MARKETING ASPECTS OF TIDE LAUNDRY DETERGENT

COMPANY AND PRODUCT HISTORY

In 1837 James Gamble, a soap maker, and William Procter, a candle maker, joined

forces at the suggestion of the mutual father-in-law, Alexander Norris, who was also a candle

maker. It was a logical union since both soaps and candles used the same raw materials, fats,

and oils. Proctor and Gamble grew into a million dollar enterprise during the Civil War as the

firm obtained large contracts to supply some of the Union armies with soap and candles. The

procurements strained the company, forcing factories to run around the clock. By the 1870s

Procter and Gamble had grown into a company capable of producing and distributing on a

national level. The company was facing a crisis brought on by a decline in one of its core

sectors- candle making. The discovery of oil in 1859 in Pennsylvania made kerosene readily

available. After the Civil War, consumers began to switch from candles to oil lamps, and by

1876 Procter and Gamble’s candle production sank below soap production and force the

expansion of the soap side of the business to stay competitive (http://portal .acs.org). Procter

and Gambles initial synthetic detergent was Dreft, introduced in 1933. Dreft, composed of an

alkyl sulfate, represented a breakthrough because in cleaned clothes in hard water, which was a

particular benefit for residents from the Midwest to the Rocky Mountains, without leaving curds.

However, it did not clean heavily soiled clothes well. Procter and Gamble chemists knew that

the cleaning ability of synthetic detergents could be boosted by adding “builders,” compounds

that penetrate clothes more deeply to remove stains. The builders left clothes harsh and stiff

because the chemicals, usually sodium phosphates, reacted with the water’s hardness to form

insoluble deposits that could not be rinsed away (http://portal.acs.org).

NEEDS AND SATISFACTION OF TIDE

The goal of marketing is to create customer satisfaction by building value-based

relationships with customers, in conjunction with other internal and external business units. The

end-result is gaining market leadership by understanding consumer needs and finding solutions

of superior value, quality, and service.

In 1920s, Americans used soap flakes to clean their laundry. The flakes performed poorly

in hard water, leaving a ring in the washing machine, dulling colors, and turning whites gray.

Procter and Gamble began an ambitious mission to change the way Americans washed their

clothes. Researchers discovered two-part molecules which they called synthetic surfactants.

Each part of the “miracle molecules” executed a specific function—one pulled grease and dirt

from the clothes, while the other suspended dirt until it could be rinsed away. In 1933, this

discovery was introduced in a detergent called Dreft, but it could only handle lightly soiled jobs.

The next goal was to create a detergent that could clean heavily soiled clothes. That detergent

was Tide (http;//inventors.about.com).

By the end of the 1930s, Procter and Gamble had all but given up on attempts to develop

a heavy duty synthetic detergent. But one researcher, David Byerly, refused to shelve the idea.

By 1941, Byerly discovered that if he boosted the level of the builder well above that of the

cleaning agent, he got a surprising result: The detergent cleaned well and left clothes soft. Once

the correct formula was found Procter and Gamble rushed the new product, Tide, to the market.

It was an instant success, quickly selling out in markets all over the country

(www.eurekalert.org).

Created in 1943, Tide detergent was the combination of synthetic surfactants and

builders. The builders helped the synthetic surfactants penetrate the clothes more deeply to

attack greasy, difficult stains. Tide was introduced to test markets in October 1946 as the

world’s first heavy-duty detergent. Consumer response was immediate and intense. Tide

detergent outsold every other brand within weeks. It became so popular that store owners were

forced to limit the quantity purchased per customer (http;//inventors.about.com).

PRODUCT COMPETITORS

The overall laundry detergent segment has declined to about 1% to about $3.5 billion,

according to Information Resources, Inc., Chicago. For the year ended November 4, 2007, sales

of liquid laundry products actually rose nearly 2% to more than $2.9 billion. In contrast, powder

sales dropped 12.2% to $603 million, while sales of packets and bars dropped 9.6% to $24.3

million. Procter and Gamble controls about 62% of the market in the laundry detergent category

and its share has been growing 75-100 basis points a year. That kind of dominance was enough

for Unilever to announce last year it was exiting the United States laundry detergent category.

