• Brandweek , Monday, December 1, 2008 10:45 AM

A new push for the Pantene hair-care line -- estimated to be about $100 million -- touts an upgrade in silicon technology that translates to stronger, shinier hair, according to Elaine Wong. The campaign stars former beauty editor and television fashion celebrity Stacy London. A teaser campaign a couple of weeks ago directed consumers to Secrettogreathair.com; sampling inserts inside major Sunday newspapers have heralded the brand's latest positioning.

Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley recently blamed the company's failure to attain an annual 5% gain in the beauty category to last spring's failed restaging of Pantene. Called Parthenon, that campaign called for organizing the brand's many SKUs into 18 easily identifiable "benefit-themed" collections, including ones for healthy, colored and treated hair.

Pantene North America brand manager Seth Klugherz says the new campaign is the biggest launch for the brand since the 2000 restaging of Pantene as Pantene Pro-V. He says the campaign drew its insight from research testing among consumers, in which P&G found that the "gold standard" in haircare for many was salon brands. In a blind test of 3,600 salon users by marketing research firm TNS, seven out of 10 participants purportedly voted for Pantene.

Read the whole story at Brandweek »