years because it has been tagged
as one of the trusted products in the available market (Mbaskool.com 2020). The brand produces
and promotes hair-care products by utilizing the formula of Zinc Pyrithine. The formula was
enough successful to fight against dandruff after applying anti-fungal properties (Mbaskool.com
2020). There are a diverse range of products that are available in multiple stores and online
websites such as Anti-dandruff, anti-hair fall, silky hair, lemon fresh, cool menthol, cool blast,
dry scalp care with almond oil, and silky and hair retain. Conditioners are also available in the
variant of smooth and silky and anti-dandruff features.
On the other hand, Pantene lady’s shampoo has a different kind of product strategy and
they are always offering other hair treatments for all the customers. They have been distributing
various kinds of goods and services and have been immensely loved by all the female population
(Mbaskool.com 2020). The brand have been popular for various reasons such as generating
products for hair fall resistance shampoo, anti-dandruff shampoo, total damage care shampoo,
silky smooth hair-care shampoo, lively clean shampoo, nature fusion fullness shampoo along
with long black moisture shampoo (Mbaskool.com 2020). They also distribute hair fall control
conditioner, total damage care conditioner and so on. Bottle containers along with sachets are
available at every possible offline and online stores.
Every brand is identified through its product, which helps in understanding the primary
requirements based on the desired product (Keegan 2017). The Levitt’s model will benefit to
gain more knowledge on the idea of that product based on the level of stratification. Each of the

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upper level has been linked with the previous level (Eblues.eu 2020). As per the researches of
Levitt is concerned, the innermost level has been identified as the core benefit and it is
significantly focused on the customers’ satisfaction. (See figure no. 1). The core product of Head
and Shoulders is the anti-dandruff shampoo, whereas Pantene has been focusing on the hair fall
resistance shampoo and silky hair-care shampoo.
Figure no. 1: Levitt’s model of brand building
Potential Product
Augmented Product
Core Product
Expected Product

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3. Price
Head and Shoulders shampoo is always occupied by keeping their prices quite lower than
other brands. They used to apply different kinds of strategies by giving a fierce competition to
their competitors, Hindustan Unilever. The brand has kept the prices quite affordable and
reasonable so that all kinds of customers can reach out to their goods and services
(Mbaskool.com 2020). The commodities are available at different set of prices such as three
milliliter of sachets can be available at three rupees and six hundred seventy-five milliliter at
three hundred seventy rupees. In this way, it is accessible to all the customers from lower-middle
class to upper class people.
To the contrast, Pantene Lady’s Shampoo has been kept in the medium range as it has
been competing with several other brands such as Tresemme, Neutrogena, Fructis, L’Oreal, and
Dove. They are always loyal to their old and new customers but they are in this mode of
switching their prices from low to high (Mbaskool.com 2020). Therefore, they are very cautious
about their pricing which is also dependent on other aspects such as quality, quantity and rivals.
4. Place (distribution)
Head and Shoulders shampoo has been successfully developing into a reliable
commodity in the whole market. It has been gathering markets in most of the developed
countries in the whole world (Mbaskool.com 2020). The product has successfully established a
reliable and trustworthy place in the whole marketing structure such as Canada, Pakistan and
Bangladesh. It is linked with a flexible distribution network and it benefits the product in the
long run.

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On the other hand, Pantene Lady’s Shampoo has shaped their distribution network in the
whole world and has been loved by all the women (Mbaskool.com 2020). The manufacturing,
distribution, and delivering of the products are done through their professional agents and
retailers. They have successfully maintained their processes otherwise they may lost most of the
customers to other rival products and brands.
5. Promotion
Head and Shoulders shampoo has been a success because of their supportive and superior
marketing management. The organisation has launched a lot of creative, aggressive, and
informational campaigns to increase brand visibility along with their core product in this
competitive (Mbaskool.com 2020). They never leave a chance to promote their product such as
television channels, posters, magazines, newspapers, social networking sites and so on. They
have maintained one tagline ever since 1980s and that is “You never get a second chance to
make a first impression.”
On the other hand, Pantene lady’s shampoo has been linked with effective advertising
and promotional strategy such as social media, television, and billboards (Mbaskool.com 2020).
Television commercials are their primary source to divert the audience towards their products,
which are directly targeting the women consumers. The celebrities are main ambassadors of
promoting the product. (See figure no. 2)

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Figure no. 2: Marketing Mix of the products
Price Promotion Place Product
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Chart Title
Head and Shoulders Shampoo Pantene Lady's Shampoo
Strategies

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Conclusion
Therefore, concluding the report, both the products have been highly successful in
gathering customers but Pantene Lady’s Shampoo has been the loved product more than Head
and Shoudlers shampoo. The brand has gained enough trust of their old as well as new customers
by distributing quality products. The goods and services have always promised to remove the
dandruff and will provide a clean and healthy hair to all the customers. Yet, they have lacked in
promoting their products and Pantene has gradually promoted a significant effort to grab this
opportunity to lead the path in this competitive market.