Henkel Schwarzkopf Professional Hair Products, Marketing Channels Research

The market of professional hair care products is from none to full of vitality during the century. This market has an enormous demand, special marketing channel and golden profit.In China, the foundation of professional hair care market is a little weak. After 20 years growing, it is going into a rapid developing period now. There are four greatest brands in the top-class professional market. They are Wella, L'oreal, Goldwell and Schwarzkopf. Except Goldwell, the other three have come into China.With the booming market and tough competition, Schwarzkopf now is facing with both opportunities and challenges. After going through the SWOT analysis, this paper has found that there are a lot differences among the competitors, such as the market positioning, market share, image and marketing strategies, etc. But they have the similar marketing channel, which is Manufacturer→Distributor→Salon→Customer. With the hard competition and the new pressure, companies pay more attention to the importance of marketing channel, which is an important part of the Marketing Mix (4P), but used to be neglected. The particularities of the professional hair care product work on how to design, select channel member and manage the marketing channel.Taking the case of Schwarzkopf, this paper has discussed what is a marketing channel, how to design, construct and manage. At last, this paper summarizes the experiences of Schwarzkopf, and gives some suggestions to the marketing channel of Schwarzkopf.