Unilever’s share in the market has dipped to 11%. While All Small and Mighty has provided a

lift, that gain has come at the expense of Wisk and Surf, other Unilever brands. Despite Procter

and Gambles big lead, Church and Dwight is making noise with its Arm and Hammer and

Oxiclean brands. Church and Dwight have introduced their new product, Arm and Hammer Plus

the Power of Oxiclean. The product combines the deep cleaning power of Oxiclean with the

freshening power of Arm and Hammer baking soda. Combining the two products will allow

Church and Dwight to move the Arm and Hammer brand into the premium price sector of the

market. The top players, ranked by retail sales, in the global laundry detergent market are:

Procter and Gamble, Unilever, Henkel, Kao, Reckitt Benckiser, Lion, and Church and Dwight

(http://findarticles.com).

Tide was initially targeted for marketing in areas of hard water. Prior to the debut of

Tide, laundry was washed with soap flakes which provided limited cleaning, dull colors, and left

whites drab. In hard water, soap left a ring of scum around the tub. Tide cleaned better than

soaps and it was mild allowing it to be used initially to wash dishes as well as clothes. Tide

reached the market the same year as the introduction of the automatic washing machine. These

two innovations saved the consumer much time and effort in doing laundry

(http://portal.acs.org).

Project X (as the project was known before it was branded) quickly moved from a back

channel research oddity to the forefront of Procter and Gamble’s product development. Tide was

chosen as the name, though no one can recall why. The marketers and branders quickly swung

into action. The famous box of concentric rings of vivid orange and red in a bull’s eye motif

with Tide in blue letters was developed. The slogan “ocean of suds” became part of the early

marketing campaign. In addition, early advertising stressed that Tide was a “Washday Miracle”

that promised to wash laundry “cleaner than soap.” The advertisers were confident in making

that claim for a company whose livelihood depended on soaps.

Tide was an instant marketing success, selling out in markets all over the country as

quickly as Proctor and Gamble could make it. Tide quickly boosted Procter and Gamble’s share

of the laundry market as both Colgate and Lever Brothers scurried to develop synthetic

detergents. That was the good news; the bad news is that Tide also undermined Procter and

Gamble’s traditional soap brands. By1949 production of the company’s synthetic detergents

outstripped its soap production. To a certain extent Procter and Gamble strategists were caught

off guard by Tide’s phenomenal success. The company expected Tide to sell well in hard-water

regions, where traditional soaps did not perform well. But in fact, consumers all over the

country, even in soft-water areas, quickly switched to synthetics, with Tide leading the way. By

the early 1950s, Tide had captured more than 30 percent share of the laundry market, and it has

been the number one selling laundry detergent every year since (http;//portal.acs.org).

PRODUCT MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

The first part of the marketing mix consists of having a product strategy. To succeed in

this category, you must have a brand name, a packaging, a choice of branding colours, and a

warranty. In Tide’s case, Procter & Gamble, Tide’s owner, had already chosen this name back in

1946 when Tide was first launched. According to the dictionary, the word Tide means “rise or

move forward; "surging waves"”, and that is exactly what they had in mind when they released

this product. It was a move forward in a non-explored market. According to Procter and

Gamble, the word Tide was chosen but no one knows why, and they promised that Tide washed

