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Diversity as a Competitive Advantage

In: Business and Management

Submitted By khizra
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The shampoo brand that reached the highest Top of Mind by Survey * Unilever, as the umbrella company, achieved 60 awards for environmental, social, and economic programs and policies.

* 10 Unilever brands received first rank in their respective categories in the Best Brand Award, and Sunsilk is included.

* Unilever received second rank in three categories: Best managed Company, Best Corporate Governance, and Best Commitment to Strong Dividend Payment.

* Sunsilk achieved 1st Pakistani Packaging Consumer Branding Award as the Outstanding Brand in Prima Level

* UNILEVER is one of the largest organizations in Pakistan.

* Company has advanced technology and well skilled professionals.

* Sunsilk is a high quality product in terms of hair protection.

* The target market is educated, professionals and belongs to premium and middle class.

* Company totally owned, systematic distribution network, transparent communication system.

* Company possesses Participative Management Style.

* Very good distribution network all over Pakistan, in all major and small cities

* Great promotion. Above the line ad through the television media with different kind of theme.

* Gender Bias.

* They are not targeting children segment.

* They don’t have strong polices regarding promotion in remote areas.

* The distribution of Sunsilk shampoo to the small areas is still weak. They only provide the costumers with the variants of lasting Black Shine or Anti Dandruff. It’s hard to find the other variants.

* Customers are offered better alternatives by the competitors.

* Poor promotion of free samples

* Advertisement flaws

* Low satisfaction score compared to the other new hair care product brand. Due to the fact that Sunsilk is one of the oldest brands playing in this market, it makes the consumer having a perception that the other new brand is more modern.

*

* Population expanding at a rapid rate. * Baby shampoo is another area where company gets huge gains.

* Sunsilk has not come up yet with the Hair Tonic

* Sunsilk has not come up yet with a product for permed hair.

* Sunsilk has not come up yet with the Hair Vitamin for Colored Hair.

* Promoting their product in rural area to earn high profits.

* Consumers are becoming more quality conscious. * Currently capacity utilization is 80%, which can be further broadened with the increase in demand.

* Customer base is increasing with effective marketing.

* Rural areas are a large prospective market where they can introduce Sun silk.

* Political and economic factors.

* High rate of competition.

* Strengths of competitors.

* Smuggling of their product via Afghanistan.

* Partial Government policies.

Women have been dyeing their hair for centuries. We have long connected our femininity and beauty to our hair. Today, almost every woman wants to dye their hair. The great advantage of changing one’s hair, as opposed to other parts of the body, is that it is an easy and non-invasive way of enhancing your appearance. If your hair is graying and you prefer to look more youthful, hair dye can provide a beautiful change at relatively low cost and in a (semi-)reversible fashion. Dyes can offer new depth, shine, and volume to your natural hair, as well as add radiance and richness to your natural skin tones. Women everywhere are abandoning their roots and reinventing themselves through hair dyeing. Hair coloring has now become one of the everlasting fashion trend for achieving a complete makeover and in this regard Pakistan has no exception .Pakistani women has become more fashion and beauty conscious they are ready to put all the efforts to look trendy, attractive and ever young in any way. This is further proved or analyzed by the conducted survey.
HAIR DYEING TRENDS:
From the general survey about consumer behavior regarding hair dyeing trends in Pakistan reveals the following results:

Approximately 65% of the total women population in Pakistan dye their hair, 20% don’t dye their hair at all while 15% have plan to dye their hair sometimes in future either for fashion, change or for covering gray hair.

REASON BEHIND NOT USING THE HAIR DYE:
From the survey conducted we came to know that women in Pakistan don’t dye hair because of two main reasons: * Available hair dye brands are quite expensive that’s why women in Pakistan avoid dyeing their hair.

* Hair dyes contain harsh chemicals .Use of these harsh chemicals can result in a range of adverse effects, including temporary skin irritation and allergy, hair breakage, skin discoloration and unexpected hair color results. That’s why women avoid dyeing their hair.

