Santosh Sreedhar, Partner at Avalon Consulting, shared his perspectives on the enduring strength of legacy FMCG brands and the strategies required to sustain market leadership in India’s evolving haircare market, in an article published by Financial Express.
In the article, Santosh Sreedhar highlights how established brands continue to maintain a significant competitive advantage through large-scale distribution networks, consistent innovation, and sustained brand investments. Using Hindustan Unilever’s Sunsilk as an example, he explains how continuous product innovation, regular brand refreshes, and deep market penetration have helped the brand surpass ₹1,000 crore in turnover.
He further notes that while digitally native D2C brands have created strong niches in select urban markets, they currently pose limited threat to legacy brands at the national level. Established FMCG companies benefit from extensive retail reach, trusted brand equity, and decades of consumer confidence—advantages that remain difficult for newer entrants to replicate at scale.
The article also emphasizes that success in the haircare category depends on maintaining relevance among evolving consumer segments through innovative product variants, refreshed packaging, and expansion into adjacent categories, while continuing to leverage the high brand loyalty that characterizes the category.
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