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Kenya: Shower Gels Take Turf War to Deep Rooted Bar Soaps
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Business Daily (Nairobi)
6 July 2008
Posted to the web 7 July 2008
Beatrice Gachenge
Walking down the aisles in supermarkets, one sees shower gels scrambling for space with conventional soaps. Although they have not overtaken most products on the shelves, they have taken more space over the years.
A few years ago shower gels occupied just a few shelves in supermarkets. However, today they occupy more space in some supermarkets. "There is a gradual shift from bar soaps to gels, but not entirely," said Beiersdorf East Africa marketing manager, Faith Wanderi.
New gel brands are slowly gaining entry while old ones have been rebranded to gain a firm foothold in the market. As a result, local taste buds have been exposed to many new gel flavours. Several factors can be linked to this new trend. The packaging of shower gels points to focus on niche markets.
While most of the shower gels are not local products, some packaging that targets children are toy shaped, with lots of colour and cartoons on the packages. They also have a lot of drawings and animation. Those meant for girls feature Barbie doll drawings, while those for boys have the likes of Batman.
Various firms have launched diverse shower gel brands in the market. Last year, Beiersdorf introduced a number of products such as Cashmere, Lotus and Happytime.
The main target market for these products were women, but several of the gels are also tailor made for men. Packaging is distinct. Gels meant for men have cool colours while those meant for women are mainly white or cream.
But what is behind the growth of the shower gel market?
"Kenyans are embracing Western concepts. One of them being individualism. Unlike in the past when people shared soap, everyone wants to have their own things that help them express themselves. In many households you will find each member with their own shower gel, of course depending on the disposable income and personal taste on the various scents," said Vivian Ochieng' of Unilever. Unilever's shower gel brands include Dove and Lux.
There is high resonance with the Dove gel, she says. It is an international brand and well travelled Kenyans are exposed to it. Those who purchase the gels say that their portability is one of the most attractive qualities.
For most metrosexual men, as well as women who hit the gym regularly, it is easier to carry the shower gel as opposed to conventional soaps. Conventional soaps can be messy, especially when they become soggy. "I find gels more convenient," Mr Marc Otieno said when Business Daily caught up with him at Parklands Sports Club in Nairobi.
And if hygiene is anything to go by, shower gels are confined to a bottle instead of being exposed to air, which may attract germs. You are not going to find body hair floating in the middle of your shower gel bottle. However, the chances of finding a hair or two stuck on a bar of soap is fairly high.
Another trait working in favour of shower gels is their multiple scents. Ms Wanderi says that some of the most popular fragrances are fruity, flowery and musky. The speciality of shower gels lies in their aromatic scents.
Variety of scents
Although soap makers are increasingly adding a variety of scents to their products, shower gels hold scents longer than regular soaps.
Ms Ochieng' says that this type of body wash does not make skin dry and its texture is not harsh to the body. In addition, gels lather much faster than conventional soaps.
In the West, the war between shower gels and regular soaps is raging. Germany is one of the key countries where the shower gel market is aggressively growing with 83 per cent of women and 74 per cent men using it.
Figures from the local market were not forthcoming. Gel makers say that consumers of the products are more aware and exposed. Further, they want to be pampered. The shower gel offers a more spa-like experience with stronger scents and more holistic additives than regular soap.
Regular soap makers are having to market their soap products differently to compete in the market against shower gels. Even though the use of regular soap has not been dented in the local scene, soap manufacturers are rebranding their soaps as competition grows. One of the products that is taking the market by storm is the hand wash gel.
Recently, Reckit Benckiser launched a hand wash gel to add to the growing gel products.
Four years ago Lux maker Unilever rebranded the soap incorporating new scents and packaging. Last year, the Geisha bar soap was also rebranded.
Yet consumers are willing to pay more for shower gels.
In the local market, some of the expensive gels such as a 250ml bottle of Radox goes for as much as Sh450. Others found in the Western market go for much as Sh2,000 for the same volume. These include Victoria's Secret, Secret Garden Shower & Bath Washes.
However, you may want to take into account that the average bar soap costs as low as Sh20, almost six times cheaper than the cheapest shower gel.
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In addition, bar soaps tend to last longer than shower gels, explaining why the gel is yet to become entrenched in the market like soap.
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