Companies With More Than 1 Laundry Detergent


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Old 03-27-06, 12:03 AM
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Arrow Companies With More Than 1 Laundry Detergent

I have recently been on a mini odyssey to find the best laundry detergent I can buy at a regular store. I started looking at the backs of bottles and discovered all the following are made by Procter & Gamble...

- Tide.
- Cheer.
- Era.
- Gain.

I also found out Unilever makes All and Wisk.

What I want to know is why do these companies make more than one detergent? It doesn't make sense to me. Why doesn't Unilever just make Wisk? Why doesn't Procter & Gamble just make Tide which is usually said to be the best laundry detergent especially in the latest laundry detergent review in Consumer Reports?
 

Last edited by majakdragon; 03-27-06 at 03:10 AM.
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Old 03-27-06, 04:49 AM
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Why does coke make coke, diet coke, mello yello,... It's to cover the market. No matter how good tide might be, some people will never buy it. Cheer is marketed to be great for colors, so you're going to get sales from another segment of the market. I seem to remember era being marketed as a great stain remover and gain as a great smelling product. All catering to different tastes and therefore allowing P&G access to a greater percentage of the market.
 
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Old 03-27-06, 09:17 AM
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I am not sure I like your analogy (no offense meant).

Coke makes different flavors because people sometimes like cola and other times they like citrus and sometime they like other flavors.

Laundry detergent is just laundry detergent so why make a bunch of different ones? Assuming Tide is the best P&G makes, why do they make Cheer, Era, and Gain for? If they made just Tide, they could easily cut manufacturing costs by not making the other 3 and just have Tide do everything and probably sell it for much less than it is sold for now.

Now I realize they probably make 4 different ones because people like cheap laundry detergent, but the prices between Tide, Cheer, Era, and Gain are all pretty close.
 
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Old 03-27-06, 10:08 AM
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Maybe my analogy wasn't clear, but it is exactly because some want cola, some want citrus,... that makes P&G have different competing products on the market - it's because no single product can satisfy everyone.
 
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Old 03-27-06, 10:42 AM
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How could the best laundry detergent sold for less money by not making others not be satisfying to all?
 
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Old 03-27-06, 01:23 PM
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Options ppl like to be in control...say i may not like one brand..it stained my mothers clothes..but i like this other one...i want to use it...and its made by the same company it has to be good...now im in control...and just like mitch said..its to cater to ppl
 
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Old 03-27-06, 03:41 PM
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Originally Posted by BTJustice
How could the best laundry detergent sold for less money by not making others not be satisfying to all?
I don't understand your question.
 
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Old 03-27-06, 05:23 PM
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Originally Posted by mitch17
I don't understand your question.
Well what I mean, using P&G for example, is this. Everyone seems to have the opinion that Tide is the best. If P&G didn't make Era, Gain, and Cheer, they would save on manufacturing costs and therefore could sell Tide cheaply.

Now, if Tide is the best, it should clean just as well if not better than the other 3 brands P&G makes. Plus there is no competition in pricing amongst P&G's detergents. That comes from other companies like Unilever and Dial.

Of course I am equally confused as to why Unilever makes both Wisk and All.

Dial appears to be the only company making one laundry detergent; Purex.

With the exception of Purex, Tide, Cheer, Era, Gain, Wisk, and All are all pretty much the same price though Tide is slightly higher in price.

I have a theory that the more you pay for laundry detergent the better it cleans.
 
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Old 03-27-06, 07:23 PM
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You may think tide is best, but not everyone else does. We don't use tide in my house. No one product will ever satisfy everyone, so offering different products to cover more niches allows for greater sales.
 
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Old 03-27-06, 08:03 PM
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Why does Tide have so many detergents or Crest have so many toothpastes or Hoover have so many types of vacuums, especially so many types of uprights? It's marketing. Their goal has been to dominate the market. Leading brands launch line extensions in categories to push competitive brands off the shelf or at least to locations where consumers can’t find them. Tide has over 40% of the detergent market and four times the #2 brand at 9% of the market. Perhaps one day there will be a brand of detergent that hits the market that uses a marketing strategy that overwhelmingly convinces consumers that Tide is not in but out. With over 30 varieties of Tide, no wonder consumers are confused. Proctor & Gamble's strategy is that if Tide fills the shelves, then it must be the best. It's likely a matter of time until a detergent is imported from another country that costs considerably less than Tide and is equal to or better in quality, has a marketing strategy that hits home with the American consumer, and floods the market with its detergent just as Dyson did to thump Hoover.
 
 

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