“cleaner than soap”. Tide’s packaging strategy was one of a kind, especially back then. Over

the years, Procter and Gamble have improved the container, but always kept the same

appearance. They kept the circular target shaped background and almost the same colours, the

bright orange, and yellow. These colors have an impact on the success of the brand. The orange

signifies a vibrant product, which is also associated with warmth. The yellow, is a warm

cheerful colour and it is the lead color in products used in homes through 2004. The brand is

now home to over 41 different kinds of detergents, from Tide-To-Go, to Tide with Baking Soda

liquid or powder. This huge expansion in their line of products makes it easy for the consumer

to choose the Tide products versus other companies. Also since this brand name is well known,

we will buy this product “not only for what [it] does, but also for what [it] means.” Combined

with the assuring new slogan “Knows Fabrics Best”, Tide can simultaneously assure the

consumers that their brand is better and present their huge range of products to them. Tide’s

successful branding, packaging, and quality, is making it the best selling brand of detergent.

The initial marketing strategy centered on the concept of “Washday Miracle.”

Announcing that Procter and Gamble had developed a revolutionary new technology, Tide

advertising promised consumers to wash “cleaner than soap,” with “oceans of suds.” It all might

have sounded hyperbolic or breathless—except, of course, that the technology was revolutionary

and the performance truly superior. For millions of households in hard-water regions, the

product truly did transform the experience of laundering clothes. Tide’s early marketers also

capitalized on a happy coincidence: the simultaneous spread of automatic washing machines in

the United States. In the flush of postwar economic growth and consumer affluence, many

households bought new appliances, including innovative, new top-loading agitator washers.

With Tide coming onto the market precisely the same time, Procter and Gamble managed to fuse

the two innovations in the popular imagination. Tide’s advertisements picked up on a theme,

prominently featuring the new machines. Exclusive agreements with washing machine

manufacturers, in which boxes of Tide were packed in with new machines, reinforced the

association. Eventually the United States Federal Trade Commission disallowed such exclusive

agreements, but by the time it did, Tide had become embedded as the definitive product for use

in the new appliances (http://hbswk.hbs.edu).

Tide, often promoted as “America’s favorite laundry detergent,” regularly introduces new

products and technologies to beat the laundry blues. Seeking to extend its reach in the virtual

domain, Tide.com was launched in July 2000 as a comprehensive resource for all fabric and

laundry care queries.

The home page, which features the detergent’s familiar bright orange color, is quite busy,

but the user is drawn to the “stain detective” button near the top left of the site. Innovatively

designed, this section offers a digital tip sheet to help the e-visitor find a solution to virtually any

stain. The option of specifying the area of the house where the stain occurred, as well as the type

and color of the stained fabric, helps the user reach a tailor-made solution using a Tide product.

The site also welcomes feedback. Clicking on the “homespun solutions” button that accompanies

the aforementioned section reveals testimonials from people who have effectively cleaned

similar stains. For example, a quaint tip details how spitting on cloth can help ensure that milk

stains will not linger.

Tide successfully displays its entire gamut of products on its website. The product

variations are neatly classified, ensuring easy navigability. In addition to details of product use,

the strategically placed “product locator” helps visitors find addresses and contact numbers of

stores where Tide products are available.

A personalized section on the homepage invites users to become part of the online

community and receive special offers and access to the virtual message board. Surprisingly, the

site does not have a “welcome message” to new members of the Tide family, demonstrating a

lack of personal attention. Moreover, access to the message board (a so-called privilege for

members) is open to those who don’t even sign up to become a member.

Editorial content is what helps Tide keep true to its brand identity while also

distinguishing itself from the competition. The site offers engaging articles related to fabric care,

tips and time savers, and garment care while traveling. Interestingly, each article carefully

weaves in a relevant Tide product to deliver effective solutions. While this might appear to

simply be good marketing, it conveys Tide’s message that it can solve just about any laundry

problem.

Apart from sensible fabric care information, the website also features polls, special

offers, discounts and sweepstakes to add an element of fun and also encourage repeat visits.

CONSUMER SEGMENTATION AND TARGET GROUPS

Consumer segmentation is the process of classifying people into groups that have some

set of similar characteristics, resulting in the ability to be studied and targeted.

