By Felicia Nwosu

In today’s Nigeria market, lots of brands are embedding  novel innovative features to redefine and defy market conventions in order to create new and valuable solutions for customers.

With the busy and tight schedules of many working class women, the Nigerian hair care market, especially the hair extension category is constantly booming with deeper penetration. The market has become a lucrative and viable business, giving the country the mileage to be ranked in the top 15 countries importing the most hair in the world in 2020.

Forecast to grow at a rapidly increasing rate, which 6W research in its report revealed that the Nigeria hair care market size is anticipated to grow at a higher  rate between 2023-2029. The research platform further stated that the hair care market is a dynamic and rapidly growing industry that presents a wealth of opportunities for both local and international companies and it is expected to grow in the coming years with the expanding population and economy, as well as by the increasing demand from young consumers who are looking for premium quality hair care products.

Moreover, the market is set to witness immense growth due to increasing popularity of hair extensions and growing demand for natural hair products.

It is against this backdrop that leading  hair extension brands such as Expression, Lush Hair are expanding their territories in the market category to become household names, among others.

Previously, Expression used to occupy the number one space as the  market leader, followed by  other brands like Darling, Noel and others, but today the  entire market has been toppled by Lush’s innovative move through its unique offerings and attractive colours.

Expression came into the African market in 1997 as a premium brand ,but has lost momentum with Lush’s grand  entry as a challenger of other existing brands.

Having studied the market, and taken note of the demand of consumers, the brand has demonstrated that it was prepared to take on the  dynamics after working on a multi-pronged strategy that has helped it to  power future growth, gaining  deeper penetration into the markets with  focus on premium products  propelled by new technologies.

With its  highly sophisticated team of hair experts and stylists, and over 15 years of industry experience, Lush Hair Extensions  is today, providing  100% virgin human hair,  leveraging strong touch points such as  “variety is the spice of life”  to sustain its market dominance.

Lush’s market positioning no doubt has garnered a massive appeal from diverse consumers especially with the robust amplification it received as a  major brand sponsor during the Big Brother Naija series where the housemates  performed various tasks with the brand’s products.

The innovative introduction of temporary kiosk across strategic locations helped to meet various needs of consumers such as hair fixing, plaiting, retouching and several other unique services are some of the strategic approaches that have catapulted the brand ahead of the competition

In its journey of sustaining its positioning as the market leader, Lush has refreshed its portfolio of products, moving from hair extension to other hair care products to deepen its penetration and voice share and with constant change in consumers behavior, Lush has been able to deliver a strong performance consistently and cemented its position becoming the preferred choice among all other hair extension brands.