About 8 years ago when I was in the hospital having my 6th child a nurse gave me a bottle of Herbal Essence shampoo. It made my hair look so fabulous, it became my new brand. This past year they stopped making my shampoo and introduced a new line of products. I go to their website thinking I can find a new type that is similar to the one they discontinued only to be inundated with childish questions more suited for very young girls.
They replaced it with “emo-trendy” combinations in difficult to handle, overly stylized bottles. I bought 2 of these to try them and both times the trendy caps were leaking into our groceries despite being “sealed”. These are some of the questions they ask to get you the product like your old one…
Take the test.
I am…”the girl next door” “a diva baby”. Now I am thinking.. What the hell does this have to do with CLEAN HAIR?
Questions about boyfriends, singing in the shower and all sorts of other redundant questions as if that had anything to do with my hair getting clean.
Not only were the questions degrading to a person who is earnestly looking to replace their beloved and discontinued product, but the new products simply do not work as effectively as their predecessors. I used several of the new versions trying to figure out which would be similar to my old one. All of them were simply inadequate.
I snapped.
I wrote them an email telling them a 14-16 year old can barely afford to pay for their own movie much less clothes and shampoo and to target that age group with their campaign is an insult to the adults who have been buying the products for almost a decade. It really made me upset they would disregard their loyal older customers to put themselves in a more youthful marketing group. I don’t mind them targeting my daughter as a potential customer, but I do have a problem when they completely ignore the rest of us.
This was their reply:
It was very thoughtful of you to share your opinions about our Herbal Essences website and new collections.
Your letter has alerted us to a possible problem. You can be sure we will share your comments with our webmaster and all the employees who worked on that campaign. We appreciate your constructive criticism. Your perspective and recommendations are very important to us. We will include them with other consumer comments as we continue to monitor and evaluate Herbal Essences, now and in the future. ”
Then they gave me their phone number and asked me to call. Apparently their trained staff of toddlers need to ask me some questions about my boyfriend and if I like to sing in elevators so they can make an informed decision on what hair type I am.
I think I will pass.
