Table of Contents

I/ Introduction and Background of Sunsilk Locust………...…………………………...…2

1.1. Background…………………………………………………………………2
1.2. Market analysis………………………………………………………...…2-3
1.3. Challenges faced by Sunsilk………………………………………………..3

II/ Key finding……………………………………………………………………………..4

2.1. Internal factor…………………….……………………………………………4

2.1.1.Swot analysis……………….………………………………………………..4

a) Company Strengths…………………………………………………………...5-6

b) Company Weaknesses………………………………………………………...5-6

2.2. External Factors ………………………………...…………………………….7

2.2.1. Competitor Analysis………………………...………………………………7

2.1a. Pantene……………………………………..………………………………...7

2.1 b. Head & Shoulder…………………………..…………………….………….8

2.2.2. Macroenvironmental factors…………………..…………………………….9

2.2a. Demographic…………………………………..……………………………..9

2.2b. Technology………………………………….……………………………...10

2.2c. Political……………………………………….………………………….....10

2.2.3 Microenvironmental Factors…………………..…………………………….10

2.3a. Market Intermediaries………………………….…………………………...11

2.3b. Public………………………………………….……………………………11

2.3c. Company………………………………………...…………………………12

III/ Summarize, suggestion, and limitation ……………..………………………………12

IV/ Reference…..…………………………………………………………………….13-14
I. Introduction & Background
Sunsilk is a hair care brand, that mainly focuses and aims at women aged 16 to 40 who have a
middle income.

1.1 Background
Unilever is a multinational company – the corporation of England and Holland specializing in
the production of consumer goods such as cosmetics, toothpaste, shampoo, and food,… Unilever
Group currently has 400 brands in over 190 countries and 90% of profits come from 600 famous
brands. Among them is Sunsilk which was first introduced in the UK in 1954. Its products are
available everywhere except in the US and Canada. In 1995, Sunsilk entered to the Vietnam
market and made an outstanding hit with the new product Sunsilk locust shampoo. On top of
that, throughout its history, Sunsilk gained many remarkable achievements:

- The 5th most visible brand in the top 10 visible brands category at the Brand Equity Award
2003. 

-Gold prize at the Smarties Awards 2015 with Campaign “ The language of hair ”

-Shampoo sold for over 1 billion pounds a year.

Objectives:
Sunsilk locust shampoo has mission to bring silky smooth hair to every Vietnamese girl so that
they can confidently pursue their dreams and discover wonderful experiences in life.
Additionally, Sunsilk once stated its focuses were to offer the best quality, customer satisfaction,
and comfort to people.

1.2 Market Analysis

The prospect of the shampoo market in Vietnam looks promising with opportunities for various
omnichannel. In VietNam, Revenue in the Hair Care segment amounts to US$213.30m in 2022(
Statista,2022). Moreover, according to Lucintel Research, The Shampoo market is expected to
grow with a CAGR of 3%-5% from 2021 to 2026. The major reasons why this market increase is
to meet the demand for natural ingredient products, hair fall problems, and hygience
In detail, In terms of shampoo brand, Clear is the most popular brand for both women and men.
Besides, X-men came in second for the men’s shampoo market with 28%. Meanwhile, Unilever
is still in the dominant position accounting for more than 45% market share with popular brands
such as Clear, Sunsilk, and Dove (Survey from Q&Me)
1.3 Challenges faced by Sunsilk
Competitors: Sunsilk does not only compete with P&G, which is the major rival, but also needs
to be careful with other internal brands in Unilever such as Dove, Clear

Pressure from customer: With the modern life nowadays, the demand of consumer is
increasing which urge the Sunsilk brand to diversify the products in order not to fall behind the
scenarios and other rivals

II.Key finding
2.1 Internal Factors
2.1.1 SWOT analysis
 Strengths
- Suitable for daily usage
- The early brand, participated in the
Vietnam market
 Gain more favor in the Vietnamese
mind
- Active engagement in social
media(Facebook, Tiktok,…) and
interaction with customer
- Enormous resources from parent
company-Unilever
*Market Capitalization: $103,17 billion
(Source: Companies Market Cap)
*Unilever has a strong reputation with a
huge network of distributors around the
globe
Weaknesses
-Sunsilk locust shampoo still contains heavy
chemicals which cause the dry hair
- Despite the abundant labor resources in Vietnam,
there is still lack of highly skilled employees.
(only 11.6% have required skills, and 5% in the
workplace can proficient in English) (Total
Workforce Index VietNam, 2020)
- The state-of-art technologies are not totally
applied in Vietnam market due to high expense
- Quite expensive for the resident living in the
countryside
*The monthly income of residents in the
countryside is relatively low, about 3,6 million
dong
(Source: General Statistics Office.)

- Sunsilk has used many top celebrities

like Madona,… as Brand Ambassadors
and also employed hair experts to raise
awareness as well as gain to gain the
trust of customers.

-Sunsilk not only successfully adopt

international standards into their
products, but also adapt to the
Vietnamese demand through their
profound insights. As a result, shampoo
extracted from the locust tree- a
traditional tree in Vietnam has become a
popular and successful product and
 accounts for 80% profits of Sunsilk’s
revenue

2.2 External Factors

2.2.1 Competitor Analysis
Sunsilk’s major competitors in the shampoo market are brands from P&G such as Pantene and
Head and Shoulder. Besides, there are also some internal competitors such as Dove and Clear.

