P&G haircare brand Pantene鈥檚 #PowerofGrey campaign to support their innovation, the Grey and Glowing Collection, has provided a model example of launching products to meet a new haircare demand alongside a powerful campaign, supported by celebrities and influencers, to encourage women to embrace their grey hair.
The campaign was part of the brand鈥檚 鈥楶ower of Hair鈥 ethos: innovating to create more great hair days for everyone: all hair types, all hair conditions, all ages and all genders.
Research demonstrates that aging can result in hair reducing in diameter and becoming more weathered, making it more prone to breaking, as well as hair density decreasing. Pantene created haircare products to provide more TLC for grey hair combined with positive empowering campaigns. All built under the brand idea of 鈥楬air Biology鈥.
Katharine Newby Grant, northern Europe marketing director for P&G commented: 鈥淲e鈥檙e committed to continue to drive even greater diversity across our beauty advertising. We believe in the power of grey and believe it should be celebrated, just like all other hair colours and types. Historically grey hair hasn鈥檛 featured as prominently in beauty advertising which has left a significant number of women not seeing some 鈥渓ike me鈥. We want to change that.鈥
The campaign was backed by a Pantene study which found that 80% of Brits have grey hair, but two out of five disguise it (40%), reporting that they do so as they feel less confident with grey hair (40%). The study also uncovered a marked difference in how greys are perceived between genders, with 35% agreeing that 鈥榮ociety is more accepting of grey-haired men than women鈥.
Since this campaign there has been a positive shift in perceptions of going grey and women showing natural grey colour. Similarly, there has been an emergence of more over-50 ambassadors of hair and beauty brands, with celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Salma Hayek and Gwyneth Paltrow publicly embracing their naturally greying hair.
As public perception shifts, more hair care and beauty brands are seizing the opportunity to launch their own pro-aging products that better reflect the needs of modern women. The Dove鈥檚 campaign #KeepTheGrey is part of this positive change.
This is the convergence of a set of activities that brands do best. Few brand owners do it better than P&G. It starts with insight 鈥 a changing attitude amongst women to clich茅d images of beauty, aging and their sense of individuality and empowerment. It is delivered through the twin levers of meaningful innovation and powerful communications. This creates market penetration 鈥 more people, new users etc. 鈥 and category activity beyond the brand. Other brands enter or invest and greater value is created. Without brands and their unique commitment to insight, innovation and investment, this would happen less often and less effectively. It is why brands matter and how they create growth.
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