The most basic method is to segment by simple demographics such as age, income, or marital

status. The goal is to identify relatively homogeneous groups with similar behavior that will

assist in customizing the message and/or offer for each segment.

Tide’s primary target audience—women—is not a mystery. Not surprisingly, the

detergent brand has images of women throughout its site. Nonetheless, it might not want to

completely dismiss the male college student or the bachelor who does his own laundry and is on

the site looking for information.

Unfortunately, Tide.com does not feature a customer service phone number for those

wishing to speak to a representative. The list of instant answers on the site is definitely valuable,

but a live chat facility can be the ideal surrogate to mom’s correct advice. Also, a search option

on the homepage wouldn’t go amiss for those looking for a quick tip.

Overall, Tide’s brand is well delivered through a clean and focused approach, with

information loaded into the smallest detail to ensure customers don’t lose hope when laundry

troubles crop up. Given the current appeal of its offline brand, and the successful extension of it

online, it is clear that Tide knows fabric best (http://www.brandchannel.com).

While the marketers forged ahead, the process engineers had to solve several problems.

First, the company had to secure sufficient quantities of tripolyphosphate to justify a major plant

expansion. Second, Procter and Gamble needed to build new facilities, particularly four new

towers to granulate, or blow, Tide. The existing facilities could not be converted to produce Tide

because synthetics required a different granulation process than soaps.

Then the process engineers had to work out some problems in the original formulation of

Tide. "The initial formulation has some real limitations," recalled Charles Fullgraf,

superintendent at Procter and Gamble's St. Bernard plant. "It did not blow very well. It built up

in the tower, it built up in the feeder valves. We had to shut down every hour and clean them

out."5 According to James Ewell, plant manager at St. Bernard before Fullgraf, "the first

experiments were run over on the Dreft tower at Ivorydale, and they were failures… Blowing a

granule sounds easy, but it isn't. You can't get the right density, all sorts of strange things happen

inside synthetic towers. And they didn't know enough about the operation of towers in those

days, especially with a heavily built product like Tide. It had a lot of phosphate in it. Dreft didn't

have any builders, so it was a completely different operation." The addition of a small amount of

sodium silicate solved the problem, allowing for crisper granules that could more easily be

blown.

With the granulation problem solved and with new towers in production, P&G began test

marketing tide in October 1946 in six cities: Springfield, Massachusetts; Albany, New York;

Evansville, Indiana; Lima, Ohio; Wichita, Kansas; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota

(http://acswebcontent. acs.org).

PRODUCT AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Product development means offering new or improved products for present markets. By

knowing the present market’s needs, a firm may see new ways to satisfy customers. For instance

most laundry detergent consumers are women so Tide displays women in their commercials and

print ads.

Tide is marketed under various sub-brands, such as 2x Ultra Tide. Originally, Tide was a

white powdered bead, but the brand line was later expanded to include an orange-tinted clear

liquid form in 1984. Today, most formulations of liquid Tide are dark blue with the exception of

Tide Free, which is clear. An addition to the Tide Family, Tide Cold Water was formulated to

tackle stains while saving energy because it does not require hot or even warm water. A portable

stain removing pen known as Tide to Go is popular among travelers

DISTRIBUTION

A product reaches customers through a channel of distribution. A channel of distribution

is any series of firms or individuals that participate in the flow products to final user or

consumer.

The third part of the marketing mix consists of the distribution strategy of Procter and

Gamble’s brand Tide. Since Tide is an internationally known brand, it can be found in any

stores including corner stores. Tide owns the shelves. Their products overpower all the other

brands due to Tide’s smart line extension strategy, which almost guarantees the purchase.

PRICING

Pricing is the manual or automatic process of applying prices to purchase and sales

orders, based on factors such as: a fixed amount, quantity break, promotion or sales campaign,

specific vendor quote, price prevailing on entry, shipment or invoice date, combination of

multiple orders or lines, and many others. Automated systems require more setup and

maintenance but may prevent pricing errors.

