Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever vie for Romanians' hygiene budget

The media channels are running at least one ad for body care products every day, with the coveted leader position "forcing" companies such as Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, P&G or Henkel to invest tens of thousand euros in promotion.
Nevertheless, the around 10% market decline, in the case of personal hygiene products, is changing the rules of the game. "Marketing is in the era of change, needing an ongoing optimisation of the mix between traditional and unconventional communication channels," say the representatives of Colgate-Palmolive, a company owning Protex and Palmolive brands, among the five best-selling soap brands.
The best-selling soap is Protex (in volumes), but Dove is the brand that manages to attract the biggest part of Romanians' budget when it comes to personal care, according to a report by Nielsen market research firm for 2009.
Thus, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever, which holds the Dove brand, manage to attract sales of above 30m euros, according with ZF estimates, only with the three brands, on a market that in 2009 reached 80m euros.
The market value shows that each Romanian spends around 15 RON (3.6 euros) annually on soap, namely 1.2 RON per month, way below neighbouring countries.