Turning the Tide, Part 2

Can the king of the laundry aisle dominate dry cleaning?

Tide, Procter & Gamble’s megabrand, is expanding its horizons again. Last year, I blogged about the introduction of Tide Basic, a stripped-down version of the detergent intended to ply budget-minded consumers. Now, Tide is going beyond a line extension to a brand extension. The New York Times reports that P&G is introducing Tide Dry Cleaners.

The new dry cleaning stores are franchises, with each outlet using versions of Tide for wet laundry and offering discounts and giveaways on P&G products. Drive-through service, 24-hour pickup via lockers, and environmentally friendly practices further distinguish the chain. The iconic Tide bullseye is prominent in the signage and staff wear branded orange shirts.

There are challenges for P&G. The NYT article points out what many of us would assume: the dry cleaning industry is suffering amid the economic downturn. Cultural shifts are hurting cleaners too as business attire is becoming a week of casual Fridays. Case in point: I wore suits in my last corporate gig as AVP, Marketing Communications, for a nationwide lender. Jacket and tie have not been de rigueur during my subsequent two years as an independent consultant.

P&G is one of the biggest and most brilliant consumer product corporations on the planet. Just one of their brands–Pampers, Gillette, Mr. Clean, and CoverGirl are but a few–can dwarf entire companies in revenue and awareness. Billion-dollar sales are beautiful, but flatlines are dismaying. The NYT article explains that lack of sales growth in the U.S. is the impetus for the Tide venture, a way to leverage the brand anew.

Tide may already be in the clean clothes business, but placing that bullseye on a dry cleaning chain constitutes a brand extension, the application of a brand known for one type of product or service to a new category. It isn’t the same as a line extension, a new product/service in the brand’s established category. Tide is a study in line extension. A quick count on their website revealed more than 30 varieties of the detergent itself. Tide Stain Release and Tide on the Go add several more SKUs. When it comes to the perils of extensions, I go with the long-standing warnings of Al and Laura Ries. Al’s landmark book Positioning offers cautionary tales of numerous extensions. In dissecting Gap’s rebranding fail, Laura blogs about their diffusion in the pursuit of babies and teens.

Some may argue if such extensions are “line,” staying within category, or “brand,” venturing into a separate realm. Some may say that Tide proves line extension works, given its dominance in detergent with 30-plus permutations. Decision makers in Cincinnati have said that the dry cleaning foray is a natural. It isn’t.

P&G is getting into real estate, labor and operational issues that do not figure in selling the primary Tide brand. And no, these things are not just “the franchisees’ problems.” If P&G is concerned about a saturated, mature market blunting Tide’s growth, the answer is not trying to penetrate the saturated, mature market of dry cleaning. But can the mighty Tide brand grab share in a sector where mom-and-pops still reign? My dry cleaner is not worried.

When picking up a sportcoat and three shirts, I asked the proprietor of Wendy Cleaners about the P&G threat. He said that his customers value expertise and believe in supporting small businesses. He also said that the special detergent he uses for wet laundry is better than Tide. He didn’t ask when I’d start bringing in more suits again. He knows things have changed.

When Corporations Act Too Human

Corporations are often advised to put on a human face. Per legal definitions, a corporation can be construed as a “person” or “entity.” All said, three corporations are acting too human in displaying the mortal traits of defensiveness, insensitivity and petulance.

Toyota: The carmaker’s PR missteps are well-documented; however, a recent behind-the-scenes move has caused more reputational damage. Toyota enlisted Joel Benenson, President Obama’s chief pollster, to test messages that questioned the credibility of two key witnesses who testified against the company on Capitol Hill: safety consultant Sean Kane and auto technology professor David Gilbert. When congressmen upbraided Toyota for this communications initiative, the carmaker said no official campaign had been launched based on the preliminary work.

Per the Washington Post’s description of Benenson’s survey, entitled the Kane/Gilbert Debunking Message Test, it appears to be a “push poll,” often seen in politics when a questioner rattles off negative comments about a candidate and then asks respondents their opinions about the person based on what they just heard. In the political arena, such tactics are less about research and more about disparaging the opposition. This was a bad move by Toyota that smacks of vindictiveness.

Procter & Gamble: The company is facing a PR crisis and a federal product safety investigation over claims that its Pampers Dry Max diapers can cause severe rashes and chemical burns. A Facebook page urging the recall of the Dry Max line and the return of Cruisers/Swaddlers has over 10,000 members.

