Spanish hair care market to grow to 2016, new consumer reports reveal

The hair care market in Spain is forecast to grow by about 3.7% over the coming years, up from €1.26bn in 2011 to €1.31 in 2016, according to new industry forecasts published by consumer market analysts Canadean.

The March 2012 reports ‘The Future of the Hair Care Market in Spain, to 2016’ and ‘Consumer Trends in the Hair Care Market in Spain, 2011’,from Canadean show that although growth in the market will be sluggish at best, there will at least be some growth rather than a downturn.

Canadean director of research Piers Berezai says that in better times such a forecast would be very disappointing, but that it gives players in the market some confidence that there is no collapse about to happen – provided there are not any further shocks to the system.

"These are tough times, but marketers need to be aware of the pockets of growth that exist and who the key consumers are in order to maximise sales in the future," Berezai adds.

Shampoo is the largest category by market value, with sales of a little over €350m in 2011, and this is set to grow modestly in the next few years. Other major categories contributing to sales are hair colorants and conditioners.

The key to defending positions against the economic headwinds however might well lie in targeting the right consumer groups and trends, as Berezai notes: "It’s important to know who is using the products as well as who is buying them."

Across all of hair care women, perhaps unsurprisingly, account for the majority of usage. According to the reports they account for nearly two-thirds of the market’s value.

This share is as high at 80% in some categories, but in others it’s nearer 50%. However, in one category, men actually account for more than half the market, a result driven by their higher frequency of use of these products.

"This shows there is considerable male usage in certain categories to target – providing room for male-specific brands to grow and potentially opening up opportunities for more gender-specific marketing, but the data show this potential probably doesn’t exist in all hair care categories," Berezai explains.

Long-term shifts in consumer behaviour, or ‘consumer trends’, also present opportunities, but the data show that while consumers feel they choose specific products because of these trends, it is certainly not all the time that they actually act on these impulses.

Overall, the trends show that products with specific features that help Spanish consumers meet their beauty aims are important, Piers Berezai explains. However, in certain categories people do not act often enough on the needs these trends create in order to make targeting them an option for many of the larger players.

"Times might be tough in Spain, but careful selection and targeting of consumer trends will help the Spanish hair care market weather these economic storms at least," Berezai says.