P&G open a Tide dry cleaning business

Procter and Gamble get into the dry cleaning business named after it's best selling laundry detergent: Tide Dry Cleaners. Tide is one of the most well known laundry detergent worldwide. Just by having the name Tide, it will draw people who usually use it into the franchise store which includes drive through service and 24 hour pick-up service. P&G plans to use Tide's original scent, that is very familiar and trustworthy to the households that usually use Tide, in its dry cleaning fluids. This new business has lead other local dry cleaners in the same area ( Mason, Ohio) to loss some of their customers. The competition could get intense because of this new business.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/business/09tide.html?ref=procterandgamble

Safeya

Marketing

A key factor in getting a product known by the consumers is knowing what the consumers like and what they don't like. In recent years, the house hold and personal product industry has seen a shift in sales from brand name products to generic ones. This is due mostly because of the cheaper prices. Since the generic products don't need to advertise they don't have to pay the cost of marketing for the product and it ultimately brings a cheaper price. Companies in this industry try to tailor their advertisements, placement and pricing of the product to the consumer's desired needs. The major differences between companies in this industry would be price, and product advertisement. If a company can manage to advertise their company to prove the consumer their product is superior than the competition, and will ultimately sell more products.

Sunscreen Goes Thru the Roof!

Sunscreen sales continue to go thru the roof despite a bad economy. Sunscreen seems to be the one industry that continuously comes up with new breaking sciences in the industry. Now there are sunscreens that are above SPF 100 or have a hint of shimmer for a summer time glow and Foam based to rub in better. Some brands are more high end and completely natural and organic. These products are much more expensive but they are still widely used. Sunscreen is a very important thing and should be taken seriously. I believe that the Sunscreen market continues to rises because of the heightened risks of skin cancer and new scientif discoveries in relation to the sun.

http://www.happi.com/articles/2011/03/burnt-offerings

HPP Industry in trouble?

The US economy has been slowly, but constantly, recovering from the economic downturn of 2008. Even so, consumers are still afraid to spend money because the economy has not improved sufficiently enough for consumers to start spending instead of saving. This is bad new for companies in the Household and Personal Products industry, because the economic expansion is causing the price of raw materials to go up, according to happi.com. This will cause the price of the finished product to go up, therefore consumers are less likely to spend money on those products. Even so, suppliers are confident that eventually the continual economic growth will cause consumers to pay for those products regardless of price.
Even though the economy is still suffering, the HPP industry should not suffer significantly, as recent consumer trends towards environmentally friendly cleaners and all natural beauty products are increasing sales even though these products usually cost more. This causes companies to differentiate themselves by advertising the fact that they get their raw materials from a certain country where a certain ingredient is well known to do a certain thing for someone's skin, and no other company does that. It also helps if the company devotes itself to sustainability or being environmentally friendly, like Proctor and Gamble, who devote a third of their website to sustainability. Big companies like P&G bring in billions of dollars each year, but for some reason, it doesn't seem to drive out the competition from smaller companies completely. According to First research by Hoovers Inc, small firms can compete with big firms by offering products unique to their own company. So it appears, even though there is a little trouble for the HPP industry right now, in the end there is a great deal of hope and prospect for economic growth within the HPP industry.

Sources:
http://www.happi.com/articles/2011/03/suppliers-remain-optimistic
http://www.firstresearch.com/Industry-Research/Personal-Care-Products-Manufacturing.html
http://www.happi.com/articles/2007/01/good-enough-to-eat
http://www.happi.com/articles/2008/12/cleaning-products-go-green

Prices go up, but will sales go up?

A well-known company that we haven’t mentioned on our blog yet is Kimberly Clark and this company is a big player in the household and personal product industry. This company is the producer of brands such as Kleenex, Pull-Ups, Kotex, Scott and Huggies which are well-known products people buy everyday. In addition to producing many well trusted products, Kimberly Clark has the No.1 or No.2 share position in over 80 countries around the world. The brands that Kimberly Clark produces are a very necessary part of life for people all over the world because they are used for health and hygiene. Unfortunately though, the company recently announced that their prices will be increasing in North America which is not something most consumers will be too happy about. The price increases will be focused on child-care and consumer-tissue products and will likely be put into effect in the second and third quarter of 2011. These raises are the result inflation causing commodity prices to increase. The companies raw material and energy costs have gone up which leaves them no choice but to raise the prices of their products, for diapers it will be between a 3 and 7 percent increase and for tissue about 7 percent as well. The company hasn’t been seeing as much profit as it would like so hopefully these raised prices will increase profit and not decrease it. Kimberly Clark has been around for a while and it is known as being a trustworthy and respectable company. The corporate responsibility action plan of this company was recently recognized and the company has won numerous awards regarding it. I don’t think the increase in their product price will have a negative effect on the company because people already known and trust them so they aren't going to turn to a less-known brand, especially in terms of personal products. 

Sources: 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206380107721692.html?mod=WSJ_Consumerproducts_leftHeadlines

http://investor.kimberly-clark.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=558344

Just a note...

Since I believe we've mentioned Colgate before in a blog or two I thought this would be interesting to mention. I came across an article a few days ago that reports that Colgate is being sued by Church & Dwight Inc. for patent infringement on packaging. Church & Dwight Inc. is claiming that Colgate-Palmolive used a specific type of packaging for their electric toothbrushes that Church & Dwight own the patent for. This packaging lets the buyer test the toothbrush in the store for a couple of seconds and then switches off as to not waste battery. The case will likely go to a jury trial but neither side had any comments at the time of this article. Colgate-Palmolive is a well known and trusted company so I was just wondering how this trial might affect them and their customers. Will they lose customers and trust? Or, will there products gain more attention from the publicity and thereby raise sales? It will be interesting to see which happens. I think that if Colgate knew about the patent infringement and went ahead with their product anyway, it says to me that they need to improve their CSR. If they somehow didn't know about the patent, well then they just need to be more aware, for themselves and their customers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704615504576172360509745644.html?mod=WSJ_Consumerproducts_leftHeadlines