FREQUENCY OF HAIR DYEING:
Most of the women dye their hair either occasionally, monthly or depending upon how fast it grows out and as soon as they feel the need of dyeing hair again or with the reappearance of gray hair.
REASON FOR DYEING HAIRS:
The trend of hair dyeing has been continuously increasing in Pakistan. Hair dye is considered as the most powerful weapon women have against aging but in Pakistan women not only use hair dyes to cover up their gray hair but now more than 62% of total women population in Pakistan use it in order to look and feel more attractive, fashionable and trendy. According to the conducted survey approximately 62% use hair dyes for fashion, 30% to cover gray hair and around 8% for change and for the sake of new look.

TYPE OF HAIR DYE COSUMER BUYS THE MOST AND WHY:
The survey reveals that 72% women prefer temporary hair dyes, 20% women use permanent & semi-permanent hair dyes and 8% use highlights.

TEMPORARY HAIR DYE:
Women reveal that they use temporary hair dyes because temporary hair dye typically only lasts a few washes, as opposed to permanent or semi-permanent hair dyes another reason is temporary hair takes much less time to apply and to work besides that temporary hair color allows you to easily change your look to suit your mood, clothing or event. Temporary hair color is free of peroxide which can damage hair.
SEMI-PERMANENT HAIR DYE:
Women use semi-permanent hair dye usually to cover up gray hairs or get rid hair of unwanted color tones and to look more youthful. Semi-permanent dyes last for several shampoo cycles i.e. they will fade after a wash out within six to ten shampoos. Semi-permanent dyes are less damaging to the hair as compare to permanent hair dyes. The hair color is formulated to last longer than temporary, but is much milder than permanent hair color. It is also an excellent choice for those who feel that their hair is dull or drab. Semi-permanent hair color can deepen color tones without altering the natural hair color. The color does not rub off on your pillows or clothes as temporary hair color sometimes will.
HIGHLIGHS:
Young girls usually prefer highlights. Unlike dyeing all of the hair, they go for hair highlighting .It is also possible to add more than one shade at a time. Girls use highlights to have a different and trendy look in a shorter time. Young girls usually go for hair highlighting to look more fashionable, trendy, creative and attractive. No matter what the occasion, hair highlights are very practical and useful. Highlights make it easy for anyone to create different hair styles at any time .They also wash off quickly usually within 2-3 shampoos.

CONSUMER’S PREFERENCE OF HAIR DYE:
Among all the local and imported hair dyeing brands available in Pakistan, women prefer Garnier and L’Oreal the most and there is very little percentage of using other hair dye brands.

PRICES OF HAIR DYES:
Most of the women say that current or available hair dyes in the market are quite expensive. We don’t have any good quality local hair dye brand due to this women in Pakistan usually have to go for imported hair dyeing products which are usually unaffordable and comparatively high in prices.

HOW CONSUMER RATE DIFFERENT ASPECTS AND ATTRIBUTES OF THEIR HAIR DYE:
We gave consumers a key scale to rate different aspects and attributes of their hair dye ,after survey we have concluded the following

THE BEST ASPECTS OR STRENGTHS OF CONSUMERS CURRENT HAIR DYE
From the survey conducted we also came to know about some good aspects of hair dye that women are currently using these are ,the hair dye is long lasting, well achievement of desired hair color, good design and packaging, available at all convenient places.
THE WORST ASPECTS OR WEAKNESSES OF CONSUMERS CURRENT HAIR DYE
According to the data collected from survey we came to know about the worst aspect or weaknesses of hair dye that women are currently using, some of the aspect include, it is quite expensive, contain harsh chemicals, customer care services are quite poor, not easy to apply and weak promotional activities. Quality is not satisfactory.
AVENUE OF COMMUNICATION OR PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITY TOOL THAT INSPIRES AND ATTRACTS THE CONSUMER MOST:
If we talk about the avenue of communication or promotional activity tool that inspires and attracts the customer ,than the data collected through survey reveals that approximately 76% get attracted by advertisements especially TV Ads and billboards, around 6% think that free sampling ,displays and demonstrations are best for making your target market aware about your product, around 3% become aware of the product from other peoples , about 13% say that internet is the most frequently use source of information so company should promote their product on internet, around 2% says sponsorship of events, shows, concerts or television programs are also the attractive methods for the promotion of products.

SUGGESTIONS: * Keep prices low * Provide complete hair dye kit along with the main product * New product should be free of harsh chemicals * It should be easy to use and apply at home * Make it available at near by super stores and markets * Provide new funky and bright colours in all the three ranges * Should provide long lasting colours.

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