Herbal Essences fuels growth and good through the power of partnership

This article is sponsored by Procter & Gamble.

In today’s shifting business landscape, even the most well-established brands must continue to innovate to keep pace with changing consumer demands and advance sustainability efforts. Whether it be rapidly changing supply chains, a global patchwork of regulations or frequently advancing technology, brands must evolve to stay relevant.

After factoring in increasingly savvier consumers who expect transparency and environmental and social stewardship from the brands they buy from, the need for purposeful action intensifies. With mounting global issues such as climate change on the minds of shoppers, it is not a surprise that consumers are demanding more of the brands they support. Surveys show that 75 percent of US consumers are concerned about the environmental impact of the products they buy.

Teaming up with credible partners emerges as a key strategy for brands to meet consumer’s needs while achieving sustainability objectives. Legacy brand Herbal Essences has remained a leader in the industry due to consistent and strategic adaptation, helped in large part through a network of collaborative partners sharing skills and expertise.

Here are three ways Herbal Essences has found success harnessing the power of partnerships to advance business goals while delighting consumers through its innovative line of bio:renew haircare products.

1. Seek out the expert voices and credentialers in your category

The beauty category is constantly changing, as are the issues consumers care about. A great example is the boom of the natural hair care category, which grew about 300 percent over the past 15 years.

Shopping the naturals category used to force consumers to make performance trade-offs, but today brands such as Herbal Essences have found ways to improve product performance and raise the bar on natural ingredient quality and transparency. Challenges remain, however, such as ingredient adulteration, a practice whereby suppliers and/or manufacturers alter, dilute or otherwise diminish the quality or potency of botanical ingredients. A 2019 study determined a substantial portion (27 percent) of herbal-based products to be adulterated when tested against their claimed ingredient species.

To address this problem and give consumers peace of mind, Herbal Essences partners with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — a world-renowned plant scientific organization focused on understanding and preventing biodiversity loss on a global scale. With hundreds of scientists globally, Kew leads scientific “fingerprinting” efforts to certify the identity, authenticity and quality of key botanical ingredients used in Herbal Essences bio:renew products.

The partner relationship provides benefits to both the brand via increased consumer trust — when they see the Kew certification on-pack — as well as for RBG Kew, through ongoing brand support for programming and related efforts to raise awareness of Kew’s work to stem biodiversity loss.   

2. Embrace new technologies to help reach ambitious goals

For 50 years, Herbal Essences has been known for its pleasant scents and colorful bottles. When P&G set a goal to cut virgin plastic in half by 2030, the brand knew it would have to evolve to meet sustainability goals while still delivering consumer appeal. The limits of mechanical recycling for colored plastic — which only allow for colored PET to be recycled so many times before compromising color and strength — has been a particular challenge.

To meet this challenge, Herbal Essences partnered with Eastman to leverage its Eastman Renew materials, made via advanced or molecular recycling technology. Molecular recycling breaks down hard-to-recycle plastics to their basic building blocks and uses them to create high-performance materials. Through this effort, the brand has been able to reduce virgin plastic use in its bio:renew products by 50 percent, by incorporating molecular recycled PET.

As a result, for every two tons of shampoo and conditioner bottles created, Herbal Essences can divert one ton of plastic waste from landfills. Eastman’s molecular recycling technology is particularly promising in that it allows for a variety of materials that are typically unrecyclable to stay in circulation via new forms — textiles and carpet could all be recycled and find their way into a shampoo package via advanced recycling. According to Eastman, this technology produces 20 to 30 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional manufacturing processes.

While advanced recycling has certainly proved promising for Herbal Essences use case, it’s important to note that meeting ambitious goals often require a suite of tools and collaboration on both the supply and manufacturing side. Recyclers need to work with municipalities to ensure supply and feed streams, while manufacturers must continue to develop package designs that are easier on the environment.

3. Identify compelling ways to bring consumers along on the journey

Because consumers claim that they want their dollars to go to brands who are doing good in the world, it makes sense that they also respond positively when given an opportunity to actively feel like they are part of the solution.

Herbal Essences’ recent “Plant. Grow. Nourish” campaign, in partnership with TechnoServe, India as part of the Sustainable Guar Initiative, offered consumers a chance to do just that. During April, for every Herbal Essences bio:renew bottle sold at participating U.S. retailers, supplies and training on the creation of kitchen gardens of organic vegetables were provided to guar farmers and their families in Rajasthan, India — a region critical to production of sustainably harvested guar, a key ingredient in many haircare products.

This program funded over 2,000 gardens for farmers and their families while generating sales growth at the participating retailers, proving that brand E&S programs can be both a force for growth and a force for good. The “Plant.Grow.Nourish” program will help an estimated 15,000 people in the region, furthering the impact of Sustainable Guar Initiative, which has already benefited over 20,000 people in the past two years.

While many factors ultimately contribute to a brand’s or product’s success, the bio:renew line has no doubt benefited from the network of expert and collaborative partners. Partnership with industry experts enables broader impact and provides valuable guidance to navigate challenges of today and opportunities of tomorrow.