L’Oréal has emerged as a market leader in the hair coloring space, after beating Godrej consumer products to the punch. The French brand has managed to capture this market due to Garnier Black Naturals, which has emerged as a top consumer favorite.
According to Nielson Data, last calendar, L’Oréal’s market share was 25.8% in the urban Indian space, whereas Godrej had a market share of 24%. However, this was not the case two years ago. Godrej had a market share of 26.3% while L’Oréal had a market share of 25.3%. It is important to note that Godrej is still the market leader in India across other industries.
When asked about this, Amit Jain, managing director at L’Oréal said, “We have an advantage in terms of the value of L’Oréal Paris and also the whole salon channel, but Godrej has done a brilliant job of creating that category,”
Furthermore, he also talked about how the India arm of L’Oréal has become a huge contributor to their overall global business. Elaborating on the same, he said “India is becoming a hub for reverse innovation into our other high-growth markets on a formulation and developmental aspect,”
L’Oréal currently controls a total of 70% of the urban salon market in India. This is a huge feat to achieve within the hair coloring space considering that the product just launched 5 years ago. One of the reasons why this product has taken off so quickly is probably because this is the brand’s cheapest product. Consumers get to buy something from the renowned brand at an affordable price, and with Garnier’s quality being one of the best ones in the market, there’s no reason for them not to come back for more.
The rest of the L’Oréal brand portfolio holds premium brands. Their angle is to offer aspirational products to the Indian middle class, rather than simply offering affordable ones.
The rapid growth of the hair care industry in India
The hair care industry in India is worth 3.3 Billion USD and this is a growth that has only happened in recent years. According to Nielson reports, the growth rate of this industry is 10% per year.
It is interesting to see that Godrej is no longer the market leader in this space. This is because this was the brand that first offered extremely affordable prices for sachets of hair color. This offering ended up disrupting the market, and other brands had to struggle to catch up to their lead.
When asked about this new development, Varun Gambhir, MD at Godrej Consumer products, said “Godrej Expert Rich Crème continues to consistently deliver robust growth and has achieved the highest ever market share on an exit basis in the third quarter of FY19,” He did not talk about their market share or the fact that LO’real has so swiftly taken over the dominant share.
