Product Analysis of Pantene Paper Example

Product Objectives

Once a product is successfully introduced into a market, concise actions should be taken to attract and maintain market shares (Gupta, 2013). For that matter, the main objective for the Pantene products, in this case, is to maintain its market share in the country and also counter competition exerted by competing brands. Therefore, the objective of the brand is to reposition itself as an appealing product that women can relate to.

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Product Mix

Pantene as a brand is under Procter and Gamble and is the single line of product in the shampoo category. Being the only line of product within its category, it has enjoyed significant success in the past.

Product Typology and Position in Product Lifecycle

Pantene only produces shampoo products for women. Shampoos are generally common products within households, and they are regularly purchased; therefore, effective penetration in the market ensures that entities attract bigger market shares comparatively (Gupta, 2013). Once Nielsen was contracted by the company to help them regain their grip on the market, they had to determine Pantene's product category to use the winning strategy in repositioning it. In this case, the category was classified in the super-slippery category of products. When making purchase decisions, most of the women tend to experiment on various products before settling on the brand of choice, which means that market penetration was of great significance to its ultimate success.

Clearly, the brand was at its maturity stage in the product lifecycle having been in existence for a long time. Though it is still profitable, its annual increase in profits is usually at a decreasing rate. Additionally, its sales are still high though not improving. For instance, its market share declined from 22.5 percent to 20 percent as competition from other upcoming brands was severe and was hurting its future perspective (Gupta, 2013).

Specifying the Core, Actual and Augmented product

A product is usually the sum of its core, actual and augmented products. Purchase decisions are usually influenced by the totality of these factors and their impact on the final consumer. In this case, the core value of Pantene has enhanced the beauty and healthy hair for women. In this case, whenever a consumer purchases the product their main intention is to purchase a product that improves and ensures soft/smooth hair, shiny hair, fragrances, vitality and family use. As for the actual product, Pantene offers supper-slippery hair shampoo, which is of very high quality (Gupta, 2013). As for the augmented product, Pantene offers hair shampoo with not only the capacity to improve the quality of hair but also enhance beauty for women. Consequentially, the augmented product is summed up to entail of premium quality (salon quality) that could be used by all members of a family and is easy to use. That is, it has clear and succinct instructions on how to use.

Brand Development Strategy

Being at its maturity stage, Pantene clearly needed to reposition itself in the market as the dominant product in the market. This meant that they would need to prioritize promotional activities as well and use them to increase awareness and promote sales since they were found lacking in the research (Gupta, 2013). More so, the pricing appropriateness was found important since it related product pricing to the willingness of the buyer indicating that Pantene also needed to consider its price to return the product to its growth stage.

References

Gupta, S. (2013). Nielsen: market research for Pantene. Bangalore: Indian Institute of Management