Brands/ Competitors Strengths Weaknesses

Pantene -Perceived as a
luxurious brand with an
- Limited brand loyalty due to high brand switching

affordable price - Customer dissatisfaction on the rise

*Pantene received many complaints, even lawsuits
-Strong advertising because several products contain strong chemicals:s
campaign and ilicons,and sulfate that make the hair beautiful but dry
innovative promotion and greasy in the long-term usage.
strategies
-Highly saturated market (Ex: A hair care shelf has 100
-Exellent distribution products and a customer has to choose one)
channel of Pantene
-Limited product portfolio
-Pantene possesses Pantene’s market mainly targets women in their
technological heritage mid-30s to early 40s, so the narrow segment of the
*With collaboration target audience may lead to the harsh competition
with NASA, Pantene for market share
discovered new
information about the
molecular structure of
hair, then made use of
these findings to
improve their formula

-Reputation with the 2-

in-1 shampoo
Head and -Address most hair
issues of the target
-Awareness against chemicals ( existed in Head and
Shoulder)
Shoulder segment (dandruff, hair
fall, dry hair,..)
https://www.quora.com/Is-Head-and-Shoulders-
shampoo-harmful
(Review and complaint about chemicals with strong
-Well-known with effect)
high-quality products
-Need long-term usage to solve hair issues.
-Strong financial
support from P&G

-Availability of
Products in different
sizes
(Source: W&S market research)

2.2.2 Macroenvironmental Factors

2.2a) Demographic
According to General Statistics Office in Vietnam, the population is about 99 million in 2022.
Besides, the ratio of women accounts for nearly 52,5% which outweigh the men counterparts and
the female portion is projected to increase in the foreseeable future. So, with this potential
market, it is easier for Sunsilk to get approach to the target customer in Vietnam to increase sales
in the long term.
(Source: Worlddometer).

2.2b) Technology
With the ground-breaking advance in technology, there are a lot of e-commercial
platforms( (Lazada, Shopee, Tiki,...) that facilitate people to get access to goods and products
with more information about price, instruction, and quality,…Therefore, Sunsilk locust shampoo
stands good chances to expand its market not only by selling in retailers and supermarkets but
also on several e-commerce platforms.

2.2c) Political
According to Institute of Philosophy in Vietnam, The political situation in Vietnam still stays
active and stable which can bring advantages and motivation for Sunsilk to maintain and
leverage their business. Besides, the Foreign Investment Policy in Vietnam has attracted
multinational companies including Sunsilk of Unilever, which is a great benefit for their
sustainable development. During 34 years of opening the economy for integrating and attracting
FDI), Vietnam has achieved:

- In 2008, Vietnam welcomed up to 64 billion USD in FDI

- In 2020, Vietnam was ranked 19th in the world in terms of attracting the most FDI

(Source: Vietnam Foreign Investment Agency)

2.2.3 Microenvironmental Factors
2.3a)Market Intermediaries
Sunsilk Locust shampoo has wide-ranging reselling and distributing channels from local stores to
large malls like Co-op Mart, Lotte Mart,…Besides, this shampoo product has spread all over
Vietnam,even in the countryside and remote regions.

2.3b) Public
The labor resources in Vietnam are profuse with nearly 60 million and the ratio of postgraduates
is relatively high that be able to meet the demand for the labor force of Sunsilk. Besides, the
GDP also tends to have a sharp increase in numbers over the course of 10 years. (Source:
data.world bank)
Labor force index in Vietnam

GDP index in Vietnam

2.3c) Company
Sunsilk takes advantage of the strong distribution system of the parent group-Unilever. There are
more than 150 distributors, nearly 300,000 wholesale and retail stores, and about 300
supermarkets, creating favorable conditions for the customer. Besides, R&D work is very
focused, especially on the research of raw materials and traditional ones to reduce production
costs without affecting quality.

III/ Summarize, suggestion, and limitation

3.1 Summarize:
In conclusion, over 20 years, Sunsilk Locust shampoo has proven its position, brand equity, and
quality in the Vietnam market. Moreover, the market in Vietnam is bright and promising when
the Average Per Capita Income ís increasing and other factors like technology, customers,
government policy and to name but a few,... also make momentum for its development.
However, although the potential for expansion of Sunsilk Locust shampoo is high, this product
has many big competitors which can affect the sales and the brand recognition of Sunsilk.

3.2 Limitation:
Sunsilk products mainly focus on women who are between 18 and 45 years old, so it is
challenging to compete with the other brands which are diverse and flexible in targeting and
positioning. Next, Sunsilk locust shampoo still contains harsh chemicals such as SLS and
silicones which can cause dryness with excessive quantity. In addition, it is raising concerns that
Sunsilk Locust shampoo is faked with low quality and exists pervasively in the market.
Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish between fake and real products.

3.3 Suggestion:
My recommended solutions for the first issue of Sunsilk are, firstly, to explore the new
alternatives for chemical ingredients and make innovations for the new products which are
aligned with customers’ needs nowadays. Secondly, Sunsilk can make efforts to increase more
target audience ( increase market share ) by doing more research and surveys

With the latter issue, I suggest that Sunsilk should raise customers’ awareness by instructing
them on how to differentiate the fake and real ones before purchasing. Moreover, the brand
should continuously change product appearance such as colors, shape, text,…) that will help to
drive the attraction of the customer as well as consolidate the brand equity and brand recognition
IV/ Reference
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Tong Quan. (2021, August 17). Unilever. https://www.unilever.com.vn/our-company/

Sunsilk Achievements. (2015, October 22). Brands Vietnam - Cộng đồng Marketing và Xây dựng Thương
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Hair care - Vietnam | Statista market forecast. (n.d.).

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Lucintel. (n.d.). Shampoo market in Vietnam | Market research report | Lucintel. Management

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