Understandably, and appropriately in theory, P&G is fighting back. They have commissioned independent experts to verify the safety of Dry Max diapers. They have paid for doctor examinations of children said to be affected by the product. They have enlisted influential mommy bloggers to spread the word about the product’s integrity (with all necessary disclaimers about any compensation–mainly product samples and  travel to the Cincinnati headquarters). In its most important factoid, P&G has said that while Dry Max are 20% thinner, their components are not new and have never been associated with burns. All these actions are good.

Where P&G goes wrong is in its tone, first seen in the news release refuting charges against Dry Max. The title “Pampers Calls Rumors Completely False” contains two emotionally charged words, “rumors” and “false,” and the qualifier “completely” just in case we didn’t get the message. “Pampers Confirms Safety of Dry Max” would have been a more positive and dignified start.

Within the release, Jodi Allen, Pampers VP, says:

These rumors are being perpetuated by a small number of parents, some of whom are unhappy that we replaced our older Cruisers and Swaddlers products while others support competitive products and the use of cloth diapers. Some have specifically sought to promote the myth that our product causes ‘chemical burns.’

The mood is accusative and defensive, echoed by P&G spokesperson Bryan McCleary in Bloomberg Businessweek: “We’re insulted that someone would imply that our products are dangerous.”

P&G may be furious about the accusations and the social media tactics of their accusers. They may be absolutely convinced that Dry Max diapers are safe and have reams of scientific data to prove it. That still does not bestow license to “take it personally.” Be passionate, be responsive, protect your brand. But don’t get shrill.

BP: In what is shaping up to be the year of bad public relations, British Petroleum is leaving Tiger Woods, Toyota and even Goldman Sachs in the dust. The company has obviously read all the PR articles about making your CEO visible and accessible. Unfortunately for BP, that CEO is Tony Hayward. Goldman Sachs’ vilified communications chief Lucas van Praag (see my previous post, “Goldman Sachs: PR and the Bottom Line”) must be relieved that Hayward is now the media’s top source for gaffes and outrageous remarks.

BP incarnate is a solitary executive who has riled the public, elected officials and the media, whose signature line “I would like my life back” has eclipsed “doing God’s work” from Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. It is mandatory for any corporation whose products/services impact public wellbeing to undertake preemptive crisis communications planning and training. Of course, many have cited BP as unprepared for the oil rig explosion itself, let alone its subsequent communication duties.

Turning the Tide

The Wall Street Journal reports the rollout of “Tide Basic,” a new, lower-priced version of America’s top laundry detergent. Tide’s parent Procter & Gamble is introducing the product to combat the surge of bargain and private label store brands amid the economic downturn.

Tide is to P&G what Chevrolet is to GM, a mega-brand in its own right with $3 billion in annual sales. Also like Chevy, Tide offers numerous “models,”  including Tide HE, Tide Free, Tide HE Free, Tide with a Touch of Downey, and Tide HE with a Touch of Downey. There is also Tide Stain Release “in-wash booster” and Tide to Go in a pen-style applicator. And of course, there is just plain old Tide.

Tide may be Chevy in terms of mass appeal and line extension, but it is Cadillac in price point. This creates P&G’s multipart marketing dilemma:

• Reinvigorate Tide’s slipping market share as households cut back
• Protect Tide’s “high end” positioning while responding to market trends toward cheaper products
• Capture market share from competitors with the new product, not cannibalize existing Tide sales

The Wall Street Journal diagrams P&G’s tightrope act with Tide Basic:

• Product: Tide Basic is a traditional powder with fewer of the unique ingredients that set apart the specialized versions of Tide. The trick is to show that Tide Basic is more than “good enough” without making the more expensive Tide sub-brands seem superfluous.
• Packaging: The dominant color is yellow, an element of the Tide bullseye but not the iconic orange of the main Tide line. (Go to your supermarket’s laundry aisle and you will see the orange monolith that is the Tide display.) Recalling Tropicana’s sales disaster when Peter Arnell got ahold of their classic carton, packaging alone is a make-or-break proposition.
• Placement: Tide Basic has been placed on shelves among its targeted lower price competitors. This is another critical strategy as shoppers look for “their brands” in accustomed locations. For example, if you want bargain-price, “bagged” cereal, you look on the lower shelves, not among the major brands at eye level.

Introduced in 1946, Tide is a post-war icon. It proudly touted itself as a synthetic detergent, another man-made wonder in the age of penicillin, jet planes, A-bombs and television. It boasted its premium status just as we were shaking off the deprivations of the Depression and hitting the freshly laid interstate for suburbia. Now many of us have adopted a pre-war mindset as we struggle in the worst economy since those years. With Tide Basic, the Tide brand continues its quest to be all things to all people including something it’s never been–cheap. If consumers respond, it may be the biggest breakthrough in over 60 years of R&D.