According to an ORG-MARG retail audit of the urban market, volumes growth has also dropped to 15 per cent in 1997 against 37 per cent in the previous year. The market's volume is close to 20,000 tonnes.

Industry sources peg the extraordinary growth achieved in 1996 to the massive advertising and marketing blitzkrieg by leading players to boost major launches like Pantene by Procter & Gamble (P&G), Organics by Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) and Optima by Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd.

The international brands' launches and an extra dose of marketing promotionals created a hype, which led to the unusual spurt in volumes in 1996, said industry observers. Growth stabilised during 1997, which witnessed a flurry of activity in the anti-dandruff(AD) segment, which constitutes around 16 per cent volume of the market.

The segment saw a host of activity with the launch of Head & Shoulders (H&S) by P&G and a renewed effort on the part of Levers to combat the entry of H&S through the relaunch of Clinic All Clear. The AD market's growth, howver, was not material to the shampoo market.

In fact, 1996 witnessed a number of consumer offers like a one-for-one on Organics, which is said to have added to the volumes growth.

ORG-MARG's retail-audit data shows that new brands like H&S at the higher end and Lux Super Rich at the lower end garnered a market share of around 2 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively in value terms.

The market share of Pantene, which created a rage during its launch, is said to have shed its volumes, while at the same time, it gained a few percentage points in value terms. Pantene's market share in volumes, according to ORG-MARG, dropped to 10 per cent as on December 1997 from 12 per cent the previous year. Against this, thebrand's share in value terms has gone up from 9 per cent to 14 per cent. This could be owing to certain price increases (over 5 per cent) undertaken during the year, say market observers.

Organics too is said to have increased its market share from 4-5 per cent to around 6-7 per cent. But Optima has lost out in the race and its share has dwindled to 3 per cent. Among older brands, Sunsilk is said to have maintained its turf as the leading beauty-care brand. This, it partly owes to a timely relaunch which saved the brand's share from depleting. Halo, however, has shed sufficient weight at the retail end, said retailers.

The market leader, HLL, has further strengthened its position with an increase in its market share to 62 per cent as in December 1997, from around 58-60 per cent last year. While there is a growth slowdown in the urban market, the rural scenario too indicates sluggishness in terms of both volumes and value. Volumes growth has dropped to 29 per cent during 1997 from 52 per cent in the ruralareas.