The second part of the marketing mix consists of the pricing strategy. Having a good

product is one thing, but how does it compare price wise is another. Since the days Tide first

started the original slogan “Washday Miracle” was created because the advertisers were

confident that “Tide’s performance was truly superior.” Today, Tide still believes in this original

statement and armed with its new slogan “Knows Fabrics Best,” Tide can continue to be

competitive in this market. By releasing a line extension, Tide’s product life cycle continues to

go strong and rejuvenates the brand name. Tide is probably in the maturity stage, meaning it

does not lose any money, but must price aggressively and must use different strategies to

continue to prosper.

Tide could not be a lower price because it would then visually seem as if Sunlight,

produced by Unilever, is a better product then Tide. It would also lead to believe that Tide is in

the price/quality category of the dealer brands and generic products, which is not what Procter

and Gamble wants to display their products as being.

PROMOTION

Promotion is communicating with the public in an attempt to influence them toward

buying your products and/or services. The word promotion is also used specifically to refer to a

particular activity that is intended to promote the business, product or service. The promotion

strategy is perhaps the most important part of the marketing mix since the brand depends on the

marketing to highlight its assets. Tide’s assets are its huge line of products, which require a solid

brand name to be able to sell. Tide’s brand equity has grown a considerable amount that now

enables them to expand their brand line without losing profits. This ability is all thanks to

successful marketing and promotion of the brand name. Back in 1945 when Tide was still in the

development stage, a critical decision had to be made regarding the choice of going with the new

product or not. Tide was a new kind of product, created with synthetic compounds instead of

soap chemicals. This meant that Procter and Gamble had to create a good strategy to promote

this product. Originally, Tide ads were found in magazines targeted to housewives, but today,

Tide is targeted to the family as a whole. Their advertisements can be found on TV, in

magazines, on the Internet, by direct mail, and in-store. Their TV and magazine ads are usually

targeted to a demographic segmentation, which usually is set to females or homemakers. Their

internet advertisement is usually in the form of online mini banner games, which allow users to

use the Tide to Go product to wash fabrics. This is usually targeted to a wide variety of people

since everybody likes little games. The in-store advertisement is very important, especially in

supermarkets. Tide’s in-store advertisement is in the form of coupons. These coupons do not

lower the price on the tag, but only on the receipt. Therefore this still gives the illusion that Tide

is better because of the higher price, but gives the consumer extra customer satisfaction after

purchase since it costs less. Advertisement varies from weak strategies, middle-strength

strategies, and strong strategies. In Tide’s case, they always aim for the strong promotion

strategy since many of their commercials are aimed towards specific people who usually

purchase the detergent. In addition, Tide realizes that if they can reproduce a real life situation in

a commercial, they will captivate the market that associates with it. An example of this is the

Tide soccer commercials, where the kids get dirty while playing soccer and the moms just cheer

on without a care because they know the grass will come off. Tide’s high-quality perception due

to good marketing allows the brand to sell for more than the competitors do. To conclude, Tide

is doing an effective job promoting their line of products since it can continue to develop and sell

new products without disrupting profits. This is due to their strong marketing concept that is

intentionally made so that consumers can identify themselves while watching the commercials,

and enjoy purchasing the product with incentives such as coupons.

EVALUATION

Tide’s marketing mix seems to be very effective. They are the number one laundry

detergent and it is difficult for other brands to gain market share. After examining Tide’s

marketing mix through the 4 P’s, product, pricing, place (distribution), and promotion, I can

conclude that Tide has a good marketing mix. This is due to the excellence of the brand, the

quality of their products, the appealing packages, the convincing advertisements, and the

competitive pricing. All of these points allow Procter & Gamble to market and sell a product

that consumers are willing to buy at a higher price than other products. This also makes Tide a

very desirable product for Procter and Gamble to invest in since it generates high revenue.