Haircare is a massive worldwide market, worth some EUR 60 billion with an annual growth rate of approx. 5 per cent, mainly driven by the emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, Russia and Mexico. The situation is completely different in the USA, Japan and Western Europe: the annual growth rate is in the decimal range. The reason being, consumers are saving their money and looking for special offers. Gerd Heyny, Marketing Director Central Eastern Europe, Henkel: “The CEE hair market developed by +1,9 % in value (excluding currency effects). The size of the market in 2012 was 1.129,4 million €.”

The biggest growth opportunities are the trend to affordable luxury. "The trend to affordable luxury could prove to be a market opportunity as consumers in developed markets are increasingly willing to spend money on a little more luxury if the price is right", states Rob Walker, FMCG analyst at Euromonitor.

"New, innovative products are extremely important to drive growth in haircare," says Carol J. Hamilton, L'Oréal Luxury Division President in the USA. "Consumers have become very demanding. They look for technologically advanced formulae which promise major benefits."

According to Euromonitor, the product category hair colouration provided the best performance. Today, every second woman dies her hair and the market continues to grow. The focus is heavily on innovation: the new products should not only dye hair, but should also provide haircare at the same time. And the need to communicate this message as strongly as possible: with cartons at the POS.

Heyny: “For colorations users the folding box serves as an important source of information before purchase act. The printing on paper allows to reliably present the achievable hair color result to the consumer. Additionally the carton is environment-friendly packaging solution.”

Astrid Mair am Tinkhof, Marketing Director L’Oréal Austria Consumer Division, is more than satisfied with everything cartons can offer: "Two aspects are important when selling colourations: advertising, i.e., making consumers aware of our brands, and product information on the results of colouration and application. This is why our two brands in the colouration market, L’Oréal Paris and Garnier, support all strategically important launches with a comprehensive advertising and promotional package.

This includes high-impact TV and print campaigns, and of course also sales support in the retail trade via promotion and effective placement of our products. Using cartonboard as packaging material for our colourations gives us the opportunity of creating extra awareness on the shelf - be it via flaps announcing competitions or sleeves which allow us to "customise" internationally manufactured products for local activities for certain periods of time. In addition, we can add the necessary information on packaging cartons to allow consumers to select the desired colour.

We are very satisfied with the visual appearance of our carton-packed products. There are virtually no limits to design and advanced printing technology allows us to convey the quality of our brands at the POS, directly on the shelf. Cartonboard is our first choice as packaging material, also for reasons of environmental compatibility. The packaging for our colourations is made from sustainable forestry and we cooperate with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) in terms of environmental and social standards in forestry."