A very interesting article recently appeared in Advertising Age. “Will All-in-One Products End Their Reign?” discusses the recent trend of many CPG companies, Procter & Gamble included, to launch and market “complete products.”
You know: Tide Total Care laundry detergent, Downy Total Care fabric softener, Olay Total Effects and Crest Complete were a few notable P&G branded products that were launched to offer multiple benefits to consumers.
Specifically citing the total laundry products, the author of the article states: “Turns out that in laundry, like history, the end of one cycle just means the start of the next.” Very insightful.
What’s provocative to me in the idea of innovating and marketing multi-benefit complete or total products. . .and what comes next. I mean, when a product is designed to offer a complete array of features and benefits; to do everything in essence, where can CPG companies go with their next generation of product offerings? How can they improve on that? Think about it.
Interestingly, the article cites the work of Arbor Strategy Group, a consultancy that has researched new CPG launches for years, stating: “(they) found most categories ultimately spawn a product labeled “total” or “complete” at the tail end of a lengthy bout of product and benefit proliferation. Then competitors start all over again with single-benefit claims.”
Meaning that this starts a new cycle of positioning products marketed with single feature benefits again. . .as prompted by competitors’ latest and greatest offerings.
Not surprisingly, P&G spokesman Kash Shaikh, had this to say about Tide Total Care, when interviewed for this article: “Old two-in-ones did two things but not very well. Nowadays, the standard is much higher.”
Still, if past business cycles are any indicator of future ones, and they generally are. . .and “what goes around comes around”–as the article succinctly states. . .can innovative new consumer products touting one overriding, single benefit innovations be far off again?
Here’s how our article ends: “But don’t customers feel cheated when “total” products turn out to be not all hat when improved single-benefit products arrive?”
“‘I don’t think anybody cares,’ said Doug Hall, a former P&G executive who runs product-consulting firm Richard Saunders International near Cincinnati. ‘It’s the circle of life. After the winter comes spring, and these fads, too, must pass.’”
Questions:
* Have you used “total” or “complete” products recently? Were you convinced that they lived up to their promise? That is, did they offer all the benefits they were supposed to in your view?
* Do you, as a consumer, care about getting numerous benefits from one product, or do you prefer to purchase products that do the one thing you need them to do exceptionally well?
* Do you like trying the next new innovative product in a category, or do you prefer to stick with what you continually purchase and like to use?
I’d love to hear from you.
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Ted, I found the cycle of single benefit to total care (and back again) fascinating. If this is the case, have consumers been conditioned over the years to place less stock in “total care” perhaps innately knowing a better single benefit product is just around the corner?
This is fascinating, Paul. I confess I’m not sure how consumers overall view this cycle. How do CPG companies keep adding benefits until they claim to offer “total” products; then after maximizing sales, move forward to new generations of products that tout single benefits with success? A good question. . .
It seems a good guess that ongoing CPG market research probably divulges one key benefit consumers are looking for most and then companies push to deliver that one overriding benefit. Of course these days products and product features come in and out of favor more quickly than ever. Maybe, as former P&G exec Doug Hall stated, fads come and go and consumers really don’t care.
How about it DF readers?
This cycle is very similar to recent discussions of feature creep. A product that is “total” or “complete” tries to be all things. It is only natural that the marketplace will fill this gap with niche products that are more innovative than specific features of the total product.
It is very difficult to retain focus and innovation on each segment of the total product. The timeframe that this can survive may be dependent upon the product/market maturity or the company. Any thoughts on which has the greater influence?
Good. Maybe this also means the end of the “solution” cycle, at least for a while?
If I hear that word one more time from a CPG
company…like the CMO at Pizza Hut who earlier this year called a new product a “meal solution.”
Please.
You’re right, NW Guy, about the “feature creep”. I guess my question is this: how do consumers choose between two products–one that offers total care and one that claims to offer one overriding benefit when the two sit side by side on the shelf?
To answer your question, let’s look at Tide. The brand owns just over 50% of the laundry detergent business. It’s a very mature brand. The newer Total Care detergent will no doubt have a limited life cycle, but the mature Tide brand will continue to influence strong purchase decisions, no matter what the next generation of benefits touts.
Thanks for weighing in, Guy. Much appreciated.
Kevin,
Don’t expect the “solution cycle” to end any time soon. I was just reading an Advertising Age article citing one of the biggest trends in shopper marketing as “solution selling”. If anything, this trend is poised to become even bigger in marketing parlance and thought.
Thanks for opining, Kevin.
Crest Pro Health — it’s positioned to be all encompassing of every benefit you would want to get out of your toothpaste. Problem is, for me at least, why buy any other Crest product? Wouldn’t a complete, end-all type of positioning eliminate the need for a line extension?
Whether pro, complete, solution, total or ultra, sooner or later these buzzwords won’t carry as much weight if the differentiation isn’t apparent.
“Wouldn’t a complete, end-all type of positioning eliminate the need for a line extension?” Exactly, Matt. So either, to your point, a saturation of all-encompassing products will lose their meaning, or as a CPG expert quoted in the article cited in my post, this (fad) too shall pass. Time will tell, won’t it?
Thanks for weighing in, Matt. I appreciate your observations.