Failure to innovate in the digital age and poor market visibility has shaken the hair brand once unanimously accepted as the most reliable in the Nigerian market.
The hair attachment industry in Nigeria Is estimated to be worth over 400 million dollars and is dominated by a variety of Asian companies (particularly China and India) that have gone has far as setting up subsidiaries in the country. For decades, X-pression hair has been synonymous with hair attachment for generations of Nigerian women. When people wanted to braid or weave their hair, they didn’t go to the saloon and asked specific hair attachment, they asked for a colour instead because it was already accepted that X-pression was the preferred brand by consumers.
But something seemed to have changed over the past few years, people started to branch out, started to deliberately seek other brands of hair attachments that weren’t X-pression. I recently wanted to braid my hair and instead of automatically going for X-pression like I would have, I found myself pausing and considering other options, I had been seeing packs of Lush and Darling Hair products and their gleaming strands hinted at me that these products I had long dismissed might have some merit to them, I ended up buying Darling instead and I found it to be surprisingly of good quality. So what happened to X-pression?
My article today looks at the various factors that have contributed to the loosened hold of X-pression on the market place.
Their competitors re-branded and came back with stronger game
It’s easy for a brand to remain complacent in a market where they are the top-dog and every other competitor is a puppy at best.
For years, everyone went for X-pression because that was simply the best that could be had in the market place with only alternative being to resort to the old version of Darling (which a lot of salons didn’t even bother stocking) or other no name brands. Darling Hair, and their parent company Lorna, has long been present in the Nigerian market but it was often regarded as a second tier hair, the kind of attachment people used when they couldn’t afford X-pression
The re-branding of Darling Hair in 2017 seemed to coincide with the entry of Lush Hair into the Nigerian marketplace, suddenly X-pression went from having no core rival to facing off with two rivals that came through with flashy, quality and affordable products and a heavy advertising and marketing drive behind them. The Darling “Find Your Beautiful” campaign led by LSF Public Relations agency was everywhere, their teaser publicity stunt featuring various models rocking Darling hair products and posing at strategic places in Lagos drummed up hype for the re-launch and their subsequent commercials, celebrity endorsements and trade marketing drive boosted it to being forefront in consumers’ minds.
X-pression meanwhile was slow to respond to these situations, if at all they responded. This is a reason why I will always admire and respect a brand like Indomie Noodles, the brand name has literally taken over the concept of Noodles in Nigeria yet they never slack, never fail to innovate and keep offering new products and promos to keep the market interested. X-pression can learn a lot from Indomie.
Their products stayed the same while the market around them evolved
Why the attachments from X-pression have long been praised, the same can’t be said for their Weave on products which have long been regarded as sub-par, on the cheaper side and of poor quality. The company seems to have taken no action in regards to this even has it became more fashionable to fix weaves of higher quality, Darling didn’t slack in relation this and made their weave-on lines one of top priority, they released several varieties and styles and upgraded standard hair types like Bobs, Locs, Kinky Weaves and Ponytails, their products despite being affordable where of reasonable quality and the massive celebrity endorsements certainly didn’t hurt its popularity.
In regards to their standard attachment, the brand fared no better, X-pression attachment remained the same for decades with the standard colours of 1, 30, 33 and a few others. In the mid 2000’s other exotic colours of attachment like Red, Purple, Blue, Green, Pink began to gain popularity yet X-pression never tapped into that trend. The most they did was to introduce the colour 99J, which was a deep Purple colour that could easily be mistaken for black. Even as the ombre colour trend also began to gain popularity amongst consumers, X-pression still failed to jump unto the trend leaving brands like Darling and Lush to pick up the slack.
Brands keep underestimating the importance of digital penetration and X-pression is no different
Search for X-pression online and you may be disappointed by the results. The sum of X-pression digital media presence is a minimal Facebook account and a very basic website. They don’t even have an Instagram account. Hair and hair making for African women is an inherently visual affair, we want to see the hair style from beginning to completion, it’s one of the reasons natural hair and braiding videos remain popular online.
If you however go and check Darling Hair online, you are greeted by a detailed website showing nearest distributors, high quality images displaying beautiful models with darling hair pieces and an online order avenue. If you go deeper, they have a presence on all the major social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The X-pression Facebook account has over 22,000 followers meanwhile the Darling Instagram page has more than 88,000 followers, their YouTube videos cover trending topics and garner strong audience reaction.
Darling’s re-branding strategy also heavily relied on influencer marketing and celebrity partnerships, they heavily promoted celebrities like Toke Makinwa, Mocheddah and Lola OJ rocking darling pieces. They encourage everyday users to post their pictures and tag the brand so it could be featured on the Darling Insta story. Darling understood the importance of digital media and rode that wave with ease. As a consumer, if for whatever reason, I’m not sure which hairstyle to try next, I can easily check the Darling page for inspiration. Darling even went as far as being the official brand for the BBNaija reality show, so every week the housemate basically served as ambassadors for Darling Hair products.
Lush Hair also has a vibrant Instagram and Facebook page and hosts regular live sessions with their audience featuring celebrity guests, they prominently feature various ways to use their products on their page.
Hairdressers and Stylist hugely influence our decision in hair making; X-pression didn’t court them as they should
A lot of hair stylists have something similar these days; their shop is usually drenched in Darling or Lush paraphernalia and if you approach them on what kind of attachment to purchase, they would often recommend either depending on what brand they are representing.
Somehow X-pression got lost in the shuffle, people were going around and seeing hairdressers saloon become synonymous with either Daring or Lush with their signboards being supplied by either brand. A lot of distributors in the hair market also seem to have cut deals with these brands to heavily recommend their products to their clients for certain incentives, greatly increasing their popularity and name recognition.
The Fakes problem are hugely distracting
Every product, particularly in a poorly regulated economy like Nigeria, has a problem with fake versions of their brand, from food, medicine to other household items and X-pression is no different.
Over the years, people have lamented and complained bitterly about the permeation of fake X-pression attachments, some even sold by dealers and distributors. Most consumers often can’t tell the difference between original and fake X-pression and just go with whatever they are given and after making their hair and it begins to whittle and tangle, they will often blame the brand itself as being of lesser quality as opposed to classifying it as fake.
Though other hair brands can be affected by fake products, it is often the most popular brand that is hugely affected by this. A brand like Darling seems to have mitigated this a bit by having an official distributor list for each state.
Now, my write-up doesn’t mean X-pression is in any way a dying brand, in fact it still remains highly popular amongst hairdressers and older Nigerian women but the brand isn’t innovating as it should and the consumers are responding to that by trying out other brands.
Here’s hoping this staple of many of us hair journeys is able to remain consistent in its relevance and quality.