Amerchol's textbook hair spray success. (Special Advertising Section: Success Stories and Business Profiles)

If you look in just about any marketing textbook for how to launch a successful new product, it will tell you that new products come about when companies can correctly match their capabilities with the current market situation or need state. For Amerchol, this is exactly how the recent introduction of AMERHOLD[TM] DR-25 occurred.

THE MARKET'S PROBLEM

Current hair spray products because of their reliance on alcohol/ethanol to deliver hair styling resins have come under environmental scrutiny and regulation. The ethanol used in hair sprays is considered a volatile organic compound (VOC). Many state governments are enacting legislation regarding the release of VOCs into the air. The target date for most of the new laws that affect hair sprays is 1998. By then, hair sprays can contain no more than fifty-five percent (55%) VOCs.

Hair spray formulators have tried many methods with varying …