Every Shopping Experience Provides Valuable Insights for Retail Technology Marketers
I was at Target the other day to pick up some laundry detergent. As a technology retail marketer I use all shopping experiences to gain more insight and this trip was no exception.
I knew exactly what I needed: HE (high efficiency) formula pods and was also picking up some Non-HE pods for my neighbor. I couldn’t find any Non-HE pods. This required me to look at every Tide package on the shelf and I was amazed at the number of product facings and line extensions. I had never noticed before because I was only looking for my product. Surprisingly, each of the products did a pretty good job differentiating themselves from each other.
This is a view from one side of the aisle containing all Tide Products
This is a view of the other side of the aisle showcasing 2/3’s Tide products
A Tidal Wave of Tide
After this trip, I researched the many different line extensions there are for Tide. I went to the P&G website and counted 27 different products. This doesn’t include different sizes and packaging configurations. The parent brand, Tide, is obviously a solid brand. In addition, it is much easier to introduce a new product that capitalizes on a solid parent brand than to develop a new product. This number of brand line extensions seems to be working for P&G according to Wikipedia:
“As of January 2013 Tide has more than 30% of the liquid-detergent market, with more than twice as much in sales as the second most-popular brand Gain, although it costs about 50% more than the average liquid detergent. In some areas, Tide has become such a hot commodity item, that criminals steal it from stores to resell. Police call the detergent “liquid gold” on the black market and it’s been known to be traded or sold for illegal drugs.[8][9]”
What can Retail Technology Marketers Take Away From These observations?
- Research your customer’s needs. P&G spends a lot of money on understanding their market. There was much thought and money identifying each of these line extensions. Many technology products aren’t properly researched before coming to market. Often, they have a product that is ahead of what the customer needs or wants. The tablet computer actually came out in 1993. Remember the Newton? Logitech was the first manufacturer to come out with a digital camera in 1992. It was priced over $980, it only took B&W pictures with pretty poor resolution. It didn’t take off.
- Own a category color. Tide owns orange. It breaks the mold every now and again but they own the shelf and the whole aisle. Technology marketers can take advantage of this with their product line as well. When you own a color, it becomes a billboard for your brand at retail.
- Make product differences in the same category obvious. Tide did an amazing job calling out the product differences so I could easily scan the shelf and find what I needed. When it comes to consumer technology products, the differences in one line can be as subtle as if it works wirelessly or not. Make sure differences are clearly called out.
- Design does matter. CPG marketers pay attention to design. The package, brand identity and messaging are all carefully crafted. Then they perform research. In my entire career I have had very few clients that do customer research. Now there are so many online, easy and inexpensive ways to to gather valuable marketing and customer insights, there is no excuse.
If you are interested in this topic, below are links to some other articles:
What Technology Brands Should Learn from CPG Companies
How P&G Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate
What to do when there are too many product choices
Nice insight. Tide does a great job of owning orange. Other brands like Gain, All and Purex don’t gain any shelf impact with their selected brand colors.